Toyota not invited to Goodyear tire test at Darlington
Quote selected text Published March 11th, 2008 in NASCAR News
Toyota officials weren’t pleased to be the only manufacturer not invited to the Goodyear tire test on Monday at Darlington Speedway.
Goodyear officials said only two to three manufacturers typically are invited to test on a rotating basis, and that for this test the rotation was Chevrolet [Jeff Gordon] and Ford [Greg Biffle] for the tires and Dodge [Ryan Newman] for data acquisition.
They stood by this plan even though four teams have attended several previous tests and despite a request by Toyota to attend.
“It’s not going to put us at an advantage by any means,” said Andy Graves, an official for Toyota Racing Development.
Not being at Darlington became even more of an issue after Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway where Toyota driver Tony Stewart blasted NASCAR’s official tire distributor after finishing second to Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch.
- Toyota not invited to 2nd Darlington test
- NASCAR showing favoritism toward Montoya?
- Goodyear to tire test at Darlington
- Gordon, Blaney conduct Goodyear tire testing at Darlington
- Goodyear completes 2nd tire test at Darlington
This will hit the fan!
maybe what toyota needs to do is tell Tony to bite down on that big scruffy nasty bottom lip of his and keep his comments on national TV on how bad goodyear is to himself.
Toyota will just run to NASCAR and complain that they have been discriminated against.
Im sure Tony was aware of the fall out his comments would conjure up from Goodyear. I still think he had every right to give a wake-up flame blast at Goodyear…
Funny that Dale Jr was excluded as well for Chevy. and they picked the one guy at HMS that absolutely hates to tire test (it’s beneath him you know). lol
Gee, I wonder why Goodyear didn’t invite any Toyota teams? This might be the most transparent thing I have seen yet, and that says quite a bit!
Dale Jr wasnt excluded from the test Nascar Fan…..his comments werent on LIVE TV…only in his post race press conference….in which he is allowed to say what he felt about the race…they only chose 1 driver from each manufacturer…so there is ALOT of drivers that got excluded….i think Tony did this to himself and hsi team…yeah the tire sucked…and the race was boring…but you have to stop and think…this is the first time those cars are hitting these tracks…Goodyear doesnt know what to expect…and the know the load this new car is putting on the ride side tires…so they are tryin to counteract that with harder and more durable tires..you can’t blame goodyear for that…its going to take time for EVERYONE to get used to this new car…not just the teams and drivers…Tony is just the first one to complain about it
Ever stop to think that Tonys mouth and Kyle Busch in a Toyota winning the race…led to this decision? they obviously had no problems with handliing that bad
so everyone needs to stop bashing HIm and Goodyear and just deal with it…this is going to be a trial and error year with the first full schedule COT…we won’t have these issues at bristol, martinsville, talladega, dover and the other track(s) the COT was run on last season cause they have prior notes…GIVE THIS A BREAK…
“WAAAAAAH you made fun of me, so you can’t come to my party, you big meanie!”
BASICALLY what it sounds like, lol
So mature, these big companies eh?
I think this is funny.. why don’t they just get tony and someone from goodyear a set of boxing gloves and let them settle this like men instead of little 6 year olds
DARRELL=
Did you read my post or just fixate on one word in it. I was making fun of the fact that Gordo was PICKED and he hates to tire test.
Of course Dale Jr. can say anything he wants on or off the air and I wish he had said more but its not in his character to blast away on every little thing.
Im surprised we have another “expert” on this site that can for tell the future of the tire in upcoming races.
It must be comforting to the crew chiefs that “Darrell says “tires will not be a problem anymore” lol $@!
NASCAR FAN….are u completely retarded? seriously…
i never said there wouldnt be tire problems…i just SIMPLY said that since its the first time the COT is hitting these tracks, Goodyear should be allowed a mulligan…One race can’t tell you how that particular tire is going to hold up or race. Now that they have a track under their belt, they can adjust the tire for the fall Atlanta race…
I don’t claim to be an expert, and I never said I was…so wherever your getting that im clueless….but sitting here bashing people for one mistake at ONE track is childish to me…give them a chance before you jump the gun is what i was getting at…like i said…learn to read my post and understand it…but thats probably too much for your IQ
Darrell- Please don’t call people ‘retarded’ on here. Comments like that lead to bickering that destroy constructive comments on threads like this.
