Toyota not invited to 2nd Darlington test
Quote selected text Published March 16th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Goodyear is going back to Darlington Raceway for another test on the newly paved surface, and once again a Toyota won’t be involved. Greg Biffle (Ford), Jeff Gordon (Chevrolet) and Ryan Newman (Dodge) will all return to Darlington in two weeks to help Goodyear find a suitable tire for when the series races there in May.
Speeds inched toward 200 mph during the two-day test earlier this week, and Goodyear must find a tire capable of withstanding the speeds. Toyota officials were irked they were the only manufacturer not included in the initial test, and they grew angrier when they learned of the second session. But Goodyear officials said the participants are on a rotation, one manufacturer is always left out of the testing and having four teams at a session is overkill for the engineers.
“We really don’t need four cars to get the work done that we need to get done,” said Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales. “We’re going to go to Indianapolis in a few weeks, there will be a Toyota there and there won’t be a Ford there. That’s the way that it plays out. We’re going to try to spread the work out among the teams that give us the best results.”
Brian Vickers is expected to represent Toyota in Indianapolis. But inclusion there did little to satisfy the Toyota camp, which feels the other three makes will be ahead of its teams because of data it gathers during the test. And, because the surface has been repaved, the other teams have a baseline for setups that Toyota will not have when it arrives in Darlington for the race. Toyota officials declined to comment on the exclusion.
- Toyota not invited to Goodyear tire test at Darlington
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- Goodyear to tire test at Darlington
- Gordon, Blaney conduct Goodyear tire testing at Darlington
- Gordon, Biffle, Newman to test Darlington today
WTF? If they’re going to go back for a second test, there’s no good reason they can’t work Toyota in. If I were Toyota, I’d be pissed too! I could understand once, but twice is a load of BS.
Not being invited the 1st time, OK I can understand but giving Toyota the snub the 2ond time is really sending a message that if you keep your mouth shut we will let you test other wise your odd man out .
NASCAR must be behind this other wise someone there would have said look ALL Manufactors need to test so every team has a base line of setup notes, not just Ford, Chevy, Dodge…
Maybe Goodyear dosen’t need 4 teams to give it the info they need but all the teams DO need to get the testing.
Goodyears answer to this was as lame as it gets and Toyota should not stand for it…
The Same 3 Drivers are going back so they can compare the first tires they tested their to the second ones that Goodyear is making. It’s happened before, and it’ll probably happen again. It’s not some anti-Toyota conspiracy or anything. Why bring a driver/team who did not test on the first set of tires, to see how the second set of tires compares to the first…?????
Because FISHA.. NOW that Toyota IS in the running, they have the same opportunities, or should have the same, as any of the other car makers. That’s only fair.
Goodyear would only benefit overall by adding ALL of them, not by exclusion. Obviously, there is and have been problems with their tires and if they really want to make things better, why stay with the old? That makes now sense. Maybe of course they did have in mind on asking Toyota team’s, but after Tony spoke up, they are using this as a “reprimand”. Which in anycase is total bull.
Its only going to show, that they are going to keep doing things their way and not really look at what will help ALL.
Fisha, My point was not at why only the same 3 drivers. We all get it that they will give the best comparisions of test 1 to test 2. My point was all the 4 manufactures should have equal test results on the tires as relating to setups..
Whether ar not this was a reprimand to Toyota or not is not the point. Tire tests on a new track (newly repaveds ==new track) calls for all involved to equally get a shot at making tire notes and test setup notes.
Don’t get what I said wrong, like I said in one of the other tire related stories, I think a representative team from all 4 manufactures should be at all test.
But I am saying this isn’t so much another test as it is a day or two added on to the previous test (just a few weeks later).
Thanks, Tony. Now they’ll never get the testing they need. Not really. It has something to do with the previous sessions like Fisher said.