Firestone's Barber tire choice leaves positive impressions so far

With heavy rain in the forecast for Saturday, the information gained during Friday’s lone practice session at Barber Motorsports Park might be the only significant opportunity for teams to learn about Firestone’s primary and alternate tires ahead of a dry 90-lap race on Sunday.

In its pre-event notes, Firestone said its softer alternate is a carryover from what was used in 2024, but the harder primary compound is even harder and longer lasting. Based on the feedback from two of Friday’s fastest drivers, the huge disparity in tire life and performance from the three opening races wasn’t found during their runs on both compounds.

“It seems pretty normal to me,” Andretti Global’s Colton Herta told RACER. “Pretty similar to how we have run here, pre-hybrid. The red (alternate) tires haven’t changed, but the black (primary) tires, have. It didn’t feel like the black tires should change a lot over a stint. I expect the racing to be similar to last year as far as tire strategy.”

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou, who ran second on Friday ahead of Herta in third, came away with a different assessment.

“It’s gonna be a big difference, which is good,” Palou said. “The primaries are not great in terms of grip. When you compare one to another, they don’t seem to last more, and they have less grip. It could be that the alternates suddenly give up, but so far the alternates are a lot faster. The alternates, you have a big peak and they seem to hold on, which is inspiring.”

Palou was pleasantly surprised by the behavior of his car in hybrid configuration. With 100 pounds of new weight to carry compared to the car he and the rest of the field raced at Barber in 2024, the effects weren’t as pronounced as anticipated.

“I expected it to be worse, honestly, because it’s so high speed and with compressions, normally it’s bad when you have more weight, but it was actually okay,” he said.

“Yeah, it feels a bit boggy or lazy in some corners, but it’s not terrible, like, ‘Oh s***, I cannot drive it.’”