NASCAR plans to roll out its seventh generation Cup Series race car in 2021. Expect that newly-designed car to have bigger wheels/tires. The new car is expected to have 18-inch tires, up from 15 inches.
“It is not just a tire change; it is the overall Gen Seven package that everybody is working on for 2021,” Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company’s Director of Racing Greg Stucker said, according to a KickinTheTires.net report. “Part of the whole idea is to try to update the cars somewhat, make it a little bit more relevant to what you see on the street these days. So I think there will be probably some more differentiation among manufacturers; the car, itself, will be totally different from a performance perspective. And one of the things we are looking at is to go with a larger diameter tire, a larger wheel diameter. We have been running 15-inch here in NASCAR for a lot of years now. If you look at cars on the street, you don’t see too many 15-inch wheel diameters anymore. So we are looking at larger wheel diameters and our target is 18-inch.”
The new tire/wheel also is expected to be wider, and the tire is expected to have a lower profile or sidewall.
"If we go to a larger wheel diameter, then typically, we’ll go to a shorter profile, so the sidewall of the tire won’t be quite as tall. We will probably also add some width to the tire, so we will go with a little bit wider wheel, a little bit wider tire,” Stucker said.
Stucker also said that a NASCAR test was conducted with a 17-inch tire/wheel a few years ago, but after meeting with officials from each of NASCAR's active manufacturers [Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota], the decision was made to go with an 18-inch wheel/tire.
Stucker isn't sure how much the size change will affect tire cost. Now, Cup Series teams pay a, reported, $2,200/set of tires.
The NASCAR Xfinity and Gander Outdoors Truck series also race on 15-inch wheels/tires, but there are no immediate plans to change tire/wheel size in either of those series.
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