Tony Stewart once again blasted Goodyear saying that the NASCAR tire supplier fails to make a tire that will hold up under race conditions on high-banked, high downforce tracks like Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“After 10 years of being in the Cup Series, you learn to be highly disappointed with everything that Goodyear does,” Stewart said.
This isn’t the first time Stewart has been critical of NASCAR’s sole tire supplier. He has been very vocal in the past on the safety and performance of the tires.
Several Nationwide drivers had tire issues in today’s Atlanta race. Kyle Busch, who had led the most laps in the event, hit the wall when his right front side tire failed.
“I hate to say it, but the best thing that Goodyear does is make that gold trophy at the end of the year,” said Stewart, in reference to the award given to the series champion. “That is the one thing that they always do right. Everything from that moment on until the end of the year – it’s a crap shoot.”
- Stewart on Goodyear:’…they should just pull out of this sport’
- Atlanta Goodyear testing postponed
- Stewart meets with and apologizes to Goodyear
- Goodyear runs new tire codes at California
- Goodyear and NASCAR to use RFID tags to track racing tires
i actually agree with stewart on this
Go Tony, someone needs to stand-up to the tire makers!!
And Look at Hoosier tires in ARCA they fail too, and so do Pirelle and Potenza and Bridgestone and Firestone and every other type of tire.
Goodyear gives the teams a recommended air pressure that the tires should be run at, most teams do not run them around that level, combined with the geometry that the teams run where you race more on the edge of the tire then the flat surface of the tire, they are going to fail.
the thing stewart doesnt realize is that air pressure and camber settings have a lot to do with the tires blowing. Why is it that he’s the only one complaining about the tires? I don’t see anyone else out there crying about them.
yeah im sure tony doesnt realize how the tire pressure thing work thanks for the help jimmiejohnson48fan
well if badyear would make the sidewalls and edges of a harder compound, we wouldn’t be having this problem. They want to make the whole tire out of soft compound, that just doesnt work when you run 1/4 of a lap on the flat and 3/4 of a lap on the edge.
He’s not the only one complaining. Just because he’s the only one the media likes to point out as a complainer, there’s several others…. Jeff and Jimmie both complained last year. Google it… you will find it.
We’re only in week four of this season. Give it some time, they’ll hit the wall and complain because of a cut tire.
As for this season, this is an article written during speed weeks:
“I’ve gotten one hell of a feel for the tires so far,” Busch said after the Nationwide race Saturday. “They’re junk. Last night was terrible, today was terrible. So expect (Sunday) to be a lot of fun and exciting.”
The tire has drawn more complaints than the Car of Tomorrow and those smaller fuel tanks combined.
Teams have struggled to get the tires to last even close to the 40 laps cars can run without filling up with gas. It could be even worse Sunday because temperatures are expected to reach 30 C.
“Cup tires are blistering a little bit,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “The tire’s not too bad if you’ve got a good, good handling race car.
“But if it ain’t handling good …”
Kurt Busch, the 2004 series champion, could have finished his sentence.
“If you’re a little bit on the tight side, you’re going to blister a right front,” he said. “If you’re a little bit loose, right rear. Happy cars don’t blister tires, but it’s very difficult to get your car happy.”
I think goodyear does make good tires like the ones the tested with and didnt bring back for the race..Tony is right on the money and the only one man enough to stand up to whoever..
steve wrote:
Exactly!
One difference with Bridgestone and Firestone in Formula 1 is that they actually apologize to the driver regardless of what kind of setup the team was using and admit that it was the tire’s weakness.
Goodyear’s job is to make tires that perform well under the most severe circumstances. They deserve to be criticized if they aren’t going above what is expected or not even meeting that requirement in the first place.
I’m sure Tony know’s exactly what role tire pressure and camber play on the tires.
Oops, I meant Bridgestone and Michelin.
Tony is right like everyone already said here. But one thing Kyle is very hard on tires. I you saw the Truck race he pushed it hard.
