It should have been a great race.

NASCAR’s annual pilgrimage to the Brickyard has become one of the sport’s most prestigious events behind the Daytona 500.

But instead of being treated to an exciting race or a storybook finish, though, thousands left the Indianapolis Motor Speedway wondering about one thing: tires.

By this point, everyone is familiar with what happened during the Allstate 400: Goodyear offered a tire for the race that wore out so quickly it prompted NASCAR to take an unprecedented course of action. Race officials called a competition caution every 10 to 15 laps to allow teams to replace their rapidly deteriorating rubber.

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Goodyear has taken most of the blame for the situation, and it is easy to criticize NASCAR’s much-maligned tire manufacturer. After all, the company has had its share of troubles in the past.

This time, however, it was not Goodyear’s fault.

A few months ago in Atlanta, Goodyear faced a similar situation by using a track that wore out tires quickly. The company’s response was to use a harder compound — one that was safer and more durable, but did not handle as well.

The tires did not fail that day, but the lack of side-by-side racing drew harsh criticism from drivers and the media. When Goodyear discovered during its tire test for this past Sunday’s Brickyard that the track was even more abrasive than the one in Atlanta, the company was in a no-win situation.

“They said during the tire test they had some other tires that did wear better, but the drivers didn’t like them,” Denny Hamlin said. “They were too hard — so had we come here with a hard tire, then you’d have all the drivers complaining [that] you can’t race.”

Of course, the issue could have been resolved beforehand if there had been a test session at the Brickyard, but NASCAR allowed crew chiefs to vote on what tracks to test at this year, and Indy did not make the list — a mistake by teams that could have prevented Sunday’s boring race.

“To find out what we really need, you can’t come here and just do it with two or three cars and a tire test,” Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “A race this big, we should have everybody here and test, especially with this car.”

With the drivers asking for a soft tire and nobody asking for a full test session in the Car of Tomorrow at Indy, Goodyear was left to do the best it could with the situation it was given. Everyone assumed the track would fill-in with rubber from the soft tires and get better, but Goodyear had no way of knowing that would not happen.

Everyone makes mistakes, but this is the Brickyard — one of the biggest races of the year at the most storied track in auto racing. NASCAR should have mandated a test session, and drivers should have been willing to compromise on tires.

Then, maybe, we could have had a great race.

Get up to speed on the latest in NASCAR — listen to Wilson’s Race Report every weeknight at 8:20 on 93.1 WPOC.