Goodyear officials in town today for a NASCAR tire test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway said they have fixed problems
that plagued the company’s tires at last year’s Brickyard 400.
NASCAR officials last year had to throw a yellow flag every nine or so laps to keep the shredding tires from blowing out.
Goodyear officials, who will be in town testing through Wednesday, said they believe they have developed a rubber compound which will hold up to the IMS track for 33 to 35 laps. The track will not be open to the public or press during testing.
“We have a lot to do, and we wanted to keep everyone focused on that,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear director of race tire sales. “We’ll have another test June 15 and 16, which will basically serve as a dress rehearsal to the race, and that will be open to the media.”
Goodyear tested at the Speedway three times last fall and twice in April. “This test we hope will help us determine the final recommendation for the rubber compound we use,” Stucker said. “Our goal is to make a tire that will last a full fuel stop.”
Goodyear officials in a conversation with IBJ said the combination of the track’s condition and new car set up last year contributed to the problems.
“We’ve done a lot to understand that surface,” Stucker said. “Ever since the surface was ground, we’ve seen aggressive wear. What happened last year, is we had a different race car … It created a different wear mechanism, and the wear debris was smaller and never settled in the groove and rubbered in.”
But things are looking much better, Stucker said, adding, “We feel good right now.”
Driver Tony Stewart, a vocal Goodyear critic, asked to be part of this test, and Stucker said that is fine with him.
“This is the first time Tony has tested here since last year’s race, and we welcome his input,” Stucker said. “It’s safe to say, we all want the same thing.”
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On the other hand, this is certainly not the end of NASCAR at the Brickyard. Even the F1 disaster did not kill F1 here, it was Bernies greed. NASCAR will continue to do well here.
I do not think lower attendance this year would be attributable to any one cause. I am sure some people will not come until they know there will not be a repeat of last year. I also know that like at most NASCAR tracks attendance will be down because of the economy.
Count makes the argument that NASCAR is so yesterday. Well let's just compare viewership for the 2 premier events. The Daytona and Indy 500's.
Ratings for this years event.
Daytona - 8.0 share and 17 million viewers
Indy - 4.2 share
Almost double the ratings compared to the IRL for a series that is so yesterday is pretty good.
Even for the rest of the events other than Daytona, NASCAR is averaging close to 8.7 million viewers.
Not exactly going away anytime soon.
Good point about NASCAR having bigger ratings with its Daytona 500. But Bill says makes the better one. Half the country is mired deep in Winter on a late Sunday afternoon/early evening just weeks removed from the weekly football fix. Nothing to do but wait out the snow.
The 500 goes up against the first unofficial weekend of Summer, college graduations, baseball, and a myriad if outdoor activities folks who were all denned in watching the Daytona 500 can now go out and do.
NASCAR is yesterday and nosediving back to its normal platform as a solid, second-tier, regionally-inspired niche sport. I don't see what is wrong with that. It was just fine when that is all it was back in the day. NASCAR was never going to be a the fourth major league sport. It was just too Brittney Spears for that to ever happen. Non racing folks came, they saw, the grew bored, they walked away. Nothing France and Friends contrive can change that now. And with the times a-changin' acorss the scope of the entertainment world, NASCAR may well go the way of Network News, music albums, telephone booths, and mailboxes. Still there, but in smaller numbers, kind of nostalgic, and catering to a small corwd of loyalists and real passe.
“We’ve done a lot to understand that surface,” Stucker said. “Ever since the surface was ground, we’ve seen aggressive wear. What happened last year, is we had a different race car … It created a different wear mechanism, and the wear debris was smaller and never settled in the groove and rubbered in.”
As I said it was a combination of the COT, the track and the set up on the cars. The kool aid drinkers refuse to admit that the Speedway, once again, has blame. The track needs to be paved and repaired. And the moronic comments about why isn't Firestone having any problems shows how little the 5 or 6 bleating _TG supporters know....
iCarly gets better ratings as does How its Made and Sell this house. :lol:
but to the point: Tony better hope to he!! this gets sorted as his sisters have laid down the law. no more IRL unless it pays for itsself. NASCAR leaving, which could or could not happen, would just kill the family fortune. No series to run the 500, and no cash cow to pay for IMS......Bernie's Circus is looking better all the time, and i'll bet its back sooner rather than later.
NASCAR: Keeping IMS alive since 94!
The earl excuse-o-matic machine is juts pathetic. :lol: The ratings and attendance suck because the product is garbage, and everyone except a few idiotic sycophants hates the effbagger TG. :lol:
Do you think you can ever make your point without insults and nastiness?
Best,
Count
Just because the Goodyear official says something does not make it so. The track is ground several years ago. NASCAR runs on it with no issues, at least none that are obvious including only running 10 lap runs. Last year NASCAR brings in a totally new car and Goodyear fails to do any tire tests here. This year Goodyear does tire testing and declares the problem fixed. So tell me again how this is IMS's fault?
I stated several years ago that NASCAR was going to alienate its main fan base (southern folk) with the elimination of races like Rockingham, Darlington etc.... and it was going to burn out its hip crowd with way too many races to follow. I think you are seeing some of both. I think NASCAR needs to pull its double races from newer venues and return races back to the tracks that made it.
The races need to be shoot-outs, 200 lap, run and gun specials at places like Phoenix and Vegas, Richmond, Chicagoland.
Also, no guaranteed qualifying. You line them up, run two laps, fastest to lastest. You don't make the show, you go home.
Then you'll see some racing. And all the controversy, emotion, and intrigue that goes with it.
France and Friends turned NASCAR into the government jobs of racing.
I think they should cut the field from 43 to 30 or 35. You make it great, you don't, you go home.
I also want to go out on a limb and suggest that Daytona be moved to the season finale as has been offered up by others before.
October on a Saturday night.
These are big changes but much less contrived than what NASCAR has offered for years. These are changes to enchance the racing and competition, not fake it to a crowd that never really cared.
Of course the diamond grinding was to improve grip. Why else do it. But somehow it does not meet your conspiracy theory that it was done for Danica and Ed and whoever else is in your group. Over the decades OW has done many things to improve and decrease grip, diamond grinding is just one. If these tire problems showed up immediately after the grinding, then I may agree the track needs repaved. But NASCAR ran successfully on it for several years.
Scott Brayton's death had nothing to do with the track surface, just in case you are implying. If not, then I stand corrected.
But the facts are: A poorly inflated right rear began to equalize pressure under loading and on Scott's entry into Turn One, simply could not support the weight any longer and the car stepped out due to a small, unstable contact patch. Subsequently, Brayton's helmet edge locked up on the side of the cockpit when he hit the wall and the forces then worked to give him a base skull fracture (as though his neck was in a vise) like Marcelo's at Indy four years before in what was essentially a duplicate accident only much slower.
The cars were going way too fast back then and the pavement helped mightily, but Scott's death would havce happened on an old surface, a new surface, dirt, bricks, crushed tar and stone, ice, or boards.
unsurpassed.
You put enuf foam around crap and drive into it.....and yeah, go ahead and call it safety you ignorant race fan. how about fix the damn car first, and start from there.
:fly: