Dem Nascar säi Garage 56 Auto kéint e Gewënner zu Le Mans sinn

As the green flag waved for the 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans Saturday there were a great deal of uncertainties ahead. There was one thing for certain, however; one car had no chance of celebrating a win or even standing on a podium 24 hours later. And that was just fine by the team fielding NASCAR’s Garage 56 entry.

The team behind the effort led by NASCAR powerhouse Hendrick Motorsports knew there was no chance they would win anything in terms of a winner’s trophy, they had entered a car in the class reserved for non-competitors. The single-entry class is for those cars with innovative technology and want to use the race as a sort of a ‘laboratory’ over the course of 24 hours.

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NASCAR’s Garage 56 entry is a modified Chevrolet Camaro based on NASCAR’s seventh generation racecar, commonly known as the ‘Next Gen’ car raced in the Cup series. And while it was a PR bonanza for the sport, and Chevrolet in the week leading up to the race in France, the other, and perhaps lesser known, purpose for the car was set to take place over the course of the 24-hour race.

NASCAR is using the Garage 56 entry to experiment with different technologies that might be seen someday on a NASCAR track in America. While the Garage 56 entry closely matches its Next Gen cousin, there are some differences. The entry uses new carbon brakes, has working lights and uses aero upgrades such as a taller rear spoiler. The entry is also lighter than the Next Gen car by 500 pounds. Instead of a sequential floor shifter, there are paddle shifters, and other changes that won’t be visible to fans.

One thing that will be visible is the tires. For the Garage 56 car at Le Mans, Goodyear
GT
introduced the first real time intelligence capability to record tire pressure and temperature. The passive, non-battery, sensor is actually cured into the tire during production. The sensor utilizes Goodyear SightLine, Goodyear’s intelligent technology to provide real-time tire data to Hendrick Motorsports during the race.

The real-time feedback will help the team leverage the tire intelligence data to optimize the vehicle’s performance by adjusting the car and driver settings in real-time. Goodyear also engineered three types of racing tires for the car and the 24-hour race: Dry, Intermediate wet, and full wet compounds.

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The drivers and multiple engineers have tested not only the car, but the Goodyear tires at 10 tests over eight sites in the past 12 months, resulting in more than 7,500 miles of testing.

Currently the Next Gen car can race on road courses in NASCAR with wet tires, but tires with differing compounds are only used in Formula 1 and the IndyCar series. The use of different compounds, required by the rules of the respective sanctioning bodies, gives a different option for strategies in a race. The more teams can use strategy the more excitement there is for fans.

During the 24 hours in France, NASCAR and the Garage 56 team will be able to gather a great deal of data. That data won’t go to waste. Less weight in the car will allow for quicker turns on the 8.476-mile-long Circuit de la Sarthe road course. The new carbon brakes, the working headlights and the aero changes for Le Mans will provide a great deal of information; information that could in turn be used by NASCAR to improve the Next Gen car, primarily on the road courses. The working headlights could open up the possibility of racing on a road course after dark, or even an exhibition NASCAR endurance race.

Then there are the tires. The ability to give teams real time data about tire performance could allow for better strategy decisions during a race, and a choice of compounds that perform differently and wear out at different rates could also add more intrigue. NASCAR has shown it isn’t averse to trying to things; especially when it will improve the on-track product.

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“Because tires are a vehicle’s only connection to the road, they have the potential to provide tremendous real-time insight that improves the performance of drivers under the most grueling of conditions. Goodyear is extremely proud to have the tire intelligence to unlock this potential in motorsports, and it’s been a privilege to partner with NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet on this Garage 56 entry,” said Rich Kramer, Goodyear’s chairman, CEO, and president.

The team had a chance to test the intermediate Goodyear tire as rain started shortly after the race started and continued with driver Jenson Button in for his stint.

“We were able to do a lot of testing with the vehicle before we got here and we recognized it was going to rain in June in France, but you never know where it’s going to rain or how much it’s going to rain,” Justin Fantozzi, Goodyear global race tires operation manager said. “The intermediate tire is really good when it’s starting to dry out or when you only have a little bit of precipitation, and the wet tire is for when it is going to rain for awhile.

“Everything looked really good (with the intermediate tire). Jenson was quite pleased with the balance of the car, and everything was nice.”

The Garage 56 car won’t be listed among the winners when the 24 Hours of Le Mans ends Sunday. But they will bring back a wealth of data that could prove to be invaluable as NASCAR considers what its next generation car will have, or how the current one can be improved along with where and how they race in the future. In the end it may in fact be NASCAR that comes away with a big win from the 2023 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.