As for the topic, I’m sure Goodyear isn’t taking out their frustration with Tony Stewart on all of the Toyota teams, remember Jeff Gordon was also fairly strong in his comments against the tires.
HAHAHAHAAH dude your are halarious…your own stupidity is clouding your brain…you have to “dumb it down” for me? thats the best thing ive heard all day man..seriously don’t quit your day job…
I SAID we wont have THESE ISSUES at the tracks weve already run at…i never said we wouldnt have these issues at tracks we havent ran at….or do i need to quote that as well…
“this is going to be a trial and error year with the first full schedule COT…we won’t have these issues at bristol, martinsville, talladega, dover and the other track(s) the COT was run on last season cause they have prior notes”
thats exactly what i said…now if you can’t comprehend that..then my statement about your IQ is the truth..let me break it down for you
it means that the tracks we havent been to there will be some issues with the tire the first time we run there….BUT the tracks we have already run on..there won’t be issues because they already have NOTES on what the tires were doing…smarty pants…nice try buddy next time ill put spaces between the letters as well so your feeble little mind will be able to read it…
I agree with tony and many of the other drivers…iv worked for a goodyear distrb for years in the past …i havent been happy with much of anything goodyear has out over the last 3 years ….even for passanger tires…you could blame it on the cot’s first time on some of these tracks, or even tonys mouth ,but these drivers know best…there the ones driving 200mph on a set of maypops…these tires goodyear has been putting out this year just plain suck….
PS..Nascar Fan…
if your going to “quote” what people say…make sure to get all the information and not just the parts you want to repeat…you obviously failed english class if thats how you quote
and darrell…..iv got 20$ says we WILL Have issues at even bristol, martinsville, talladega, dover …..mark my words….goodyear sucks…..
It is good to see a heated debate that I am not involved in!!!!!!
sam its not that heated of a debate…this NASCAR guy just cant read….sparky knows what i was talking about whether he agrees or not…its not that hard to get what i was typing..that guys just plain brainless
Everyone makes it sound like GoodYear is purposely keeping Toyota out because of the comments Tony made on Sunday. If you all would go back and read the article again, the decision was made a long time ago that Toyota would not be there. The test was on Monday, only one day after the race. You think all the teams were invited on Sunday night? I think not.
Wait, what are we talking about?
Lets just put BFG All-Terrains on the cars, 12″ lifts and see them run one another over!
YAY!
Problem solved
Speaking of feeble minds you can’t even comprehend the meaning of your own words let alone someone else’s.
B u t t h e t r a c k s w e h a v e a l r e a d y r u n o n.. t h e r e w o n’ t b e i s s u e s
Just because they have NOTES on those tracks d o e s n’ t mean they will not have tire issues !!!
Sounds like a prediction on the tire problems to every one who has read it. But, ha you are the expert here We are just fans.
PS. I spread the big words so maybe this time you could see it better.
you are right renee, but if i were goodyear i would be dammed if i didnt want to know how the test tire was going to work on all the cars..when testing for safety no car should be overlooked
Ah SAM, come on in the waters not even luke-warm yet, it’s like shooting ducks swimming in a Goodyear tire. lol
I think all tests should either be open to ALL teams (the more teams the better testing results), or they either start their own in house testing teams.
What have I missed here, it sounds like a cat fight.
Fisha695 wrote:
Fisha, I agree that a lot more testing needs to be done by all teams. Don’t most teams already do in house testing on a frequent basis ?
