Varying Goodyear Tire Choices Make for a Captivating Cup Series Race at Phoenix Raceway

AVONDALE, Ariz. — In one respect, it’s a shame that drivers will be limited to one primary tire when the NASCAR Cup Series returns to Phoenix Raceway to decide its championship in November.

Having two different choices for Sunday’s Shriners Children’s 500 — a yellow-lettered prime tire and a red-lettered option tire—gave crew chiefs an abundance of complicated strategic decisions that radically altered the running order throughout the event.

The show was exceptional, decided by a drag race to the finish line between Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, with Bell prevailing by 0.049 seconds to claim his third Cup trophy in a row—the first time a driver had won three straight since NASCAR introduced the Next Gen car into its top division in 2022.

Even Bell, though, had mixed feelings about two different tire choices in the same race—the grippier, faster reds versus the more durable yellows.

“Selfishly, it seemed like my car was a little bit better on the yellow tires,“ Bell said. “It seemed like my balance was just better compared to the competition. It seemed like the yellow tires were a little bit harder to drive. That allowed my car to excel. 

“The red tire definitely brought the field closer together. I’m not a fan of having two tire compounds in

the same race. It worked out today where a couple of the best cars ended up racing for the win. A matter of luck becomes involved whenever you have a faster car and a slower tire. It worked out today for me. I personally don’t like having two tires in the same race or two compounds, I should say, in the same race with there being known yellows (cautions for stage ends).

“I talked to somebody in here about INDYCAR, how they have multiple tire compounds, but they don’t have the stage breaks. It makes it a little bit, I don’t know, just a little bit different.”

Ryan Preece was the first to try the option tire on Sunday. He started 28th and gained 11 positions in the first 20 laps. By Lap 30, he had climbed to sixth. Fifteen laps later, Preece ran third and maintained his position to the end of Stage 1 on Lap 61. Ultimately, he finished 15th.

Joey Logano was another benefactor of the option tire. Logano started second. Two early cautions set up the Nos. 22 (Logano) and 24 (pole winner William Byron) for battle. Coming to the Lap 15 restart, Logano drove below the yellow line prior to the start-finish line, drawing a pass-through penalty. Logano dropped from first to 37th. Over the next 40 laps, he gained just nine positions.

While crew chief Paul Wolfe waited to give Logano option tires, Penske racer Austin Cindric used a set after the first stage and rolled from 14th on the Lap 72 restart to fourth in six laps.

On Lap 88, Cindric had the lead. When the caution was called for Michael McDowell’s spin four laps later, Logano pitted for options. He restarted 24th on Lap 98 and seized the lead 21 laps later. By Lap 145—47 laps into his run on options, Logano held a 2.654 second lead over Bell. 

Wolfe had told Logano that 40 laps into a run on the option tire would be the comfort zone while after reaching the 60-lap mark, the tires would fade. Logano was able to hold off Bell until Lap 178. Still, with only two sets of option tires allocated to each team, Logano knew he would eventually be a sitting duck with the top teams retaining their red tires for the final stage.

Hamlin started 10th, picked up points in both stages and scored his first top five at Phoenix since 2021 and his first top five of 2025. He restarted second on Lap 277 and held his own with Bell through the closing laps. However, two late cautions in the final 13 laps deprived Hamlin of the long run he would have preferred.

“Obviously, our car was really fast,” Hamlin said. “Really kind of wanted it to stay green there because I thought the long runs is really where we were going to be able to excel, especially on these tires.

“If this is the tire we’re going to run—and I absolutely believe it is, we made gains.” 

Goodyear was pleased with the performance of both tires at Phoenix.

“Everything went according to plan at Phoenix, and the Option tire worked very well,” said Mark Keto, Goodyear’s NASCAR project manager. “It gave teams a chance to vary their strategies as to when to use them and maximize their effectiveness to gain track position over teams that were out on the Prime tires.  Teams were also able to manage their Options once they got track position and make them live longer into a run.  

“Overall we were very happy with the balance and strategy of the Prime/Option tire set-up, and how it added to the racing all day.”

Winning crew chief Adam Stevens agrees.

“It’s a different tire,” Stevens said. “I think we see that it tightens up quite a bit. We’ve had the benefit of being on this option tire more than once now. We kind of have an offset built in that we try to maintain. I think we’re honing in on it.

“We probably missed it a tiny bit today and could have been a little bit better, especially on the first set of option tires. The caution came early. I think we only ended up with 21 laps on them. Later in the race when we had them on, they were a little bit better. It’s a little bit different every time we run them, and we get a little bit smarter.”

Will they be smart enough to prevail again in November, when the option tire is the only one available at Phoenix? If Sunday’s race is an indication, the No. 20 team will have a Ph.D in tire strategy by then.

Follow Lee Spencer on Twitter @CandiceSpencer or email her at [email protected].