NASCAR Cup Series teams set for mandatory change at Indianapolis

The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series hits Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 this weekend, and all teams will have a new tire to contend with for the event.

Goodyear has revealed that all teams must run a new right-side tire this weekend, although the left-side tire will be one that they are familiar with, with its most recent appearance having come at Chicagoland Speedway.

As per Goodyear, the new right-sided tire features an updated construction with a new tread compound, with Ross Chastain, Ryan Preece and John Hunter Nemechek having validated and tested it at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in early June.

“Indianapolis is clearly a unique track,” said Rick Heinrich, Goodyear NASCAR product manager, in Goodyear's press release ahead of the event (via Jayski).

“We see teams running aggressive setups here to account for the flat corners. Our new right-side tire for the Cup Series has been developed with this in mind, and our Pocono setup for the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series performed as expected on a track with similarly flat corners.”

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Ryan Blaney previews NASCAR tire change for Indianapolis

With the above news confirmed, Team Penske star Ryan Blaney was asked for his thoughts on the new tire when speaking to the media this week.

Quizzed on how it might impact the racing in the Brickyard 400, Blaney said: “It’s always about trying to get falloff.

"The big talk is if you abuse your stuff are you going to pay a penalty for it? That’s what racing is all about and that’s how racing should be, and I think Goodyear has done a really good job of working incredibly hard on not only trying to work on the short track tire, but also the intermediates and bigger places like that of just trying to find something that falls off and you can really pay the penalty for something if you abuse it.

"So, I’m looking forward to seeing what that is. It’s nice that we have the extended practice this weekend, getting a few sets of tires on Friday and be able to make some longer runs to see where that goes and get a feel for that.

"I hope it lays a bunch of rubber down. If you lay a bunch of rubber down, usually you’re gonna be able to abuse your stuff. It just means rubber is coming off of the tire, so I hope that direction that Goodyear is working is gonna make that kind of an impact, so we’ll find out.”