Nascar Fan,
funny how you keep calling me an expert yet i have never said anything claiming to be….and doing what i said i would do to you when you reply, like the putting spaces…thats good stuff man..keep up the good work…tooo dumb to come up with your own comeback you have to steal someone elses….www.ethuggery.com would be a perfect place for you to start…theres an educational system in place…its not my fault you choose not to use it…..like i said pal…do not quit your day job
***Ignoring Nascar Fan In Progress ||
AUTORACING SPORT…..make it to where you ahev to be a registered user to post…thank you..im sure im not the only one that thinks this
Tony Stewart has won how many races on Goodyear tires? all the wins hes had at Daytona has paid way more than all of his USAC, Silver Crown, IRL and dirt races combined….so whether he likes it or not..Goodyear is there to stay…and Nascar will do something if they want the fans to keep watching races like those 4 boring ones at the Beginning….
For everyone who understood what i was getting at in my original post…i wasnt saying there would be ABSOLUTELY ZERO issues with tires…because thats impossible..too many variables to contribute to that…but the idea of them sending a crap tire to the tracks weve already ran on with the COT is highly unlikely…it might not be the best tire or w/e but it will slowly get better as teams get a better grip on this car and how to adjust it….once that gets situation….Goodyear can get a better tire out there…everyone just has to be patient
I understand and agree, Sparky, that all teams should do the testing. I was just saying that the decision not to let them in was prior to Tony’s comments, not because of Tony’s comments like some are suggesting.
Bob wrote:
I meant Goodyear having an in-house testing team… l0l I should’ve clarified that a little better… l0l
darrell wrote:
Darrell= now see that wasn’t to hard was it ??
All I ever wanted from the start was for YOU to see that your statement on the lack of problems with
tires on the “tested tracks” was a little premature. Goodyear has and will change the compounds (per NASCAR specs.) in previously tested tires. Obviously making any test notes obsolete. Then you get a wild card tire that teams can’t cope with. I agree that Goodyear would never knowingly put out a tire that was dangerous but untested enough, OK
Sorry if I ruffled your feathers but you know how it is when you start a tit 4 tat dialog.
So if its OK with you we will just agree to disagree on this one.
That “guest” was me, magic fingers missed that one.
YES FISHA, I know this would not happen if I registered. Your almost getting through to me on that one. lol
Ok you were referring to your idea on NASCAR setting up a test squad of it’s own to do the tire tests but how would that help the teams having other cars and drivers test tires. Ok I answered my own question sorta. Still the teams glean a lot of track, car, setup and overall information if they do there own.
You know I find it funny all of these people on here making comments about how Tony is abig mouth and he did this to himself and so on. All he did was speak his mind, the same as everyone on here has and will continue to do. Also Jr., Gordon, edwards all described a tire that was hard to drive, I dont hear anyone speaking against them. Maybe if you want a sport with all pretty boys like jr and gordon and johnson, who get there eyebrows plucked and a chemical peel after everyrace you should go watch F1. If you want a sport that was built in this country buy “rednecks” doing what they had to do survive by running shine, then let these guys be men and speak there minds. Im glad that Tony and any other driver that speak there minds still have enough self respect not to be corprate puppets for the corprate sponsor overthinkers who just see us stupid people who watch this sport as a bunch dumb fools who will pay anything to support there driver. i say good for tony for not being a sell out and speaking his mind and if youll want to watch a bunch of pretty boys maybe you should watch queer eye for the straight guy………..
Fool me once…shame on you. Fool me twice…shame on me.
thats all right, Kyle will win Darlington, so Chevy, Ford, and Dodge go test. I hope Toyota goes to VL and Roush has a hard attack.
and i hope Joe Gibbs takes the cup this year and Toyota takes the manufactures cup in 2008.
Howie motorsports photography wrote:
I’ll go one better, Toyota takes the Manufactures championship in all 3 National series, as well as the East and West series, and Toyota wins drivers championship in all 3 National series, and at least the East series, and the Cup, Nationwide and CW East championship all go to Joe Gibbs team.
Im glad he had the nerve to speak his mind even if he is not my favorite driver …. and myself would like to see what other tire makers can come up with …we all know theres room for improvements …i think we can all agree on that!
