Stewart on Goodyear:’…they should just pull out of this sport’
Quote selected text Published March 9th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Dale Earnhardt, Jr also vents his frustration on Goodyear
Tony Stewart has made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t like Goodyear’s tires in NASCAR. Stewart, who complained about the Goodyear tires after blowing a right front and hitting the wall hard the previous week in Las Vegas, took out his frustration with the tire maker after Sunday’s Sprint Cup race in Atlanta and didn’t mince words.
“They (Goodyear) exited out of Formula 1 … IRL … CART … World of Outlaws … and there is a reason for that. Goodyear can’t built a tire that is worth a crap.
” … It was ridiculous to have to race on a tire like this. Not at this level of racing. If they can’t do anything better than that, they should just pull out of this sport and save us a bunch of headaches. I guarantee you Hoosier or Firestone or somebody can come in and do a better job that what they are doing right now.”
“Most pathetic racing tire in my career,” he said after climbing out of his Toyota.
Stewart added, “If I were Goodyear, I’d be really embarrassed about this weekend and what they brought us here. It didn’t keep us from winning the race, but how we got to second, I don’t know.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t hide his frustration with Goodyear either.
“No amount of time would have prepared us for that,” he said. “There was no way, you weren’t going to hook that tire up.”
Earnhardt Jr. said he understands Goodyear didn’t want to provide tires that wouldn’t stand up under racing conditions at a track where excessive wear had been an issue.
“The tire we used to run here ran into the cords, but you could still run on it,” he said.
“With these tires, I could still see the center mold line on my tire after 30 laps. There has to be several steps between that. … 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.”
Stewart said he wasn’t trying to bash Goodyear as much as he was asking the company and NASCAR to do something different.
“We don’t want to have to race like this on tires like we had this week,” Stewart said.
“There wasn’t anything about today’s race that was fun. I ran second and I wouldn’t rerun this race for any amount of money.
“I am pleading with Goodyear to do something about this. Take some of the money they give NASCAR and put it into a research and development program. Do something. … They have been in the sport a long time. They need to figure it out.
“The guys they have aren’t getting it done right now. … I don’t know what it’s going to take to get them to improve their product.”
Bookmark to:
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- Nike’s ‘Starter’ brand to pull out of NASCAR
- Gibbs Doesn’t Like Stewart’s Racing on the Side
- Stewart and Yocum to help out Shepherd with tires at Richmond
haha i luv tony! the only one with enough b@lls to say what is true! maybe now goodyear/crappy-year tires will figure something out!
They should allow multiple tire manufactures again, where they all keep each other in check by trying to have the best product there for encouraging R&D, instead of goodyears it is what it is, because it isn’t is what it is, theres always room for further improvement !!!
Goodyear better listen up, that is bad bad bad for the company to get bashed like that. I respect Tony for having some balls.
Good job Tony..stick up for all the others who are too afraid to open their mouths and say what’s bothering them. He’s got major balls, I love it! GO TONY GOO!!
The Last time we had more then Goodyear in the sport Neil Bonnet and Rodney Orr died because the tire companies were trying to make the tires softer then the competition and they made the right fronts too soft.
Fish that was then this is now. Your posts are very annoying to read i must say.
What is annoying about the truth?
And what is the difference between then and now? Each manufacture is still going to try and get more grip out of the tire then the other companies by making the tires softer, that is what happened then and that is what will happen now. Now it might not have the same results of people dying because the cars are a lot safer, but it is not a safe nor smart thing to have multiple tire manufactures in this series or any other one.
Do some researching and see what people within the business are saying about this subject, see what people who have been in the sport longer then Smoke and Gordon and Jr have been alive, and they will all say the same thing, Tire Wars are not good for the sport nor is it good for those involved with the sport.
But lets put what we learned from the NASCAR tire war history behind us and lets pose a hypothetical question. What if at Daytona next year, the same thing happens that happened a few years ago at the F1 USGP? What if More then half the field pulls off of the track like happened then?
I guarantee you that everyone who is for the tire war, will change their minds at the blink of an eye if that happens.
And then we can also go back and look at the main reason Hoosier did not want to compete in NASCARs top series anymore. That is that if there is more then one supplier Both suppliers have to bring enough tires for EVERY team, even the ones that are not aligned with that supplier. That adds up to Millions of dollars of wasted unused tires week in and week out, and Not only does every company realize that is not smart business practice, Hoosier has already turned their back on that idea and LEFT the sport to leave Goodyear as the sole supplier.
