CONCORD, N.C. -- Wednesday, Chase Elliott and the No. 24 Chevrolet SS team took part in a Goodyear tire test at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Elliott said the Nevada track was a great place to get back into the car for the first time in 2017 as it is comparable to many tracks the series will visit in the upcoming season.
No. 24 team crew chief Alan Gustafson said the conditions at the 1.5-mile speedway were ideal for testing this week, with the track surface producing plenty of grip.
"The track has a lot of grip and we saw this last year," Gustafson explained. "The No. 48 did the test last year and I went out there with them. The speeds were really high at the test. It was just a bit cool, the temperatures were probably a little bit more representative for our test than it was last year but it's pretty quick. It's fast and I wasn't surprised by that."
While trying out various tires for Goodyear, the No. 24 team focused on Elliott's comfort level inside the Chevy while he was on the track.
"With the aero package, the cars are a little bit more unstable," Gustafson said. "The cars are a little bit harder to drive it seems like, a little less stable and depending on the tire -- Goodyear brought a lot of great options that had quite a bit off falloff -- I think the question in my mind is, how much is the track going to slow down due to conditions and how will the cars drive in traffic?"
While Gustafson predicts the speeds at the track will drop significantly come race time, he said the team produced a balanced race car for Elliott during the test.
"The thing you notice is if he would overdrive or underdrive the corner or do something different, the car was quicker to have an imbalance issue," Gustafson said. "It was quicker to be loose or tight so the envelope for him to do his job is reduced. It's just not quite as stable, the car is just a little bit more on edge."
At the end of the day, Gustafson, Elliott and the No. 24 team were happy with the way the test session played out.
"I thought all-in-all it was good," Gustafson said. "I thought Goodyear did a great job with the test. I think we got to experience some different tire options and what they potentially could do -- trying to reduce that corner speed and trying to increase falloff -- which I thought they did a fantastic job with that."