Yeah but Axel those teams also have two different compounds to deal with. NASCAR & Goodyear do the tire tests, and then NASCAR tells Goodyear what kind of tire to make, which I think is part of the problem here. The other part of the problem is the teams try to push the tire to they blow before they pit, which I can understand, but when you get 2 or 3 practices which you can use to see how far you can push the tire before you run into trouble, its not Goodyears problem in the race if you push it too far based on the info you gather during your practices.
If NA$CAR and their cronies at Goodyear gave half a flip, they would be actively and publicly doing something about the problem. The sad truth that most fans have come to realize is that it’s going to take another Dale-like moment before they pull their heads out of the sand and do something. When someone get killed or permanently injured because a tire went down 20 laps into a run, then they’ll get on it!
how can you be a Stewart fan people ask me. This is the reason.
Tony is not afraid to call a turd a turd. The sport needs more drivers like him.
Good Year sucks. i got a free set of good years at some auto BBQ thing, and i didn’t want um so i roasted 2 of them with my chevy truck, lasted 15 seconds and popped already. the other 2 collect dust, i would use them on my bicycle if they would fit, at least they would last longer.
Good year needs to focus on makin better tires. Not new ones. Whats with the ones they use to transport cars? does doing that wear out the racing ones? if so, they can start there
Nicholas wrote:
Are you talking about the ones with the Grooves in them? They have used those for years, its nothing new even though this is the first year that an entire article was dedicated to trying to make the fans think they are something new. We have a set of Hoosiers like that for our modified, and with the mods using wider tires they look like F1 tires… l0l
i went to a race just last year and i never saw one
They have been used for years, they were not required to be used thus all teams didn’t use them, this year with the way NASCAR redid the tire rules for cup, I think now all teams are required to use them, which Is why you see it more.
ohhhh, that makes sense. there were hardly any teams that useds them before then? takes up a lotta space in the pits?
That was me^^^^^^^^^^^
I love Tony. He is just like AJ Foyt in every way their is. He is not afraid to say whats on his mind, and he can win in any kind of car. I cant believe that as much money as good year has invested in nascar they cant get the tires right. Maybe its time to look for a new supplier.
Good for Tony!!! I know I have heard other drivers make quips about this too… of course to no avail. But, Tony has made this remark over and over again and I am sure he will UNTIL someone gets their head outta their butt and listen. The drivers obviously know, their the one’s driving on them and FEEL what their doing, nevermind when they give way and cause the driver to crash.
Keep it up Tony!!
Last week Jeff Gordon said the exact same thing except about the safer barriers instead of tires, and you complained that he was whining, but Tony says this and you praise him for speaking up…. Something is wrong with that picture…
Every driver whines about something. Mostly to their crew chief Lol.
I liked the days when you had Hoosier and Goodyear in NASCAR, and teams owned the tires. They could bring compounds for one track to another, things were more interesting that way.
Here is my take on the whole situation, Brian France wanted the races to last longer. Longer races means more commercials and that means more money. Also the old car was too fast for his plan so they built a slower car and made the teams use it.
You can ALWAYS count on Tony to tell you what he is thinking if it pisses him off bad enough.
He has a valid point here, Just make a better tire and test, test, test it …
As much as I would like to see another brand of tire involved I can’t see anybody steping up and providing the kind of commitment that Goodyear has over the years.
Im sure that Goodyear does not want you to see its tires blowing up every week so it stands to reason they will step up the process to build a more correct tire for this new car… WE HOPE ANYWAY
He blasted goodyear again today!
And he could have used that time to thank his sponsors, teammates, crew, etc….
The ONLY reason he is crying about this is because he is not winning and he needs something to blame it on, and Coach Gibbs told him he can’t blame it on Toyota.
I give it 2 or 3 more races till Smoke is ticked off at Kyle because of how Good Kyle is doing compared to how Tony is running.
Well folks if there was any doubt about what Smoke thinks about Goodyear Race Tires it was erased today with a flamethrower dissertation on what Tony thinks of Goodyear.