And its not like it would happen anytime soon anyway as Goodyear has a contract with NASCAR to be the exclusive supplier in the top 3 series for the next few years to come, and while NASCAR could break that contract, they won’t because it’ll lead to a lawsuit that NASCAR would loose.
Seriously; I agree Jeff. I like this website; because they post news updates on my myspace bulletins. Thus I can visit one site and cover two needs at once. Occasionally I like to look through the coments and seeing what others think. When users constantly post just to try to outdo someone; or be cool on the internet (like that will happen) it gets agravating. Theres also a flip-side to this though. Fisha isn’t the only one like this on this site; he is just to a more extravagant degree; and he also ruined another forum I was on before; eaboards. I was thre for simracing; and Fisha would constantly ramble and try to teach everyone his beleifs and that ea games where crap. So I am just posting my veiws like all of you care to do and read. Fisha seriously needs to wise-up o rgo; because I am about to the point where I want to delete ARS from my friends.
wow; by the time I had typed that Jeff Fisha posted that latest response. I dont understand why he goes to such ends to try to get a point across on the net. Nobody really cares; and not many will value information learned from a random post from “fisha695″. dude Fisha; get a life and quit spending it on all of these fricken forums! Its bad when I don’t even associated with you and you show up on 3 forums I frequent.
Jake… as in Playerjake…? If you recall I was the one that always backed up EA’s side while other bashed them so get your facts straight… but that is neither here nor there anymore so I see no reason why you have to create a comment doing exactly what you claim to be against…
Also like I said in my previous reply, what I said was the truth, the last time we had a Tire War, both Neil Bonnet and Randy Orr died because of right front tire failures because The two companies were trying to make their right fronts softer (softer = more grip) then the other brand.
It’s not just EA’s NASCAR games I don’t like. It’s all their games. There is always glitches and mistakes made in all of their games. Best NASCAR simulator I’ve played is NASCAR Racing Season 2003 made by Papyrus.
HAHAHA i played nascar 05-08 online. sooooooooo much lag and soooooo many problems. But overall i agree with most of you guys. This Fisha guy is annoying. I tried reading that loong post he posted. but the first paragraph bored me to this years Daytona commercials. fisha please. don’t watch reruns of old races and pretend it was yesterday or today. watch fox. 90% commercials 10% racing but thats better than the info you’ve been gettin.
sorry i posted that not RedDevil
If you are too lazy to read that little post then what are you doing on a site where all you do is read and type? And Jake, I did not go to great ends to post that, it took me all of a minute to type that, and 15 seconds to read it after I typed it before I posted it.
And why are you people going off-topic to video games, What do they have to do with what Tony is Talking about? It seems that Jake, RedDevil, and Nicholas can’t even go a few posts into a story without getting off-topic.
Fisha695 it only took u a min to type that and 15 seconds to read it? are u joking? seriously ur not no super human, so it would take longer to read and write for that matter. how bout u come up with some realistic times. then someone might be like “ok this guy makes some points” but with outrages statements like that, people are gonna nark on u. so yea. how bout u just not feed into them and reply and reply. be a man. or woman. whatever u are. and walk away. or in this case. click the big red X or, click a link and go somewhere else!
Kandi I’m a fast typer and I am really good at speed reading. I always have been, always got the highest grades in the class back when I was in school in computer class and we had to do the weekly typing test. I’m also a fast talker and long winded.
the problem with Goodyear is like using champion spark plugs, they dont put anything into technology anymore, these compounds suck, every week, top contenders taken out by right front blowouts and its been going on for a long time and I’m glad to see a driver finally say something and since Dale Sr. is dead the only driver with any stones is Tony. and they better listen because if he ever walked away from this sport which could happen because his contract is up they just lost their most popular driver. tony dont need NASCAR. NASCAR needs Tony. if you saw the amount of fans today at Atlanta that were wearing Tony apparel he is 2nd to Jr. so they better listen.
Sounds like this Jake guy is on too many forums too! It’s funny how “Fischa is on too many”… And people can type and read that fast… And not everybody hates Fischa’s posts. Some of his stuff is interesting (although he does get a little defensive at times, but can’t say that I wouldn’t if everyone talked smack to or about me)
But really, what does any of this have to do with Tony Stewart or Goodyear?! I’ll put it back on topic (for the time being, I’m sure)…
I’m impressed with Tony bashing Goodyear before and after the race. I’m not sure it’ll do any good, though…
And then we can also go back and look at the main reason Hoosier did not want to compete in NASCARs top series anymore. That is that if there is more then one supplier Both suppliers have to bring enough tires for EVERY team, even the ones that are not aligned with that supplier. That adds up to Millions of dollars of wasted unused tires week in and week out, and Not only does every company realize that is not smart business practice, Hoosier has already turned their back on that idea and LEFT the sport to leave Goodyear as the sole supplier.
