NASCAR’s Mike Helton says Stewart’s Goodyear comments were too strong
Quote selected text Published March 11th, 2008 in NASCAR News
NASCAR President Mike Helton told Tony Stewart on Stewart’s Sirius NASCAR Radio show that he was too harsh in his criticism of Goodyear’s tires that were run at Atlanta Motor Speedway last Sunday.
“Tony, we’re all well aware of your opinion, and you’re right to express your opinion, albeit, I think maybe a little bit too strong in this case,” he said. “What NASCAR asks for Goodyear to do this year as we completely run this new chassis from racetrack to racetrack is, first and foremost, bring a safe tire, a tire that is safe for the competitors to race on. And then bring one that is durable. And certainly bring one that is consistent so that everybody up and down pit road has the same tire as they compete in the events every weekend.
“I think what we did have in Atlanta was a tire that did not fail and we had a tire that was safe from that aspect and that it delivered in an environment that is a challenge right now because we’re going back to a lot of places in ’08 with a new chassis, new configurations underneath them by the crew chiefs and the engineers that are throwing challenges at Goodyear.”
- NASCAR responds to Stewart’s comments
- Helton defends NASCAR’s drug testing policy
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. talks with Patrick Dempsey, Jay-Z, Burt Reynolds, and NASCAR’s Mike Helton on XM program
- Helton says if age rule is implemented, will not be imminent
- Gordon thinks Stewart’s comments may have hurt NASCAR’s credibility
Whatever… Tony is more than welcome to speak his mind. It’s called free speech. If Helton doesn’t like it then maybe he should be working with Goodyear to make a decent tire instead of sitting around talking to Tony on his radio show!
There is a difference between giving your opinion in a well organized manner, and attacking, bashing, and stating fallacious statements about a company.
And while Free Speech may guarantee you can say somethings and get away with it, it also guarantees that if you say a lot of things and things in a certain manner, it is not protected under the 1st amendment.
If the grip is so bad that the cars are wiggling down the straightaways then the tire is not safe, it’s just that simple. Helton can say what he wants but sunday was the first time since i started watching cup racing that i’ve ever seen cars so out of control. Frankly the race was difficult to watch, it looked like they were going to wreck every lap.
This was not a safe tire by any means, all the drivers drove smart to keep from running into one another. Waving the guy behind you by is not racing by any stretch of the imagination, if the guys really raced each other, it would have been a wreck fest. This year is already full of drama, I wouldnt be surprised to see an uprising against the sanctioning body before the year is out.
Just look at Jimmie Johnson for example… He was totally out of control in that race. Every time he’d come off the corner you could see the opposite side of the car because of how loose he was. It was scary looking, really. Heck, they even played a clip on Fox of Chad Knaus telling Jimmie how unworn the tires were.
I don’t blame Johnson for not racing hard Sunday. It could have gotten somebody hurt or even killed out there. Those tires were NOT safe. I don’t care what Mike Helton says. He just wants Goodyear to be on good terms with him. That’s obvious.
Tony stated his perfectly reasonable opinion of the tire and his opinion of Goodyear as a company involved with racing. Goodyear returned their opinion of Tony’s opinion which sounded a bit disrespectful on their part considering the company Goodyear claims to be.
It’s not that the drivers aren’t unpleasable, if a company made a tire to their liking they’d be quiet. Sure you can’t please everyone, but NASCAR and Goodyear are the only one’s I hear praising the tires in the past 6 years atleast… The voices change but what they say is always the same. Tony just pushes it until there is a response, which any of the drivers and crew deserve.
NASCAR and Goodyear shouldn’t try to ignore drivers when they speak up (if they’re not Gordon) or act like what they say is out of line just because it makes them uncomfortable.
If Tony was nice about it, it would’ve gone in NASCAR’s and Goodyear’s ear and out the other.
A bold statement like Tony had made seems to have done the trick. Sometimes, you have to be mean and nasty to get attention.
NASCAR and Goodyear have been saying they have had a good “safe” tire for the past few year because they’re not the ones driving on it.
Some teams were testing the COT last year on Hoosiers and BF Goorich tires, and most of those teams claimed that the BF Goodrich was the best tire that they had ever used.
Granted Tony Stewart was strong with his message to Goodyear and he shouldn’t have said some of that including dismounting any Goodyear’s he has on his cars at home (the hearse and the lambo don’t run on goodyear tires anyway), but in this case I don’t think NASCAR really would have listened otherwise.
When you have most of the drivers including the winner saying that there is a problem with the tires, you have to listen.
