Goodyear makes statement on Atlanta race tires, corrects Tony Stewart
Quote selected text Published March 10th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Based on Goodyear’s tire testing at Atlanta last August, October and December, we provided what we believed were the best possible products for the races this past weekend. We had no tire failures and no problems with heat or wear. We supplied the same tires for both the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, and received zero complaints about our tires after the Nationwide race on Saturday.
We believe that our engineering, research and tire development is second to none. We accept that drivers will have their own opinions about our tires. NASCAR president Mike Helton told us Monday that “NASCAR is very grateful for the commitment Goodyear has made on behalf of building a good and safe product for our competitors, including this past weekend at Atlanta. NASCAR stands by our relationship and is proud to have Goodyear as a partner.”
Even though both Goodyear and NASCAR were satisfied with the tire’s performance in Atlanta, if the drivers are not happy, then Goodyear’s not happy. Now that we know how this tire combination performed, we’ll go back and retest for the fall race. We have the same goal as the drivers and NASCAR: to put the safest, best performing tires on these cars.
There will be many instances this year when the new car is on a particular track for the first time, as was the case in Atlanta. That makes it tougher than usual to get a read on how the tires will perform. But if there is ever any doubt about the recommendation, we will always err on the conservative side.
Finally, we would like to correct an erroneous comment made by Tony Stewart. Goodyear decided to leave other racing series only because of the escalating costs of competition in those series. At least one other tiremaker has done the same. For Goodyear, the enormous investment required to compete in those other forms of racing far outweighed the benefits derived from our participation. We see tremendous benefits in our 54-year relationship with NASCAR as the organization’s longest continuing supplier. We remain fully committed to, and are proud of, our relationship with NASCAR.
[Goodyear PR]
- Stewart meets with and apologizes to Goodyear
- Stewart blasts Goodyear once again
- Stewart on Goodyear:’…they should just pull out of this sport’
- Stewart does a 180 on Goodyear, praises Darlington tire
- Stewart defends his comments against Goodyear
No matter what Goodyear says Tony will always have louder voice with fans!
stewart just needs to shut up. he is complaining..for what? there were no cautions or huge wrecks because of tires. i mean come on he finished 2nd for crying out loud! so sit down and just shut it!
In the words of the kids today, “Tony just got served”
l0l
steve wrote:
Then why are they still in drag racing? There’s no money there right now. (that coming from a son of a former drag racer)
Yes, it may have been the first atlanta race for the CoT, but you could at least hit the board as upposed to putting more holes in the wall.
Steve I think they meant more the market, not directly the money. Drag racing is still like NASCAR in regards that its still somewhat of a “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” type of sport where F1 & Indycars are not.
Brittany tony wasnt the only to say anything Jr did too and In my local paper today kyle busch complained about the tires being bad.so it wasnt just tony but nascar needs to listen to the drivers on these kinds of issues.
Some of the cautions from “debris” looked like candy wrappers. Ridiculous.
“Even though both Goodyear and NASCAR were satisfied with the tire’s performance in Atlanta, if the drivers are not happy, then Goodyear’s not happy. Now that we know how this tire combination performed, we’ll go back and retest for the fall race.”
Lets hope they stick to their word and not see cars wiggling out of control on the track. And I’d like to say that the Nationwide Series car is different from the Sprint Cup car. Thank God the wing helps prevent most of the wrecks.
WTF? Nascar and Goodyear are happy with each other and their tire. Who cares the drivers aren’t.
That is like saying the Congress and the President are happy with the BS equipment we sent our troops over to fight a war with. WRONG Answer and it took Troops out there on TV and in the Written press to voice their opinion even though they knew it would bring down a world of Sh!t on them. Well guess what happened Congress said oops we will lose votes and if we don’t fix this so we better do something.
Nascar and Goodyear better wise up the troops are restless and we the Fans (voters) Have the power to support the Establishment or the Troops. I pick the Troops!
