Tires and drivers tested at New Hampshire Motor Speedway

Green flags won’t wave at the “Magic Mile” until September, but three NASCAR Cup Series teams made a mid-summer stop in Loudon this week to run through over a dozen sets of rubber, collecting data and biometrics for engineering teams at Goodyear.

Defending New Hampshire race winner Christopher Bell joined Joey Logano and Ross Chastain for a two-day tire test on the 1.058-mile track.

“It is crazy the difference that tires can make,” Bell said. “We went through a couple tires that were seconds different on the track. So it always changes, but you’re just trying to adapt to it and get the most out of it and get the data.”

He and the other drivers tested everything from the manufacturer’s short-track standards to “off-the-wall” designs.

“There’s no doubt they’ve created fall-off,” Logano laughed. “They know how to do that. There’s no doubt they might have gone too far, but it’s good to jump the fence.”

Though Goodyear masterminded the schedule, each team benefitted from the extra laps. Typical pre-race practice sessions — which often clock in at just 25 minutes — leave little time to experiment with setup. Tire tests allow for innovation and put hours of track experience under a driver’s belt. 

“It’s not a full-on open test, but anytime you get in a race car these days, it’s more valuable than it used to be,” Logano said.

That’s especially true at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which will host a playoff race come September.

Logano’s No. 22 Ford car, Bell’s No. 20 Toyota and Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet roared around the track all day.

Cars alternated between solo runs and shared laps, intermittently pulling in and out of the garages for tire changes and mechanical work. Once laps finished, drivers had a chance to sit down with the data for themselves. 

Each driver said he preferred long stretches behind the wheel to time in a simulator. Chastain, who has struggled on New Hampshire’s track in the past, prioritized the opportunity. He was the last of the racers to arrive at the press conference after pausing for a debrief with his Chevrolet team.

“I’d had one of my biggest crashes to date here with a popped right front tire a long time ago in the Xfinity Series, and I just didn’t ever feel confident with any of the cars I drove here,” Chastain said. “So I was fortunate and glad to draw this test out of the Chevy camp for our team and get to have two days to just rip laps, and then work on the car, and then work on me, because they can get as much out of me as they can the car.”

Logano had a different reason to stop in New Hampshire.

For the Middletown, Conn., native, Loudon feels like a second home. He jokes that it’s the only track where fans don’t boo him.

“This is where I fell in love with the sport,” Logano said. “As you can imagine, there’s a lot of really special memories for me here. Whether it’s sitting in the grandstand, starting my first race, winning my first race — it’s all happened here in Loudon. I don’t think there’s any more core memories, of at least motorsports, to me than what is here in New Hampshire.”

And Bell, the defending champion, relished the chance for a go-around at one of his better tracks. He won the 2024 race with a last-lap pass in overtime to keep a perfect 4-for-4 record in NASCAR Xfinity Series races at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

“Looking at the test schedule, we knew that this was one that we wanted to come to,” Bell said. “And thankfully, we got it ironed out to where we’re here today, and just trying to keep up with Joey.”

New Hampshire Motor Speedway will host the first Round of 12 playoff race September 21. For the first time since 2017, drivers will fight for more than just the coveted lobster — their point cutoff will be top-of-mind during each of the 301 laps.

According to Chastain, that doesn’t change the race strategy: “I can’t try any harder with the playoff race versus the first race of the year or middle of summer. I don’t have that ability to kind of turn it on and off. I have to show up every week and try, and I might get lucky.”

Abby DiSalvo can be reached at adisalvo@cmonitor.com