Smoke Stacks: Stewart Blasts Goodyear For Tires At Atlanta Race
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Stewart Blasts Goodyear For Tires
Used During Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 |
Following the conclusion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kobalt Tools 500 in Atlanta yesterday, NASCAR driver Tony Stewart criticized the performance of the Goodyear tires during the race. Stewart: “That’s the most pathetic racing tire I’ve ever been on in my professional career. They exited out of Formula One, they exited out of the IRL, they exited out of CART, they exited out of World of Outlaws, and there’s a reason for that because Goodyear can’t build a tire that’s worth a crap. If I were Goodyear, I’d be really embarrassed about this weekend and what they brought us here. ... If they can’t do any better than that, they ought to just pull out of this sport and save us all a bunch of headaches because I guarantee Hoosier or Firestone or somebody could come in and do a lot better job than what they’re doing right now” (Fox, 3/9). Stewart, who finished second in the race, added, "If Goodyear thinks that was their best effort today, I'm really disappointed." NASCAR VP/Communications Jim Hunter: "This was only the second race on a 1.5 mile track with the new car. Goodyear always puts safety first and there were no tire failures" (FOXSPORTS.com, 3/9). Goodyear Motorsports Marketing Manager Justin Fantozzi: "We make tire decisions so that we can provide the safest tire we know how to build at every racetrack" (NASCAR.com, 3/9).
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Earnhardt Jr. To Attend
Today's Tire Test At Darlington |
JUNIOR ALSO UPSET: Driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. said that the blame "shouldn't solely rest with ... Goodyear, but that Goodyear's tire compound was a poor choice for this track." Earnhardt: "We couldn't run side by side, we'd wreck" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 3/10). Earnhardt added that he "understands Goodyear wanted to provide tires that would stand up under conditions at a track where excessive wear had been an issue." Earnhardt: "The tire we used to run here ran into the cords, but you could still run on it. ... Goodyear doesn't like to hear drivers bash them and I don't like to do it. But I am not going to just sit here and take this" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 3/10). He said that he would "attend a Goodyear test at Darlington Raceway today to make sure" the situation improves. Earnhardt: "I ain't going to put up with this. I don't think any other drivers (are)." Stewart added, "I'm going home and taking everything that has Goodyears off and put Firestones on and feel a lot safer" (USA TODAY, 3/10). Stewart: "After 10 years of being in the Cup Series you learn to be highly disappointed with everything that Goodyear does" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 3/9).
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Sadler Says Goodyear Threw Drivers
For Loop With Change In Tires |
WHERE THE RUBBER MEETS THE ROAD: YAHOO SPORTS' Bob Margolis reported Sprint Cup teams "tested with the new car at Atlanta last fall, and even though teams liked the tires and the grip they afforded on the rough Atlanta surface, Goodyear engineers apparently didn't like the way the tires performed." Driver Elliott Sadler: "These new tires are nothing like we tested with. We're having a hard time getting hold of the race track on these tires. They have thrown us for a loop ... We wasted two days of testing here in the fall." Driver Kyle Busch, who was leading Saturday's Nationwide Series race until a failed tire sent him into the wall: "There's no grip and no tires." Driver Michael Waltrip "agreed that the lack of grip made driving the new car a handful, but he saw that as a positive (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 3/9). ESPN.com's Terry Blount reported the specific complaint voiced was that the "tire was too hard." Stewart: "I'm really not trying to beat them up. But I don't know how else to get their attention. We are pleading with Goodyear to do something." Driver Jeff Gordon: "There's just no reason for this. This car with this tire and this track was just terrible." However, driver Carl Edwards said,"The tire is fine. Everybody has the same tires. They are really, really hard to drive. They could make them easier to drive, but they aren't coming apart" (ESPN.com, 3/9).
MOVING FORWARD: In Winston-Salem, Mike Mulhern notes the next two races, at Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway, "should be relatively straightforward since drivers ran both tracks with these cars last year." However, the April 6 race at Texas Motor Speedway will "quite likely be too similar to yesterday's race" (WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL, 3/10). The AP's Paul Newberry notes Goodyear has a five-year contract with NASCAR running through 2011, an arrangement NASCAR "prefers because it doesn't want multiple companies competing for business at the expense of safety." Stewart: "The bad thing is they've got an exclusive deal. They have no reason to have to push and make their product better because they have no competition. I don't know what it's going to take to get them to give us a quality tire that this series and NASCAR deserves." Fantozzi added: "We're not stagnant. Things keep evolving. We'll take this and learn from it" (AP, 3/10).
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