NASCAR teams take to the Brickyard for tire test

Carl Edwards, who swept the last two Sprint Cup races, was joined by two-time Brickyard 400 winner Tony Stewart, Aric Almirola and rookie Chase Elliott. 

Although July will mark Edwards’ 12th trip to IMS, he acknowledged there’s still plenty to learn about the 2.5-mile track. 

“This track is difficult for a number of reasons, but really for me, just the weather today versus the weather yesterday, it’s hard to determine how much is the weather,” Edwards said. “When the sun comes out, the track changes. As the Goodyear rubber lays down, the track changes. 

“The challenge for us is as we make these changes with the car, to try and separate the track changes and the temperature changes from the actual changes to the car. It’s a pretty difficult place to test and try to figure things out. But that kind of makes it fun.”

A noticeable change in handling

Elliott, who made his Brickyard Cup debut last year and finished 18th, noticed a change with the handling of the car due to the lower downforce package — along with the weather. In the 2015 Brickyard 400, NASCAR experimented with a high drag aerodynamic package — which was quickly shot down by the competition.

“Last year we had the big-time spoiler change with the big old spoiler on the back and the high drag to try to draft around this place so that was a little different than having the three-inch spoiler on it and having something real small with much less downforce,” Elliott said. “So it seems like you require a little more brake getting into the corner, seems like it takes a little more effort to get the car slowed down for the corner than what we did here the last race. 

“It's hard to say until you come back and have a bunch of cars on the racetrack at the same time. This place is so big and it's really temperature-sensitive. It's such a big racetrack, a little bit goes a long way so if the racetrack gets hot and your throttle pick-up point's delayed another 10-15 feet, that's a big difference for how long these straightaways are. It's really more sensitive to how cold or hot the racetrack is right now more so than the package.” 

Edwards has advocated for less downforce on the Cup cars — and has proposed NASCAR make the current package less aero-dependent. He feels that less downforce will enhance the product at most tracks but particularly Indy.

“The move that NASCAR made to a lower downforce package, with a smaller rear blade, I think it’s paid off the entire season,” Edwards added. “I think at a place like Indy, where the speeds are so high, this is the kind of track it will be better.”

Back home again in Indiana

In a long list of lasts, Tony Stewart participated in his final Goodyear tire test at his home track. Although he's not a big fan of testing, he was grateful to have the opportunity to log laps in the new lower downforce aero package.

“I’m actually having fun here,” said the Columbus, Ind. native. “I’ve been having fun working with the Goodyear guys. Three of the main guys that were here when I started are here at this test and they don’t always get to come to the same test together. It’s kind of nice to be working with them one last time. 

“It’s nice to be home and any time we’ve had the chance to test here — I always jumped on it. I don’t like to go test. It’s boring to me but I’ve always like the chance to come to Indy and test. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.” 

Double Duty

Almirola competed in both the NASCAR Xfinity and Sprint Cup Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last season — but very little data transferred from one race to another. 

The driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford was making his fourth start Brickyard 400 start but spun after just over 100 laps. He finished 38th. 

This week, Almirola has been happy to have seat time at the track while the team searches for speed and solid handling with the new aero package.

“That’s what we’ve really worked on here the last couple of days — we’ve changed a lot of stuff throughout doing the Goodyear tire test,” said Almirola, who is currently 24th in the standings. “Just trying to find a better feel with our race car and trying to answer some questions that we’ve had. 

“The first five or six races this year we’ve bounced around on a few different things that we thought would be better. The wind tunnel tells you they are and then the real life world says maybe they’re not. When you come to a test like this and conditions are cloudy and overcast and stay relatively similar, you can knock some stuff out and get a feel for what’s better and what’s not.”