Some would say that it’s been a trying season for Goodyear in 2008 as they continue to work on developing new tires to coincide with NASCAR’s latest project, the Car of Tomorrow. Things got heated early in the season between Goodyear’s racing group and some of the drivers in the garage area, particularly after Atlanta when several of the drivers bashed the tire in public forums. You might recall one man inparticular’s rants regarding the tires as they made headlines for several weeks. Yes, I’m referring of course to Tony Stewart.

It seemed as though things had finally cooled off between all parties involved until just a couple of weeks ago at Indianapolis. It was the first time NASCAR had ever taken the COT to Indy, and the tires that Goodyear brought to the track were inadequate to say the least. The end result was NASCAR waiving a competition caution about every 10 laps and the reviews for the event were terrible.

After a week long of apologies from both NASCAR and Goodyear, both parties were presented with a golden opportunity to redeem themselves during the Nationwide race in Montreal. With bad weather on the horizon, NASCAR decided to break out their inventory of “grooved” Goodyear tires, marking the first time grooved tires had ever been run in a NASCAR points race. The experiment was a tremendous success, and talk about the Indy tire fiasco has been slim to none ever since.

This week, the “Loose in Turn 3″ trio will take a look at the situation and decide the overwhelming success of the rain tires and a solid week at Pocono does in fact take Goodyear off the hook, or if they feel that there are still too many unanswered questions to make that call just yet.

Q: Did Goodyear finally clear their name in NASCAR with the success of their rain tires in Montreal?

TZ: They’re not completely out of the woods just yet, but for the most part, I would say yes. I was pretty upset with the fiasco that took place at Indy, and there’ve been a few other times this season I wasn’t thrilled with their output, but running in the rain at Motreal without any tire issues was a huge plus, and then they were able to follow it up with a successful day in Pocono as well. There are obviously a few tracks that they still need to get some things figured out, but all in all, they’ve rebounded quite nicely.

Bruce:  I’d expect more from a division of a tire company that is supposed to be making racing tires and not rubber confetti at Indianapolis.  Indy was a phenomenal waste of time and they should have tried something else rather than let NASCAR dole out a series of 10-lap trophy dashes, but without the trophy.  I don’t see this weekend as a rebound as much as it is, a “It’s about time they got it back on track.  Now let’s keep it there!”

Charlie:  Goodyear didn’t need to “clear their name”. In fact, NASCAR once
again put Goodyear’s good name at risk by using six year old rubber in a
featured race. They lucked out that the tires didn’t fail. NASCAR flipped
a coin again, just as they did at Indy. Goodyear makes tens of thousands
of race tires that are used at hundreds of races every week. A couple of
high profile failures should be expected when the company is trying to
make a NASCAR work in progress – the vaunted CoT – look better than it is.

the Rest of the Discussion:
There’s still plenty more to read this week from the “Loose in Turn 3″ guys. Make sure you take a trip over to On Pit Row where Charlie asks the question, “Who is the Best Crew Chief in the Sprint Cup Garage Right Now?“, and then head over to Bruce’s NASCAR Bits ‘n’ Pieces where we debate the motive behind Martin Truex Jr.’s Decision to Remain at DEI.

Post from: EveryJoe

Goodyear Was Starting to Get Loose in Turn 3 … But, They’re Straight Now

For those of you that had the misguided pleasure of watching this past weekend’s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, chances are that you were extremely disappointed with the product that NASCAR and Goodyear brought to the table … and, the drivers and their crews were no different. Perhaps the closed door meeting from NASCAR a couple months back asking the drivers to keep the verbal car bashing to a minimum may have warded off some of the overly eccentric tyrades similar to what we heard from Tony Stewart when he bashed Goodyear following the Atlanta race, but nonetheless, many of the Sprint Cup Series’ top faces expressed disappointment in the finished product following the Allstate 400.

Here are some of the quotes from the teams concerning Goodyear’s tire package that they brought to Indy:

Matt Kenseth: “This is one of the two biggest races of the year and to never have this tire here before and not come and do an open test and to work on these things and work on these tires, it’s pretty darn disappointing. We had a great car. I feel bad for the fans. We’re running three-quarters speed because we’re worried of the tires blowing out and they blow out every eight laps.”

Ryan Newman: “It was a ridiculous race. There was no racing involved, other than mandatory cautions. It’s disrespectful to the fans. That’s not the way NASCAR racing is supposed to be.”

