For this weekend’s IndyCar finale at Nashville Superspeedway, the series is choosing to make two compounds of Firestone tires available for drivers to run.
Each entry received six sets of the harder primary tires and four sets alternate compound to be used throughout the weekend.
The biggest limitation is that each driver must use one set of primary and two sets of alternate tires during the race.
Typically reserved for road and street courses, IndyCar had Firestone bring two compounds in order to help provide different strategy options and spice up the racing.
Not all drivers are convinced this is the right approach, however, including Santino Ferrucci who explained ahead of the event that the allowance of more bodywork pieces would be a better way to create downforce and would lead to better racing.
“[The alternate tires] should be interesting,” said Ferrucci. “To be perfectly honest, my opinion is that we should be allowed to run everything on the underwings and the floor, and take away the top aero.
“That’s how you get downforce, and that’s how you get better racing. Instead of trying to manipulate it with tires.
“I don’t really think that’s fair to Firestone when we have all the tools at our disposal to do it the correct way.”
IndyCar runs the short oval package at Nashville Superspeedway despite the 1.33-mile length bordering on the edge of needing a speedway wing configuration.
IndyCar has made alternate tires available at select oval races in the past couple years, including at last year’s race at Nashville.
In last year’s finale, drivers at the head of the results table largely employed a strategy that saw them run the softer tires for as few laps as possible over the 206-lap event.
Pato O’Ward, who finished second, felt his chances of winning would have been much higher if he had ran his final stint on the preferred compound instead of saving in until late in the race.
Drivers will use a busy Saturday schedule to feel out the compounds for this year’s event and make plans for how best to use the tires in Sunday’s 225-lap race.
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