I agree with George Thompson, “If the grip is so bad that the cars are wiggling down the straightaways then the tire is not safe, it’s just that simple.”
That is safety, this has become as safety issue that needs to be addressed period and one thing for Goodyear, don’t campare the COT to the Nationwide Series cars nor last years Cup series car, they are not the same, don’t treat them the same, the COT requires a totally new tire.
One thing that we have to remember though is, that It is the first race for the COT on many of these tracks, as much as the crews are still figuring out how to make the car run good at these tracks, Goodyear is also figuring out what needs to be done with the tire to make the tire run good with this car.
Whether Tony (or any other driver) would’ve said anything or not, I think by the second half of the year when we start to revisit some of these tracks the tires will be what is needed. Heck even the short tracks and road courses that they raced the COT at last year, will probaly have better tires this year.
Bottom line is, its a growing process, and like always there will be growing pains.
Fisha, Formula One teams build new cars almost every year. They try to make big changes all the time. A new chassis doesn’t mean that suddenly all tire technology is lost and people should expect scary cars to drive for the next year while they “learn”.
The old car was refined down to a matter of hundredths of a second with each change of set-up. The COT is not that refined yet, and it won’t be for a while… however, they are not way out in left field and making shots in the dark to try to come up with set-ups.
The suspension geometry is largely the same; it’s not like they suddenly switched to independent rear suspension or a DeDion rear axle. The aero is fairly similar; it’s not like they suddenly started using ground-effects tunnels or a flat-bottom with a rear diffuser. Car construction is still reasonably similar; it’s not like they are suddenly switching to carbon-fibre monocoques or aluminum spaceframes. The tires are pretty much the same; it’s not like they switched to 18″ wheels or reverted back to bias-ply tires.
Seriously, it’s not that big of a change. Sure, it’s big enough that they have some learning to do… but it’s not like they’re dumb and can’t engineer around the changes to the car.
I am SO proud to call myself a Tony Stewart fan
I am glad that he didn’t meet with his publicist on the “proper way to express his opinion.”
He means what he says and says what he means.
Taken from a statement from Goodyear, “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.” Can you say BULL S*&T, if the cars were the same, you wouldnt have a problem, what you have are two entirely different cars. I bet the truck series tire would work a million times better than the tire they used on sunday, all you hear about durring any tech talks is how much this car looks and drives like a truck… its common sense.
On most weekends the Truck series tire is the same exact one as the Cup and Nationwide one, its just stamped with Wrangler instead of Eagle. Heck it probaly was the same one this week too, you just aren’t hearing about it because they are branded differently then the Cup/Nationwide ones.
Helton is FULL of SH#$ as Always..
He says what he is paid to say by who pays him the most. Who is he to tell a driver his words are TOO STRONG, when they should have BEEN Helton’s Words to begin with.
He just does not have the backbone to say them cause his bank account is filled…….and he does not place his LIFE on the THE LINE WEEK TO WEEK RACING……………………
Who gives a crap what helton thinks,tony is gonna be tony if nascar doesnt like what he says then dont stick a microphone in his face as soon as he gets out of car,I dont have a problem with what he said at all.
Helton needs to back down and listen to his drivers and not bash them, they are the ones that makes the money for him, he needs to remember that!
Tony has every right to say what he did, Helton has no clu or right to
second guess or dispute anything said by someone who actually drives.
Helton needs to crawl back under his rock….
A question for Mr Helton:
If your life is on the line much less your career are you going to speak your mind?
Or are you going to be a ***** and not say a word?
Didn’t I understand clearly before the season even got started that NASCAR wanted to loosen the reins on Drivers personalites and let them speak thier minds on what ever issue as long as it’s not vulgar??? Helton is retracting those words by saything that Tony’s comments are out of line! HELTON NEEDS TO STEP DOWN AND QUICK!!!!! I am also proud to say that I am I huge Tony Stewart fan and have been since he climbed into a Cup car back in 1999!!! Keep talkin Tony cuz NASCAR is bound to listen up one of these days!!
On race weekend when at the track, the driver is a representative of NASCAR. When that Driver SLANDERS anybody or anything, that is crossing the line and NASCAR needs to step in.