Jeff Gordon: “It’s embarrassing and disappointing. I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’m really sorry that it happened in such a big race like the Brickyard.”

Jamie McMurray: “I got really mad in the middle because they were letting us run until the tires were blowing up, and I’m like, ‘You can’t put us in that situation.’ You’ve got to throw the caution before we blow a tire because if someone gets hurt, we could have prevented that.”

Brian Vickers: “The problem is not one thing. We’ve seen all year long that this car is a lot worse on tires. I think everybody has to raise their hand and take some responsibility here. We have to really think about where we’re going and how we’re going to do it.”

Chad Knaus: “There are really only five things that keep a car on a racetrack. That’s four tires and downforce. Everybody has to realize that this car has about 50 percent of the downforce we had in the past.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr: “That’s the most bizarre race I’ve ever run. I was just glad we got through it with no real chaos. I’m ashamed, but there wasn’t much we could do.”

*Earnhardt also participated in a 3-driver testing session at Indy back in April to test various tire packages, to which he stated, “When I tested here they were wearing out (after) five laps, too.”

Carl Edwards: “I knew when there wasn’t any rubber laying down on the track — I couldn’t see any rubber on the track — I thought we were in trouble there. I know everybody was hoping that it would get better by Lap 30 or 40, but I knew we were in trouble then.”

Anonymous Tire Specialist: “The rubber coming off the tire was too fine. It was like sugar. That’s why the track never rubbered up. The whole back of the tire was dust. And everyone could see the fans leaving by Lap 100. It was the most disgusting display I’ve ever seen at a racetrack. The fans that come back deserve half-price tickets.”

Don’t let the criticism misguide you, though. While everyone throughout the garage area was disappointed with what took place at Indy, most everyone applauded the reactionary methods that NASCAR took to keep the race safe and err on the side of caution – literally.

Jeff Burton: “Early in the race we were running three-quarter speed. Late in the race, we ran hard and we had faith in NASCAR to throw the caution. NASCAR did a great job today under adverse situations. I don’t know what they could have done better. I know that NASCAR and Goodyear are going to take a lot of heat for this but you have to also look at the other side of it. There was no evidence that the situation was getting better during practice so NASCAR did the right thing and did a really good job of throwing the cautions. They responded to a problem and I give them credit for that.”

Bobby LaBonte: “It was a wild race out there, without a doubt. You had to pick when you wanted to race hard to pass someone and the rest of the time you just had to bide your time to save your tires. We knew this would be the case going in and NASCAR did a great job with what they had. My car was actually handling pretty good. It was just a little loose, but I was happy with the balance. My pit crew has to get a lot of credit today. This was the most consistently fast day we’ve had all year on pit road. They picked up a lot of positions for me.”

And, of course, as one might expect, Greg Stucker – Goodyear Director of Race Tire Sales – and Robin Pemberton – NASCAR’s Director of Competition – both had their hands full following the race.

Greg Stucker: “Obviously, the tread wear didn’t improve as we thought it would over the course of the afternoon. We don’t have the answer as to why that didn’t happen, so we’ve got to go back and look at that and try to figure out how to make it better. This is the same compound we raced last year and the wear improved over the course of the day to the point where we could run the full stops. That didn’t happen today, so we need to understand why. I don’t think anyone likes to race like this — us included. We’re going to try to figure out what we need to do to make it better, so that’s what we’re here for.”

Robin Pemberton: “I can’t say enough how sorry we are, and it’s our responsibility, being NASCAR, that we don’t go through this situation again. We’ve already got after it, and we’re moving forward with a plan to get ahead of the situation so we don’t go through this again. Once again, I think that it deserves to be said that the race didn’t come off like we had hoped. The fans didn’t get what they exactly wanted, and we’ll do everything in our power, and it won’t happen again, I can tell you that much. We’re going to put a lot of effort toward it and get a better plan moving forward.”

Video of the interviews with Robin Pemberton and Carl Edwards following the race:

Post from: EveryJoe

As Expected, Drivers Disappointed With Goodyear Tires at Indy

Coming off the heels of a very disappointing race this weekend at Indianapolis, it got me thinking of what some of the biggest factors can be to ruining a race for us – the fans. Of course, we’re always unhappy when our driver finishes outside of the top-ten, or even worse, when the driver that we adamently root against wins the race … but, I’m thinking of things beyond that. I’m talking about the actual elements that help give the race a lackluster feel to it. Here goes …

5. Multiple Cautions for Debris – These are obviously a part of racing that is more often than not well out of the control of NASCAR or anyone else. You get one or two of these, fine, no biggie – let’s move on. But, when you start getting 3, 4, or even 5 of these things, then you’re just left with an unwanted lull in the action.