You don’t “speak your mind” on national TV slamming one of the premier companies who are among the providers who make it all possible for you to be there….no matter how pissed you are!
they need other tire suppliers,let the teams decide what tires they want to use,then they can’t blame anyone but themselves if they have problems…
ruby wrote
Quote
You don’t “speak your mind” on national TV slamming one of the premier companies who are among the providers who make it all possible for you to be there….no matter how pissed you are!
I guess you never ran a 4 hour race and had a microphone stuck in your face as seen as you took your helmet off. if you just had a fight with your spouse and i stuck a mic in your face you would have anything good to say either. and as far as national television goes if they waited to interview him it would have made tv. and as far as the premier company goes, they are not, their just the only company and they do suck.Tony doest need them, they need Tony , the drivers make the ratings go up not the sponsors.
thats what im saying tomcat …..
ruby …we all know that goodyear has had input from all drivers about all tires…like i sayed early in the post at 200mph on a set of maypops…if goodyear cant hear what the drivers are saying & do somthing about it maybe slamming them is what it takes….starting at way over $800 a tire (im sure) ..u would hope goodyear would have come up with somthing that is a little better then what they have now
but in the end with this cot i wouldnt be suprized if nothing works
This has nothing to do with the actual tires, but everything to do with greedy corporate logic.
“They stood by this plan even though four teams have attended several previous tests and despite a request by Toyota to attend.”
Now there’s some fair and balanced competition for ya. Greed ruins NASCAR more every year. Money is the only reason these big companies do anything.
“Goodyear officials said only two to three manufacturers typically are invited…” What a borderline diarhea of the mouth statement. That has not substance to explain why… If I made statements to my employer or customers like Goodyear does to everyone I would have been fired already
An Uninvited Dale Earnhardt Jr Shows Up for Tire Test at Darlington
The Cool Down Lap: Chorus of tire kickers follows Atlanta race
HAMPTON, Ga. — Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t invited to a tire test at
Darlington Raceway on Monday, but after Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at
Atlanta Motor Speedway, he was determined to crash the party.
“If the rest of the year’s like this, there will be a lot of drivers going into retirement.” Dale Jr
Earnhardt wanted to hear what tire testers Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle and
Ryan Newman had to say about the compounds Goodyear was trying out at the 1.366-mile speedway for the May 10 Dodge Challenger 500 at NASCAR’s most venerable — and most recently repaved –speedway.
Earnhardt’s concern surfaced in the aftermath of Sunday’s race, where he finished third. In a postrace news conference, Earnhardt and race
runner-up Tony Stewart were far more interested in expressing their
outrage at the hard tire Goodyear brought to Atlanta than in basking in
the elation of their respective top-five finishes.
“I’m really excited that I didn’t crash,” said Stewart, who has been
Goodyear’s harshest critic. “That was half the battle in itself. Been
racing 28 years and been a part of a lot of different professional
series, and I’ve never seen a quality of racing tire like I’ve seen this
weekend. …
“If the rest of the year, if that’s what we’ve got to look forward to is
weekends like this, there will be a lot of drivers going into retirement
a lot earlier, because nobody’s going to want to keep doing this like
this.”
Stewart, admittedly, trades in hyperbole to get his points across.
Earnhardt typically does not. Yet, as the news conference progressed,
the level or Earnhardt’s frustration escalated.
“There’s a big difference between complaining and stating the obvious,”
he said. “You know, it is what it is. It’s not a complaint. It is what
it is. … I don’t think, for one, that the race was all that exciting.
We couldn’t run side-by-side — we’d wreck, you know.
“They said they’d give us the (tire) data earlier in the year, around
Daytona or before, but no amount of time would have prepared you for
that. You weren’t going to hook that tire up. It was way too hard.”
Goodyear’s stonewall response was as hard as the tires the company
supplied for the race. Justin Fantozzi, manager of Goodyear’s race tire
sales and marketing, reiterated the same boiler-plate language he had
told a smaller group of reporters the day before.
“There are 43 drivers and 43 crew chiefs and 30 owners — that’s 120
opinions,” Fantozzi said.
When most of the opinions are roughly the same, however, it’s called a
consensus. On Sunday, it wasn’t just the Cassandra voice of Tony Stewart bashing the tire compound. It was a chorus that included a core group of the most popular, high profile drivers in the sport.