And its not like it would happen anytime soon anyway as Goodyear has a contract with NASCAR to be the exclusive supplier in the top 3 series for the next few years to come, and while NASCAR could break that contract, they won’t because it’ll lead to a lawsuit that NASCAR would loose.
Okayyyyyyyy. We certainly have the “Nascar” know-it-all moderator here with all the facts and so much knowledge for us all!. Seriously since when did you run Nascar and control the business side of it. It’s very irritating to always see someone out doing someone else’s opinion to the extreme degree with a bunch of irrelavant information.
Fisha i have to admit i dont read half of your posts either, maybe if you got to the point alot quicker it might help. BTW your wrong about a tire war being a bad thing. The drivers are looking for a dependable tire not a softer tire than their used to.
George Thompson wrote:
I know I’m long winded, its just my nature….
They are looking for a more dependable tire, but that doesn’t mean the tire companies will see it that way. Say company “X” developed a tire that is dependable and fast, well if company “Y” is also in the series they will try to develop a tire that is faster then Company “X”s tire. To do that the tire will more then likely have to be softer then the tire they had before. So when Company “Y” finally gets a tire that is faster then what Company “X” has its time for Company “X” to play catch up and make a faster tire. And that cycle goes on and on and on….
And how do you make a faster tire? You make it softer. What happens when you make a tire softer? It wears faster. What happens when it wears faster? You have tire trouble faster. Now I know that too hard or too soft and you will have problems with wear, but there is almost no way that if their was more then one manufacture in the sport that you would be able to keep them from falling into the cycle I mentioned above.
Go Tony! It’s awesome to have someone in Cup who isn’t afraid to speak their mind! He brings up one hell of a good fact about Goodyear not being in F1, WoO, and Indycar. The facts speak for themselves over the weekend….really bad tires during the Nationwide race, then too hard of a compound yesterday. The lap times dropped off by 3 to 4 seconds within 5 laps after new tires! SAD!
Paul wrote:
Howie, you hit the nail right on the head there and this may well be WHY he is speaking up. Unlike a lot of others, Tony has put himself in a position for long after his driving career (TSR, Eldora and other tracks, etc) and being a racer at heart, his view of what is best for the sport is obviously different than others (ie, NASCAR).
Howie motorsports photography wrote:
Howie is absolutely correct. Tony is great for nascar and they need to listen.
Fisha695 wrote:
Man Fisha, you are long-winded, and I couldn’t care less! You’re one of the handful of people on here that actually forms complete sentences that make sense, backs up your arguments with actual facts, and you’re not just blabbering on about how great “your guy” is, etc. Either way it’s not like a paragraph or two really that all that long to read, and if people don’t want to hear your opinion, there’s a simple solution: don’t read!
Oh, and back on subject, you’re right on the tire war thing. Compounds WILL get softer and there will be more failures as a result of manufacturers trying to one-up each other. It’s happened before and it will happen again. Like you said, just ask anyone that’s been around racing long enough to remember a tire war, and I’m sure they’ll tell you the same thing. Heck, look at Tony’s comment. It was for Goodyear to go away altogether and Hoosier or Firestone to come in, not a tire competition!
I so admire Tony for speaking up! Someone should listen to a 2-time Champ, they listen to Gordon, so why not Tony.
WOW…did my entire post just not go through?!
There we go…
I’m glad Jr stuck up for himself as well; took him long enough to realize that his opinion matters probably alot more than Tony’s does because he’s such a popular driver. If Jr said that everyone should go jump off a cliff because it’s the cool thing to do, everyone would do it.
Tony knows what he’s doing; Like someone stated up there ^^, Tony doesn’t need NASCAR..NASCAR needs Tony. It’s true.
Go 20
I agree with Tony that Goodyear needs to modern up its tires for the real world of cars and worn out tracks that NASCAR runs on now. What they have given the teams so far this year has been pathetic…
I drive corvettes and I used to race one and from personal experience I will tell you that I quit using those junk Goodyear’s that come OME a long time ago. I switched to potenza PO2 for street and have never looked back.
It looks like Goodyear has been living on its name for some time. Now it is time for them to do better or quit as Tony said.
