During a lengthy, unflattering critique of the tires that Goodyear supplied the drivers at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Tony Stewart said that other tire companies would do a better job in NASCAR. While Stewart really was not calling for a tire war, his words surely hit a nerve in Daytona Beach and Akron, Ohio, cities where NASCAR and Goodyear have their headquarters. That’s because for racing series and tire companies, tire wars are often viewed as a potential Armageddon.
“No,” Ramsey Poston, NASCAR managing director of corporate communication, said, “we are not interested (in a tire war). Goodyear has been a remarkably good partner.”
Most major forms of auto racing in the world have gone through tire wars — times when more than one brand of tire is available to competitors. The last tire war in NASCAR occurred in 1994, when Hoosier came in and challenged Goodyear for status and customers. Geoffrey Bodine won three races on Hoosiers that year. Cars using Hoosiers won 12 pole positions.
But the move was not made without controversy. Concern was expressed by some teams and some drivers. They were worried that a tire war could adversely affect safety as the companies, in a quest to be faster than the other, would go with softer and softer rubber compounds and the result would be blown tires. Some thought the tire war would drive up costs. The 1994 tire war lasted one season. Hoosier did not come back in 1995, as it just proved too costly for a company that, compared with Goodyear, was mom-and-pop.
A new tire war in NASCAR would be impossible to mount right now as the series does not have an open-tire policy — NASCAR has an exclusive contract with Goodyear. No other tire company could enter the sport until the Goodyear contract expires. For the time being, Firestone, the American company that is probably best suited to go after Goodyear’s contract when it expires, is not interested in approaching NASCAR.
“Obviously,” Al Speyer, motor-sports executive director for Firestone, said, “NASCAR is a very successful form of motor racing. But, we are really, really busy with open-wheel racing.” Might that change when Goodyear’s contract with NASCAR expires [2012]? Speyer said, “We are always looking at all motor sports, and we have ongoing analysis, but we could never comment on pending business ventures.”
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“Goodyear has been a remarkably good partner”.
I read as “Goodyear gives us a lot of money… We want to keep getting lots of money from our cronies, so we don’t want anyone else getting in here and ruining the sweet setup we have.”
I do believe Firestone builds a far superior tire. I had a set of goodyear eagles once and hated them they were to hard for my driving style.
Jeff wrote:
I read as “We are currently under contract with Goodyear so we legally can not say anything bad about them”
But no biggie because over 90% of corporations have contracts like that… heck even some individual people have contracts that state you can not say anything that could be considered “bad” about the person you are under contract with.
“They were worried that a tire war could adversely affect safety as the companies, in a quest to be faster than the other, would go with softer and softer rubber compounds and the result would be blown tires.”
and Goodyear tires never blow.
“Goodyear has been a remarkable good partner” that just smacks of Corporate lingo for they send there money to us on time and do as there told…
You gota love the response from Goodyear yesterday about Tony’s not being into it at the Las Vegas tire test. That really sounded like a 2 year olds response , But mom he started it first…
I guess accepting the fact that they haven’t been doing the best job is outa the question…
Larry Mac and Mike Joy just explained it best during the rain delay.
Larry pretty much said. “It was the first time in race conditions with the low downforce COT on that track. Those tires worked well with the high downforce Nationwide cars, but not as well with the COT. By the time they come back to these tracks in the fall they will have race data to go off of when building the fall race tires.”
And Mike said something that I think we can all agree with. “I would rather have driver complaining because they were sliding around, then drivers complaining because they blew/blistered tires and hit the wall and possibly got injured”.
If Formula 1 introduced a car type the way NASCAR has introduced the new car the drivers and teams wouldn’t let them hear the end of it. NASCAR should be cut no slack. They had the ability to test this car more thoroughly. They can produce race conditions at almost anytime they want, it would just take a little effort. The standard that NASCAR holds the teams and drivers to should be upheld by themselves. $100,000 for accidently placing the wrong parts on a car? What should NASCAR’s fine be for putting a wrong car on the track and half a**ing its development?
Points races are not the time for this kind of reasearch and development.
The FI COT is coming next year, and the teams have knew about it for a few years, just like NASCAR teams have knew about the COT for a few years before it was put into place full time. Its going to be Safer, its going to have less downforce, its going to be a more spec body, Still only going to have one manufacture of tire.
Plus in F1 its not the FIA telling the teams what they can do, its the teams doing something and then Bernie and his band of cronies telling them that the millions of dollars they wasted on developing a part was not well spent, and they better not show up with that part next week. Same approach as NASCAR except the teams fine themselves with all the millions of dollars they put into a part they can not run.
omg a tire war its WWIII the worlds going to end its goodtear vs tony lol j/k
oops goodyear typo^-^
omg! “NASCAR doesn’t want a tire war”… But NACAR does want all the money and then the headline will read after a driver gets killed… “NASCAR feels it should have looked further into tire issues”
Nice.
What a joke nascar is. The ONLY real thing they see or care about is GREEN as in MONEY!