It was a chorus that deserves the attention of the tire supplier and the
sanctioning body.
Let’s make one thing clear. NASCAR is under no obligation to give
drivers a comfortable racecar, and Goodyear is under no obligation to
produce a comfortable tire. But the car and the tire have to be
comfortable enough to allow hard, side-by-side racing.
It’s true that extreme conditions can help identify the best drivers in
the sport. Thirteen drivers finished on the lead lap Sunday, and the
list reads like a litany of the best wheel men in the business: Kyle
Busch, Stewart, Earnhardt, Biffle, Gordon, Bowyer, Harvick, Kenseth,
Vickers, Burton, Kurt Busch, Labonte and Johnson.
The fact that those drivers were able to maintain speed and keep their
cars between the walls, however, doesn’t necessarily equate to exciting racing.
Goodyear’s choice of tires for a particular racetrack is a safety issue,
but as both Stewart and Earnhardt pointed out, it’s also a public-relations issue. The sport’s exclusive tire supplier through 2012, Goodyear doesn’t want to see the top stars blowing right fronts willy-nilly and knocking down the walls.
To think, however, that a consumer will think twice about buying an
Eagle radial after watching his favorite driver blow a tire in a Cup race borders on paranoia. Race fans are astute enough to know that a variety of factors — being too aggressive with air pressure or camber,
for instance — can contribute to tire failure.
“Everybody knows that watches the race that there’s a reason for a tire blowing,” Earnhardt said. “It’s not ’cause it’s a bad tire. We’ve never had a tire blow because it was defective. They wear out, and you wear them down to the air. But you just need to slow down if you’re wearing tires out that bad.”
Though Goodyear and NASCAR expressed satisfaction with the choice of tire for Atlanta, it’s clear that, from the drivers’ standpoint, the
tire was conservative in the extreme, to the point that Earnhardt felt
he couldn’t race side-by-side on a track with multiple grooves.
Earnhardt has tested tires before but says he rarely has been asked for
feedback.
“The times that I’ve done it, I didn’t feel like my input was observed
or looked over too well,” he said.
In a follow-up statement released Monday, Goodyear said: “Even though both Goodyear and NASCAR were satisfied with the tire’s performance in Atlanta, if the drivers are not happy, then Goodyear’s not happy.”
Let’s hope that’s the case, because — as Stewart and Earnhardt insist
– there has to be a workable middle ground between the hard tire supplied for Atlanta and a soft tire that compromises the safety of the
drivers.
After all, when choosing tires for racetracks, wouldn’t it be a good
idea to listen to the guys who have to ride on them?
Why don’t we see John Andretti, Ken Schrader and Carl Long doing the tire tests? Just a thought. After all, NASCAR is all about being fair.(lol)
anyone with the money and time and cars can test but it usually is the top teams.
Howie=
That print response sums it fairly well. Every body now knows how bad the tires really were for the track they raced on.
Goodyear & NASCAR need to switch from damage control mode to we can fix this mode fast or face loss of sales for both companies.
Tony has always know if you squawk loud enough you get the grease.
Personally, I think the important thing here (and it seems to get missed) is that Goodyear was put on the spot and had to acknowledge their participation in the sport and their role on the track. I have to agree that the decision on who is testing was made in advance of what was said after Sunday’s Atlanta run, BUT, that brings up another question:
IF NASCAR STRESSES FAIRNESS, THEN WHY WERE ALL FOUR MANUFACTURERS “INVITED” TO THIS TEST?
This is the problem I have with the powers that be in NASCAR. They say they are trying to be fair but actions say otherwise. We all keep hearing that each of these makes are different, albeit the noses, but if that is the case, then why would you not think that the Toyota noses are going to react the same as one of the other makes. It just doesn’t make sense.
You can’t possibly make everyone happy all the tie, but why go out of your way and be obvious about something that is going to create even more hate and discontentment?
Paul
i got a dodge van can i come test.i could use a new set of goodyears?