Bob wrote:
Same here Bob! I took the Goodyears off my ‘88 Vette a long time ago and went with Pirelli P-Zeros. I don’t race her, but do enjoy a spirited drive on some of Georgia’s backroads from time to time, and ditching those Goodyears made the drive that much more enjoyable.
I disagree with having multiple tire manufacturers in a series. It leads to boring races. The thing they could maybe do is alternate races. Goodyear, Hoosier, Goodyear, Hoosier. That would work because they would have the same tires in each race but some sort of competition in the series.
Why doesn’t NASCAR just get into the business of making their own tire? I mean they already are in the track owning business…..
Here is a way to solve this, but avoid a tire war. Do what F1 does and Champ Car did. One Tire manufacture, but two different compounds of tires (Hard and Soft) each weekend. The only catch is that you must run both compounds during the race, even if it is only for one green flag lap.
lol; this is my last post about your pathetic posts; anymore and I would be ont he same level; because nobody really gives a fruck that I give a fruck about your relentless posts. Its not that I am on too many forums; all of the ones I am on are either nascar related or chevy related. The point is this guy used to posts on other websites jsut like this; intill he was either banned or finally ran off because nobody cares for his chapter like responses and posts. Nobdy liked you at the ea boards or other nascar sites; so don’t think they will here. So please quit frucking posting the same veiws over and over in the same thread. Jesus Christ if we heard you one time and didn’t respond it doesn’t mean we want to hear it again. Go away Fisha; frucking please go away!
I’m pretty sure that if you are not allowed to put a blank space into profane language to say it you are not allowed to add an R either. And just FYI, I am still on every forum I ever posted on except for those that are no longer around.
jeeze Jake, nothin like speakin your peace. i guess you just want to let Fisha have it. you dont have alittle Tony in you today do you?
This is starting to get fun!
What chevy sites?
Tire wars won’t lead to failures. There will be some, but it won’t be any more than there is now.
Fisha, if you want to prove me wrong, you’ll need to back it up with more statistics than “two guys died, therefore tire wars are bad”. The tire failures may have started the crash, but it was the lack of safety of the cars that caused the deaths.
Bridgestone is an excellent tire manufacturer to have in a one-make series. They continue with tire development and push to improve the tires. Goodyear just keeps making their tires harder and harder until they are useless hockey-pucks. Example: a friend of mine ran off-the-shelf Goodyears and they were decent tires. He then bought some unused Nascar tires, still fresh, and he was 4 seconds off the pace in a 1 minute and 30 second lap. They’re bad tires.
Tire wars push tire technology forward. Making a tire softer isn’t the only way to make them faster… You can play with construction techniques… play with materials in the rubber… lots of stuff. Making a tire that is more consistent in it’s dampening has a major effect on setting up a car (as I am sure you know).
Also, you don’t need to have “enough tires for the whole field”. They’re called contracts. Teams sign a contract for the race, a few races or for the season etc, etc. That way, if Hoosier has 4 contracted teams, they bring enough tires for those four teams. Done.
I would love to see a tire war with Goodyear, Hoosier, BF Goodrich, Firestone and even Kumho, Yokohama or some of the other lesser known manufacturers.
No actually Hoosier did have to bring enough tires for the entire field and so did Goodyear when they were both in the series.
And you mention Bridgestone, which I have no problem with whatever company wants to come in, but look at how many fans are Xenophobic over Toyota and Non-American drivers, I don’t think a non-US tire company would fare any better with the fans then Toyota has so far (meaning all the fans that cry about Toyota and Non-American drivers coming into the sport, would probaly feel the same about Non-US tire companies.)
I know what the rules used to be… however, Goodyear persuaded Nascar to mandate those rules because they knew Hooiser couldn’t supply the whole field. What I meant is that the rules should dictate that every team that shows up must have a contract with an approved tire manufacturer, either for the race or for the season. That way they can just show up to the track with whatever they need.
As for Bridgestone, they could just use the Firestone name instead, and the xenophobic fans would likely be uneducated enough to not know they’re one in the same.
Besides, Toyota doesn’t, and Bridgestone wouldn’t care about those fans anyway… they are targeting the demographic that doesn’t care where they come from and just wants to purchase a superior brand… or they want the demographic that will support whatever company that happens to sponsor their favourite driver. 
Yeah but what happens when one of the tires ends up being no-good for that weekend, and then you have half of the field sitting out the race because they have no tires to run on.
Either way its not Goodyear that the problem its NASCAR telling Goodyear to bring a harder tire thats the problem.
