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

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?

“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

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.

and i hope Joe Gibbs takes the cup this year and Toyota takes the manufactures cup in 2008.

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.

Nascar Fan,

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

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.