4. Red Flags – I don’t really care what it’s for. Whether it’s for rain, a huge wreck, or a portion of the track coming unsurfaced, an extended period under red can take the wind right out of the race’s sails.

3. Rain – There’s obviously nothing you can do to ward it off, but when Mother Nature strikes the NASCAR track, she pretty much dictates the entire event. Teams have to start working different strategies based on when they thing the rain will come, and if it does, all too often we’re left with a guy standing in Victory Lane that really didn’t deserve it.

2. Over-Abundance of Commercial Breaks – We all know that the networks make the bulk of their money off advertising, and personally, I’m okay with that. But, at some point you’ve just got to draw the line. Take this past weekend for example. ESPN knew that NASCAR was going to continually run their competition caution periods, and even if they didn’t, there were going to be enough tire issues to fill the caution quota anyway. But, as if 11 caution periods weren’t enough to get in all the advertising they could hope for, the network still decided to cut to commercial at least once during every green flag run. I wasn’t counting, but I’d imagine that there were AT LEAST 20 commercial breaks … in  a 160 lap race. Do the math.

1. Bringing the Wrong Tire Package – This past weekend at Indy was obviously about as bad as it could possibly get, and kudos to NASCAR for doing their best to work around Goodyear’s blunder. But, even when it’s not the absolute worst, the wrong tire package can absolutely destroy a race. Whether it results in a race filled with competition cautions (Indy) or it results in multiple cars blowing tires for no real reason (Las Vegas) or it hinders on-the-track passing to the point of sheer boredom (Atlanta), the tires themselves play a major role in determining what the cars look like out there on the track.

Post from: EveryJoe

List of the Week: Elements that Can Ruin a Race

Image details: Coca-Cola 600 served by picapp.com

Utter heartbreak and sheer disappointment. That’s the best way to describe Kurt Busch’s career in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ever since younger brother, Kyle, joined the circuit full-time for Hendrick Motorsports back in 2005 … well, I guess you could throw subtle envy into that equation as well. Since then, it just seems as though the seasons have been getting longer and tougher for the 2004 Cup Series champ.

Okay, so maybe it has less to do with Kyle and more to do with Kurt’s jump from Roush-Fenway Racing over to Penske Racing, but the numbers don’t lie, and the numbers indicate to us that there’s something amiss with the no. 2 Miller Lite Dodge team these days. In his first four full seasons of racing in NASCAR’s premier series, Kurt tallied a total of 11 wins, 34 top-five’s, and 61 top-ten’s and won Jack Roush’s second consecutive Cup for him. Since the beginning of 2005, however, those numbers have taken a severe hit, as he’s put together only 6 more wins, 23 top-five’s, and 45 top-ten’s, with his best points finish in that span coming during his 8th place run last year after having to put together a late-season rally just to make the cut for the Chase field.

To add a little salt to the wound, since Kyle’s emergence onto the Cup scene, he’s beaten big bro in every major statistical category with the exception of pole awards – only due to the 6 poles that Kurt won in his 2006 campaign – and, Kyle appears to be in major contention to win the title this year while Kurt lags back in 21st place in the points standings.

After finding some success with the addition of Pat Tryson as his crew chief late in the ‘07 season – a move that many people feel salvaged the year for the team – many people expected a big year from Kurt this season, but that hasn’t been the case by any means. He was able to finish runner-up to teammate, Ryan Newman, at the Daytona 500 and received many kudos from around the racing nation for the big push that he gave Ryan at the end of the race to push him across the finish line and secure the first restrictor plate win for car owner, Roger Penske.

Since then it’s been downhill, though. He went onto score top-15 finishes at Atlanta, Fontana, and Bristol, but finished outside of the top-20 in the five events that followed, as Kurt plummeted down the points standings. They put together a decent run at Darlington, where they finished 12th, and then they got the car out front last weekend in Charlotte and appeared to be the class of the field through the early portions of the race before that heartbreak and disappointment kicked back in.

After leading 64 laps in the race, Kurt was running second behind race leader, Brian Vickers, on lap 161 when a blown right tire sent him flying into the wall and ended his bid for the win. He was able to get his car back out on the track without losing any laps, but the damage was severe enough to halter any progress he attempted to make towards the front, and ultimately settled for a 16th place finish.

Now, with only 14 races remaining before NASCAR sets their Chase field with the top-12 drivers, Kurt finds himself all the way down in 21st – 668 points back from his brother and current points leader, Kyle Busch, and 262 points separating he and 12th place, Kasey Kahne. This is the furthest back in points that Kurt has ever been at this point in the season. The good news for Kurt Busch fans, though, is that his average finish in races 13 through 26 last year was 13.07 and consisted of 2 wins and 7 top-ten finishes.

Post from: EveryJoe

What’s A Brother Gotta Do To Get Some Love?

Image details: O’Reilly Challenge Practice served by picapp.com

It was announced Thursday that Bruton Smith, company chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) has purchased Kentucky Speedway, located about midway between Louisville, KY and Cincinatti, OH, for the sum of $78.3 million – the track had originally cost $152 million just to build. Smith was very open from the get-go of the announcement that it was his intent to bring a Sprint Cup Series date to the track – a feat that previous owner, Jerry Carroll of Kentucky Seedway LLC, had been unable to accomplish.

Carroll is currently tied up in an ongoing lawsuit against NASCAR due to his inability to secure a date for the track on the Sprint Cup Schedule. The case was originally dismissed by the US District Court in 2005, but Carroll has since filed for an appeal with the US Court of Appeals. Carroll claims that the lawsuit is still on despite the recent sale of his facility, but NASCAR spokesman, Ramsey Poston, has assured that NASCAR will continue to defend their case vigorously.

The sale of Kentucky Speedway itself is still in the beginning stages and is not expected to be finalized until sometime late in the summer. Because of this, SMI has not yet made any formal requests for a 2009 date, but Poston has already stated that even if they had, not to expect a Kentucky race next year because NASCAR is already deep into their sanctioning process for the 2009 schedule.

There are several scenarios that could play out over the next year or two that could lead to landing a Cup date in Kentucky. SMI currently has seven other NASCAR tracks under their control: Bristol Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Atlanta Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and Infineon Raceway. Of these tracks, all except for Las Vegas and Infineon currently host two Sprint Cup dates. It could be very feasible for Smith to attempt to move one of the dates from NHIS over to Kentucky if needs be. It was originally discussed last year when SMI purchased the Vegas facility that they may try to get another date for that track, but that has yet to play out in anyway.

Another possibility is that Smith and company could attempt to purchase yet another track that already has to Cup races, and then attempt to move a date from that track. The leading candidate for this scenario appears to be Pocono Raceway, a track that Smith has been rumored to have been interested in for some time now, but sources have not yet confirmed whether or not the track is for sale.

Smith can make the request in any way he sees fit, but at the end of the day, the decision will fall upon NASCAR. Poston insists that track ownership does not play into whatever they decide to do, but with SMI currently controlling 1/3 of the Cup Series schedule, it stands to reason that the sanctioning body might go ahead and cater to their requests for a date swap if they should happen to make one.

Recommended Reads:
- Smith Coy About His New Kentucky Home (the Finish Line)
- My Old Kentucky Speedway (From the Marbles)

Post from: EveryJoe

SMI Purchases Kentucky Speedway, But Doesn’t Pickup Cup Date

Tony Stewart – NASCAR’s most outspoken star – has been at the helm of this criticism after cutting a right front tire in Sin City that sent him smacking the turn 2 wall in what he’s described as one of the hardest hits he’s taken in a very long time. Despite the fact that there wasn’t a single tire incident reported in Atlanta from anyone in the 43-car field, the man known as “Smoke” continued to berate NASCAR’s official tire supplier immediately following the race, citing “that was the most pathetic tire I’ve ever raced on in my professional career.” He then went on to state that Goodyear has done a very poor job in building their tires and that they should be embarrassed about what they brought to the track over the weekend.

NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr, wasn’t quite as bold as his friend Stewart in the post-race interviews on Fox, but did criticize Goodyear as well by insinuating that it was just a bad combination that they brought to Atlanta Motor Speedway. However, later on after the race, he did have a little bit more to say. “I don’t think, for one, that the race was all that exciting. We couldn’t run side-by-side or we’d wreck. We had to let each other go by. Everytime you got beside a guy, you were just like ‘Take it’. He continued, “Goodyear doesn’t like to hear people bashing them tires and I don’t like doing it, but I ain’t going to sit here and put up with this. And I don’t think any of those other drivers or anybody is going to do it. Hopefully, we can all get along and come up with something better than this.”