Also I just saw something on another forum that is a valid and good point. When they did the tire testing at Atl. it was pretty hot out, previous spring Atl races have also had about the same average temp as what it was when they tested, but this weekend It was colder then normal at the track. I’m sure most people probaly can figure out how the overall air temperature affects the tires and the track and how they heat up, etc…. More then likely if the weather would have been like what it was when they tested the tires during the race weekend probaly would have been better.
But you can’t control the weather, and Goodyear couldn’t look at the 5 day forecast before the race and then change the compound and produce the amount of tires needed in time.
Dude, a drop in 20 degrees doesn’t necessitate a drop in 400 lbs of spring rate (like Kyle Busch mentioned). I call BS or misunderstanding on that argument.
It’s up to the tire manufacturer to bring decent tires. A rule could be instated that the teams have two or three compounds to choose from, thus allowing the manufacturers to have a conservative tire that they know won’t fail. Also, they could impose stiff fines/sanctions on the tire manufacturers that show to have consistent failures with their tires forcing teams to abandon a certain compound tire.
Air temp cooler = Cooler Track temp, which also means the tires will not heat up the same, which means the tire will not grip the same. Or at least thats how the Hoosiers work on our Modified, Latemodel and 4 Cylinder.
As far as the thing about different compounds… Look 10 posts up from yours, I think we have a similar way of thinking on that topic.
Oh, I know… but 400 lbs difference? I could see 100 at the most… That’s just too extreme for just a temperature difference.
I agree about the multiple compounds… but leave the teams to choose when they want to run each. No rules dictating that certain compounds must be run.
Yeah but you gotta figure in setup differences too, and the fact that most drivers aren’t fed all the right info on what is in the setup of the car…. l0l
The reason I think they should be forced to run the other compound for at least one lap is because that involves some added strategy as to when to run “X” compound and when to run “Y” compound.
Malcolm,
You make some interesting points. One thing everyone involved in this debate should consider is the nature of the sport and the intention. Stock car racing! Tire wars may have benefited consumers and racers in general but i remember it very well and it sucked. I don’t have the exact numbers of why it sucked but it did and drivers took chances and some were injured and some died. It may be different now, with the advancements in technology but I think teams and drivers will do anything to win and sometimes you have to have rules to protect not only the drivers but the fans who love those drivers. Who ever has the contract should produce a safe tire. That means the drivers have to be able to drive the cars as well as the tire not blowing out. One would think that in 2008 they could do that with ease.
I have an Idea that Goodyear should look into. Have an in-house dedicated test team. They’d have a Truck, Nationwide car, and COT “teams”, and they would go to each track that NASCAR races those series on and just do nothing but test. They’d have to find about 5-10 drivers who are either retired or currently not active drivers to do the testing (preferably drivers with different driving styles), and 3 - 5 days a week they do nothing but test from sun-up till sun-down.
Guys and gals,do not blame Goodyear.They just build what NAPCAR wants.
Let’s say you do have 2-3 tire company’s runing in one race with each car under contract to only run that brand for 1,5,20,races OK. Now what happens when 1 tire is way way off like Atlanta and another tire is right on that day, would this not just make for a very boring race even a dangerous race.
Think about it and the possible outcome of runing multi tire company’s in 1 race…
Personally I could care less who builds the tires as long as thier performance is not the main focus of the cars ability to run well and the setup/driver/pit-crew is…
So what if someone is on better tires? Think of the possibilities!
Say Hooisers hook up really fast, stays awesome for 10 laps, and then tapers off over the next 20… And then imagine if Goodyear takes 3 laps to hook up but then stay consistent for 40 laps… and then BFG’s hook up right away, stay good for ten laps, go off for a few laps and then come in again. With that scenario, you would have the Hoosier and BFG guys storm to the front in the first few laps after pitting, and then they’d have to defend from the Goodyear guys that are come on strong in the middle of a run, and then the BFG guys would then have the edge for the last few laps.
That would make for an awesome race! The more differences you have on each car, the more interesting the race becomes. I’d even suggest having different options for each car, whereby you can choose between more tire or more horsepower… or downforce vs. power… or less drag vs. power… keep it close so that drivers are battling, but also allow for some differences so you don’t end up with a procession.
However, if a single tire manufacturer remains, then the best option would likely be to bring in the mandatory soft-tire stint, like F1 and ChampCar. It would spice things up a little.
(just so you all know, the BFG scenario is possible… that’s what bias-ply Goodyears do now)