Back in March, Joey Logano was one of the three drivers who got to test Goodyear’s new tire compounds on the freshly repaved 0.625-mile North Wilkesboro track. Fast-forward to last Sunday and he emerged as the winner of the All-Star race by leading 199 of the 200 laps. How impactful was the tire test in helping him secure his first victory of 2024?
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Speaking to Dale Earnhardt Jr. recently, the Team Penske star underlined how a tire test is shared with the manufacturers and the teams. Through the explanation, he contended that he did not get as big an advantage through the test as some believe. He went on to reiterate that whatever lap time he got he used well and capitalized on the experience during Sunday’s race.
He said, “We capitalized on it and made it worth it, right? I mean that’s to me… I’m proud of that for our team. We went to a test and we learned what we needed to. Those tests are more valuable than ever because of the lack of practice.” Rather interestingly, Logano got to gruel around for over 800 laps during the test – which he confirmed in his post-race interview.
He told NASCAR, “We ran 880 something laps in a couple days [During the test] and 30 sets of tires or something. It was crazy. So, we learned a lot and we worked really hard to try to get our short track package tuned in good.” To Dale Jr, he continued to express that through the complete race he never ran on the tire that Goodyear had him test to make a case that he didn’t have a big advantage.
Joey Logano’s crew chief Paul Wolfe explains how the tire test helped his victory
The #22 team’s crew chief Paul Wolfe admitted at North Wilkesboro after Sunday’s race that the tire test did play a huge part in them preparing for the race. He said, “We were fortunate to get the Goodyear tire test here a couple months ago and um I think we took obviously a lot of what we learned here. The guys back at the shop and the guys preparing the cars took all that data and information, and we’re able to bring something back.”
William Byron and Ty Gibbs were the two other drivers who participated in the test alongside Logano in March. Both finished outside the top 10. Though the former champion’s words oscillate between agreeing to having a significant advantage and not, the extraordinary work that he and his team have done in extracting the best possible result from the test cannot go unpraised.