Things didn’t get any easier for Goodyear when it was time for NASCAR’s most prestigious driver to speak up. Jeff Gordon told the media, “I felt like I was going to crash every single lap … that was the hardest day I’ve ever had at Atlanta, especially for a top-five finish. This car and this tire at this track was just terrible.”

Justin Fantozzi, the marketing manager at Goodyear, responded by stating, “To get into attacks in the media is not the right place. We’re tremendously proud of the wear rates that we saw here.” He later went onto say, “We’ll do the exact same thing that we do every race. We have a post-race data analysis meeting. We now have a new set of data and we’ll go back and sit down with the engineers and go through the process again. Driver comments are part of the data set. It’s temperature, it’s wear rates, it’s driver comments, it’s feel, it’s grip, it’s overall race pace. So, we’ll look at the overall data set and then we’ll make that decision.”

“The reason we’re talking about it is that we don’t want to have to race on tires like we raced on Sunday every week. This wasn’t fun. There wasn’t anything about Sunday’s race that was fun for anybody. I ran second, and I wouldn’t re-run this race for any amount of money in the world. It was just that bad,” says Stewart.

Post from: EveryJoe

Stewart Smokes His Tires

Kenseth had assumed command of the race on lap-186 from Jeff Burton, and on lap-189, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Eric McClure made contact, sparking a multi-car crash. Kenseth led Kevin Harvick to the green flag restart on lap 192, but NASCAR officials spotted debris from the no. 6 car of David Ragan, drawing another caution and setting up a green-white-checkered finish. Kenseth was able to hold off Harvick in the 2-lap shootout to pickup the checkered flag, with Harvick finishing second. Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards, and Bobby LaBonte rounded out the top-five, resulting in a top-five field full of Sprint Cup Series regulars.

The second place finish moved 2006 Series Champion Kevin Harvick into the points lead, just 25 points ahead of last year’s champion, Carl Edwards. Tony Stewart – the points leader heading into this weekend – was not involved in the race, as he is scheduled to compete in only nine Nationwide races in 2008. Kyle Busch limped around the track to finish the race in 24th place, dropping to third in the standings – 74 points out of the lead.

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

 Nationwide Standings (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Kenseth Steals One

Complete Results (credit nascar.com):

 Truck Series Standings (from nascar.com):

Post from: EveryJoe

Busch Pulls A Double

On the season, Stewart has three victories, ten top 5 finishes, and twenty top 10’s.  Only points leader Jeff Gordon has better numbers than him in all three categories, and Jimmie Johnson is the only other driver better than Stewart in any of the three.  When you breakdown the upcoming races and look at some of the favorites to win them, you’ll see Tony Stewart’s name come up quite often.  Stewart, or “Smoke” as he’s commonly referred to, won the race at Kansas last year and has an average finish of 6.5 at that track – best amongst all active drivers in NASCAR.  Following Kansas, the Cup Series heads to Talladega, and it’s been no secret that Gibbs Racing has been the only rival to Hendrick Motorsports at restrictor plate racing in the past couple years.  Stewart has also experienced tremendous success in recent years at Martinsville, Atlanta, and Homestead – all races that remain on the schedule as the 2007 season dwindles down.  The key to Stewart’s success this year could lie in the races at Lowes, Texas, and Phoenix, but even those tracks Tony has faired well at over his career.

Don’t get me wrong, while I firmly believe that 2007 is Stewart’s year to shine once again, it won’t come easy.  Jeff Gordon is still working on his “Drive for Five” campaign in an effort to pickup his fifth Cup Championship, and Jimmie Johnson is valiantly trying to become the first back-to-back champion since his Hendrick partner-in-crime did it nearly ten years ago.  The biggest difference, though, is that while the two of them have been losing more and more steam over recent weeks, Tony Stewart has been heating up, and that’s why Smoke is going to be sitting at the head of the table in New York once this season is over.

Post from: EveryJoe

3-Peat is in the Works

Jimmy Johnson passed Tony Stewart with three laps to go (after Tony brushed the wall) to win the Kobalt Tools 500.

The 48 just would not be denied. It was awesome today.

A thumbs up to Jeff Burton for finishing 4th today after his win in the Busch series yesterday. This proves he really isn’t letting the logo controversy get to him. Way to go, Jeff!

Juan Montoya ran a good race too, finishing 5th. He kept his nose clean and out of trouble. Good job, Juan.

Post from: EveryJoe

Jimmy Johnson Wins the Kobalt Tools 500 in Atlanta