It has already started it only takes a few more Verbal LIVE Beatings from the drivers to send Goodyear a pink slip!
Fisha if you think that BS spin party Goodyear did is Tony getting SERVED! You must live one sheltered life. That was far far away from serving anyone anything.
BTW my 11 year girl old said that was so last year LMAO!
Side Note: 11 ½ years AF so don’t think I don’t support my troops!
WOW. Amazing how the SPIN DOCTORS for Goodyear come out and say…”yea our tires sucked all weekend at Atlanta” LOL Seriously though the performance of the tires was horrible. The only reason they weren’t blowing out was because they were so hard that the drivers couldn’t run em at normal performance levels. The lap times dropped off 3-4 seconds within 3 laps after fresh tires were put on. Thats rediculous and sad for the top stock car series in the USA. BOO Goodyear! Do more testing and get it right before race weekends!
Eddie Gossage requested a test session at TMS because the COT has never been at Texas. Nascar denied the request.
Several other drivers have complained. It’s just that Tony has the loudest voice.
For those of you condemning Tony for expressing his opinion, I’d like to see you out there doing what he does every weekend. When you have achieved the amount of experience that he has, then and only then will your opinion about the tire matter.
stewart was making the bestest deal about it b/c he is stewart and wants all the attention.
Tony maybe an Attention Whore but he usually does it by slamming someone into the wall or the grass. I am not a big Tony fan but I do like the fact that he doesn’t take sh!t from the Nascar, other drivers, the press… Just about anyone. He speaks his mind if you don’t like what Tony says I guarantee you buddy don’t ask the question. If you cross him he will make sure you get yours! Again I don’t always agree with the way he does it but Tony is not wrong here.
Finally, Goodyear releases a statement… BUT, it’s not really even a statement about the technical aspects of the tires or any real facts or statistics to back up Goodyear’s position that they are “good” tires.
It’s just Goodyear attempting to save face after several (more than two) of the driver’s have been calling them out. I like how they point to Tony specifically in an attempt to discredit him. Tony obviously hurt Goodyear a bit with his comments. It’s funny when one man makes a multi-billion dollar company a little shaky.
P.S.
Just because you may not like someone doesn’t mean that everything they say is wrong.
Tony-a wrote:
50% of the time he’ll get in trouble, watch theyll penalize him just like the professional wrestling incident then that will be bs
StreetGlide73 wrote:
Exactly
Tony is a great driver and Nascar should listen to him. I don’t like the way he acts some times but i respect him as a driver.
Say what you want about Tony, not many people can say they single handedly made a Fortune 500 company whine….Not only did they whine, they had to run to uncle Mike for protection because the other kids were picking on them. Hilarious!!
StreetGlide73 wrote:
l0l.. It was sarcasm, I just forgot to put the little winking smiley in it.
Fisha IC. Next time don’t forget! LMAO!
This is not a good situation and needs to be fixed in short order. All three of these drivers carry more clout then all the other drivers combined and when they speak everyone listens. I hope Goodyear and Nascar are listening because if they dont this could get someone hurt or even killed.
George not trying to dog or argue however I am not sure that these three drivers hold more clout than all the drivers combined. I do believe they have a lot of pull. I am not sure why the others have not came out publicly but I am sure it is the talk of the garage.
The bad thing for Nascar is they have their hands full because these 3 for sure are not going to eat a sh!t sandwich and just stand there smiling with thumbs up because Nascar and Goodyear tell them it is good and sponsorship $ is on the line.
I would LOVE to see all the drivers that disagree with Nascar and Goodyear on this to take the Goodyear stickers off the front corner panel or slap repair tape over them on the first pit stop claiming damage to the body, and/or invert their tires on the rims at Bristol as a sign of protest.
Ok I am back damn I think I was in La La Land there for a sec. I know it will never happen but DAMN! Would it be funny and send 1 Loud and Clear Message!
