O’Ward and Palou test Firestones at Nashville Speedway

The duo of Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou completed a Firestone tire test on Tuesday at Nashville Speedway.

O’Ward, in his No. 5 Chevy, and Palou, in the No. 10 Honda, turned 362 combined laps around the 1.33-mile oval with best laps produced in the 198-200mph range, which fall in line with the practice and qualifying speeds seen last year that varied from 195-202mph.

“The tire test days that Firestone comes up with, they put you with six sets of tires, and they tell you, ‘Hey, do five laps, and then five more laps, and then five more laps, and let us know the differences,’ and then we do the same on long runs with brand-new sets,” Palou told RACER.

“So it's very useful, but we don't really have time, or they don't even allow us to do any setup changes. I love it. I look forward to it, but I don't consider it as a test. Like, normally, when we test, we test and try stuff with a car mechanically and setup-wise, to try and improve or continue to do stuff to make the car better.

“But when you do a tire test, it's more for the purpose you’re given to do that isn’t the team. It's super fun for me, because I love driving, even if it's just to give feedback. But my job was to only give feedback, and you're not really competing. You're not going crazy changing the ride height or on the C.O.P. (aerodynamic center of pressure). Overall, you're just doing the work they tell you to do.”

Palou left Nashville with a favorable impression of the tires he tested for Firestone.

“I think Firestone did a good job on starting with what was close to last year, and then trying to find something that will be both super durable for safety and really good for racing – I think that's what everybody's looking for,” he said. “We just want a tire that allows you to maybe run a little bit higher or maybe be able to be more confident in different lanes and bigger performance windows. I feel we made a good step, and I feel they did the same at Phoenix.

“They went there twice, once last year, once, beginning of this year to test, and they were looking for the same thing. And then you show up to Phoenix and it was a great show. It was one of the best oval races we’ve had lately. So I feel doing tests like this today just gives them the direction of what really helps to get that tire with bigger windows. And I think it's been paying off at the track, which is what we all need as drivers, teams and fans.”