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When you test a track
four months in advance
to shake down the tires
for an event, and the
results are a mere ten
laps, ten being on the
generous side, before
the tires give out,
don’t you think
something would have
been done?
Back in April, a number
of drivers took part in
a tire test at Indy, and
the results were
disastrous. The tires at
the test were coming
apart much faster than
anyone had anticipated.
What did NASCAR do?
Nothing whatsoever.
“When that’s happening
at the test, you can’t
say ‘Well it will get
better’,” Dale Earnhardt,
Jr. told NASCAR.com.
“That can’t happen
anytime. I don’t care if
it’s just one car on the
track testing. That
can’t ever happen.”
But, it did. And why,
you may ask? Some say it
was Goodyear that
dropped the ball.
“The next time that
Goodyear holds a tire
test, I won’t be there,”
Kasey Kahne said. “If
there’s a problem and
they don’t fix it, why
even bother trying to
work with them?”
The tire fiasco began
when Kurt Busch and
Kevin Harvick tangled on
the track after Busch
cut down a right rear
tire- something that
would also plague other
top contenders such as
Earnhardt, Juan Montoya,
and Matt Kenseth, whose
car disintegrated when
his right rear tire cut
down in the middle of
the backstretch.
“It’s embarrassing,”
Kenseth said after the
race. “The ones that
suffered the most are
the fans because they
paid to watch four hours
of pace laps.”
The teams that remained
in the race had hopes
that even with the
cautions, rubber would
still be laid on the
track and that in turn
would reduce the amount
of tire wear. Those
hopes went up in dust,
literally, as all the
rubber off the tires was
pushed up the track and
out of the racing
groove, making for one
headache-filled day.
Despite the catastrophe
with the tires it was
Jimmie Johnson who
outlasted Carl Edwards,
Denny Hamlin, Elliott
Sadler and Jeff Gordon
to become only the third
multiple winner of the
Allstate 400 at the
Brickyard. Winning crew
chief Chad Knaus praised
NASCAR for their
consistency in yellow
flags.
“I was glad to see that
they (NASCAR) didn’t
have us race the last 40
laps with our fingers
crossed hoping to avoid
trouble,” Knaus said.
“But they stuck to the
plan and threw the
cautions like we all
needed, and it was up to
our pit crew to get the
job done on pit road.”
To put an ironic cap on
a chaos-filled
afternoon, as Johnson
celebrated with a
victory burnout down the
frontstretch, he blew a
right rear tire.
I can just hear NASCAR
secretaries in Daytona
on Monday morning.
“Somebody tell Mr.
France that he’s got
Hoosier on line one,
Firestone on line two,
Tony George on line
three and would you get
him another cup of
coffee? This may take a
while!”
You can contact
Joe at
ewert_joe@yahoo.com
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