Well Goodyear mounts the tires, and they are probably stamped on both sides anyway so that wouldn’t really make a difference.. l0l
Dang that sucks but the tape thing could work. I keep slipping back to that la la land.
Any body that took a second look at that PR STATEMENT from Goodyear should know that was DAMAGE CONTROLL, not a real from the gut statement of commendation for all the fuss Tony,JR,Bushes,and Gordo made. Goodyear is coming from and indefenceable point of view on the tires.
As was said above, just watching the Atlanta race was all you needed to do to see that the tires were junk. Falling off 2 sec. in 10 laps then tail dragging the other 40 says it all.
As for why more drivers did not speak out, well some were scared of NASCAR, some just never rock the boat and some had a ball reliving there dirt track days slipping and sliding all over the place. The rest never new how bad the tires were because there cars setup was so bad who could tell why they spun out…
Keep on telling them like it is Tony, you never know ONE DAY they might listen…
Fisha695 wrote:
So when the crew glues on the lugs just black out the Goodyear with black glue.. lol
l0l…. Knowing NASCAR they’d say that’s as bad as soaking the tires…. l0l
They could use the blow torch and the razor blade on the side. Heck it could harden the side wall and be a solution the problem. That is what I would claim when they came asking. Lmao
StreetGlide73 wrote:
The problem was the tires were to hard…. l0l
I just read some quotes from Gordon and Biffle who did tire testing today at Darlington, and not one time did they mention anything about how the tires were that they tested (well at least on what I read on Jayski they didn’t mention what the tires were like)
Wonder what the fine for that would be 100,100,100– lol
Kenny Wallace said it the best on whatever race report show he is on. The race was boring because the drivers were afraid to run next to each other because of the poor grip of the tires. Makes sense if you as me.
Fish I for got to put a
at the end LMAO
No really I was watching tv and typing and trying to talk I was wrong and I will admit it. Please all don’t take away my Man Card! LMAO
`Competition!!! Good Year has a monopoly.Put another tire maker in there and the cost to the
teams would drop dramatically. Good Year pays nascar big bucks,so.. they charge the teams
even bigger bucks.
I agree that goodyear takes advantage of nascar. I liked it when hoosier was on board, that way the drivers had a choice. These COT’s suck too if you ask me. Takes away from great racin’ but then again, nascar has taken so much away from racin already. It’s pitiful. I live bout 20 minutes from the Bristol track and I had’nt been to a race there since august 2002. Last year when watchin the race,,, it was so boring hence it was the 1st time for the COT, plus bruton smith decided to make the track wider and lower the bankin…it was pathetic. Bristol has always been about wrecks and spins and the most exciting race on the circuit, but not now. I so miss the good ole winston racin days.
Tony….keep up the good work.However watch for some lame excuse from NAPCAR.Those clowns still have the last say,so the penalties are about to begin.
Sheesh Goodyear is really coming across as doing damage control here. Hopefully when they said “if the drivers are not happy, then Goodyear’s not happy” that wasn’t a load of BS. I have a feeling that was a bunch of BS, but if they actually follow through on it, maybe they can come up with a tire that will make the drives happy and put on a good show for the fans.
Regardless of what NASCAR and Goodyear thought about the tires going into the weekend, the drivers certainly didn’t like them, and it made for bad racing, which means the ultimate consumers, the fans couldn’t have liked it that much!
Truth be told its really not goodyears fault,nascar dictates what type of tire they want brought to the tracks even if they changed to hoosier or whoever they would still have the same issues,but in glad tony and afew other drivers will speak up nascar needs to get there heads out of the sand.
I don’t know if any of you guys watch NHRA, but ALOT of NHRA teams have dumped Goodyear over the past year.
Kudos to Tony Stewart for speaking up. He might’ve come across as a total jerk, but believe me he’s only concerned about the safety and the well being of himself and his fellow competitors.
just ask the drivers and respond honestly what all drivers had to say we would like to hear how the whole field felt that would satisfy the critics