Also so its ok for Tony to speak his mind, but not ok for Mike to speak his mind? That seems like what you all are saying. Mike said that not as NASCAR, but as his personal feelings on it, if NASCAR would have had a problem with what Smoke said we’d be talking about if his fine was fair or not right now……
Think people Think…………
What Tony said was far ftom slanderous. There was no malicious intent nor is their proof that anything he said about Goodyear as a company is entirely wrong. The harshest part of Tony’s statements were that Goodyear should pull out of NASCAR which is a totally valid opinion and that no other series wants Goodyear tires which does have some basis in fact. I’m sure Goodyear didn’t want them in some cases as well, but still not slander. Tony may bad mouth his employer, but he doesn’t just blindly follow them down a road he doesn’t agree with.
Helton is an authority figure. The things Helton says and the way he says them should be interpreted differently than the competitors in the sport, no matter what kind of role models we think the drivers should be. The drivers are basically normal guys with a marketable ability trying to make a life for themselves, they’re not saints. They are competitors who want the best environment for that competition to exist. Helton is more or less the God of their world who is always
looking out for the dollar. He’s no saint either, but he should be.
I wonder…. How much STOCK does HELTON hold with GOODYEAR??? LOL
jr88fan wrote:
IDK, but yesterday the stocks were up 3%, and today they were down 2.34%
l0l
How is criticizing a company for producing bad tire slander? First a PUBLIC company is held to a high standard and the consumer has many more rights than a company. I would be shocked if goodyear was stupid enough to even try a law suit against tony. Second, dozens of drivers have come out against this tire. It is tonys life on the line and he voiced his opinion as he has every right too.
Saying that they pulled out of those other series because they could not build a good tire is where the slander comes in.
Well, in all other series, it was clear that they were off the pace compared to other manufacturers. Corvette ditched Goodyear because they were 2 seconds off the pace. Bridgestone easily outclassed Goodyear after a year or two in Formula 1 after Goodyear’s 30+ years of running in F1. Firestone (owned by Bridgestone) dominated Goodyear in Indy Cars in very short order.
In such a case, Tony would have lots of ammo to show that his statements are based on actual events and not “A false and malicious statement or report about someone” (as defined by answers.com).
Tony saying that Goodyear could not build a good tire for the series that they have been a part of is subjective. It could also mean that Goodyear could not build an appropriate tire for those series. Considering the present situation that is almost an undebatable fact.
If you really want to get down to it slander can only be determined by a court of law. Goodyear better call their lawyers and get the lawsuit written up because this definitely isn’t good for their business. Goodyear knows what slander is and this would definitely be it if Tony’s accusations were imaginary. The burden is on them to prove that what Tony said is untrue and with deliberate malicious intent. They sure didn’t come anywhere near that in their press release. lol. I was disappointed that was the best a multibillion dollar company has to offer in the way of a rebuttal. Keeping another multibillion dollar company from practicing on their tires was a little bit better, but still not very good.
Although I aint gonna lie—I can’t stand Tony Stewart and am quite sick of hinews whinning and belly aching—–he’s NOT the only driver to state that Sunday’s Goodyear tires sucked!
Naturally, NASCAR can’t say a bad word about Goodyear for the $$$$$$$$$$$ involved—–now how many times has NASCAR shown their greed over right and wrong!
Our drivers—love em or hate em, deserve protected on the racetrack by quality tires which perform safely and accurately. These new transmissions etc need tested but why on actual races before they become standard…there are so many technicalities involved here besides just tires when cars start getting changed. Transmissions gearing, toe in toe out—–the list is detailed.
SO SCREW MIKE HELTON, he doesn’t have the safety of his teams in mind here—it’s all about money!!!
It also made the most boring race.
I fell asleep for most of it!
I was surprised that Mike “Fat Elvis” Helton had time to put down his fork and say anything! They’ll probably give Tony a hard time going through tech this week. Maybe all the JGR cars? Who knows? Tony erupted, many drivers agreed publicly and privately and NASCAR should listen. Just don’t come up with a stupid fine and points punishment deal. So much for drivers having “personality”.
And did anyone really expect Mike (Helton) to agree with Tony? What was he going to say “Tony, your right. The Goodyear tire we use for racing is not what we wanted and we are exploring options with other tire manufacturers at this time”? NOT! He is going to try and save face with Goodyear and, for that matter, all of their sponsors. Face it, this has opened the door up for closer scrutiny on all of the “Official Sponsors of NASCAR”. It really started with the Sunoco fuel questions a while back.
Not everything NASCAR does that is good for NASCAR is necessarily good for their drivers, or for that matter, the fans.
Paul
NASCAR has a contract with Goodyear until 2012, even if they wanted to Mike/NASCAR could probably not publicly acknowledge if they are looking at other tire manufactures.