Tonys latest blast was about as hot as any driver will ever dish up on the maker of the series racing tires.
I heard that during the press conference him and Jr both ripped Goodyear a new one.
But its not like its a Goodyear specific problem. Put Hoosiers on these cars and you will have the same problems, No race tire is perfect, and no race tire will ever be perfect.
And the last thing we need is another tire war, that did nothing but almost destroy the sport.
Fisha695 wrote:
But in this case it is a Goodyear problem since they are the sole maker of tires for Cup.
We may never know if another manufactor could do better since Goodyear has a lock on this deal.
Fisha695 wrote:
Of course no race tire is perfect, but these tires are way beyond perfect. Those cars were all over the place and seeing how many cars were a lap down shows how bad these cars were handling. Overall this was probably the most boring race thus far and I’m a Gibbs fan.
Watching Victory lane and TSR it appears that For every driver that is complaining about the tires, you have a driver that likes the tires, and most of the people that liked it said they liked it because the cars slid around and you actually had to drive them.
You have to Love that Tony
he shoots straight from the hip………………………
They tried Hoosier Tires a few years ago and they did not work they will not stand you too 190 or 200 miles a hour. It is not the tires it is the bomp stop that is causing all the problems they need to get them off the cars and use springs
I heard Tony, Jeffy and Mikey complaining before and after the race. Didn’t someone say the times/speed were/was down quite a bit? Tony just went ballistic on Goodyear. He was relentless with his assault. That Hoosier/Goodyear tire war in the early 1990’s was a nightmare. Hoosier gave better deals and that started the whole thing. D.W , who was still winning races, switched to Hoosiers after being in a Goodyear commercial. He said he did it for economic reasons as a car owner. No matter how soft or good a Goodyear was, Hoosier came up with a slightly different compound that was quicker but wouldn’t last as long. You qualified really fast on Hoosiers (Loy Allen, Jr., Geoff Bodine and DW) but were in jeopardy of being lapped sooner. A lot sooner. The Hoosiers faded fast. More pit stops. That wreck that almost killed Ernie Irvan (1994)was a direct result of that tire war which ended after the 1994 season. Neil Bonnett ran Hoosiers the day he died in 1994. But a lot has changed since then.
its like our fuel no more unocal,on with sunoco.
out with good year, in with michelin.
Howie motorsports photography wrote:
People are already Xenophobic about a Japanese automaker coming into the sport, and now you want to bring in a French tire (or as the French spell Tyre) maker into the sport….. l0l BTW Fun fact, the companies full name is “Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin” I’d like to see Tony try and say that…. l0l. Not to mention their little Fiasco at the USGP a few years ago
What about Cooper Tire & Rubber, the make A1, Champ Car Atlantic, and Drifting tires?
As long as its not American Racers, those things can’t even last 25 laps on 3/8th mile short track.
Tony…..glad you spoke out.However the trip to the trailer may not be as good.Brain does not like people with an opinion.Napcar is always right.You should have mentioned the boring “race” also.I did catch up on some sleep after the start till the end.
The French call them Pneus… The British call them Tyres.
The American Racers I’ve used have been decent… just slow to come up to temp.
Michelin would embarrass Goodyear, just like they did in ALMS/Le Mans. They screwed up in Indy once… but I doubt that’ll happen again. The only manufacturer to ever be on par with Michelin is Bridgestone. Michelin has easily outperformed Pirelli, Yokohama, Goodyear, Kumho, Avon/Cooper, and many others.
micelin didnt screw up at Indy, they asked Indy to put in a schcane for the purpose of slowing the cars down and Tony George refused so they said their tire would be un safe there because the track was to rough and was wearing out . their was nothing wrong with the tire itself.
Michelin did screw up. There were no problems with the Mridgestones. Michelin asked for a chicane because their tires were not strong enough to withstand high g-forces combined with high speeds.
However, Michelin has shown that they are clearly superior to a lot of other tire manufacturers (including Goodyear) in ALMS. Simply bolting on Michelins will make the car two seconds faster than if it was on Goodyears.