Tire Problems

Tires were the major story of this past weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Sunday was of course the running of the Kobalt Tools 500 at NASCAR's fastest track, which was anything but and that, my friends, is where all the controversy started. Now if you weren't able to tune in during the race, you missed... well not much and that was the problem. It was said that the drivers were running as much as 3 second slower laps then the previous years race. Think about that for a second, 3 seconds, we are talking 30-31 second laps in 2007 and 33-34 second laps in 2008! How did that happen? Great question and the answer will depend on who you ask. 

Second place finisher Tony Stewart, never one to mince words, blamed the Goodyear tires, "That was the most pathetic racing tire that I've ever been on in my professional career." Scathing seems to sum up that statement pretty well, but wait there was more from everyone's favorite loud-mouth, "Goodyear can't build a tire that is worth a crap. If I were Goodyear, I would be really embarrassed about this weekend and what they brought here." Good old Tony, you never have to guess what he is thinking. He went on to call for Goodyear to get their act together or get out of the sport. Hyperbole? Yes, but it was not without truth. 

 

Dale Earnhardt Jr was a better barometer of the Goodyear situation. After praising the technology and safety of Goodyear tires he went on to say "This was just a bad combination, this tire at this track. Just a poor combination." Dale Jr then went on to say, "Goodyear doesn't like to hear people bashing them tires, and I don't like doing it, but I ain't going to sit here and put up with this." 

Other drivers gave the opinion that while, yes, the tires were bad, it was the combination of the tire and the COT (car or tomorrow) that made it a problem. One such driver in Jeff Gordon had this to say "it's not any one person or group's fault. It's a combination. This car, this tire, at this race track was just terrible." Others yet place a great deal of the blame on the lack of downforce in these cars, more exactly on the bump-stop. Their claim is that while these tires were bad, it was magnified by this lack of downforce. Obviously the common factor in all of this is the tire and here's hoping that they avoid this situation in the future.