Steve Wilson, The Examiner
2008-03-11 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Kyle Busch made history as he took Toyota to victory lane for the first time in a regular season Sprint Cup series race, but the post-race conversation had little to do with the Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and everything to do with — of all things — tires.

“I’ve been racing 28 years and been part of a lot of professional series, and never seen a quality of racing tire like I’ve seen this weekend,” Tony Stewart, who finished second, said. “If Goodyear thinks that was their best effort [Sunday], I’m really disappointed, because these teams spend so much money to come here and the competition is so close.”

Stewart has had a tough time the past few weeks with Goodyear’s tires. Last week at Las Vegas, he wore down a front-right tire, causing it to blow out and send him crashing into the wall. This week, Goodyear offered up a harder, more durable compound for Atlanta, and it drew criticism for its poor handling.

So what’s the perfect balance?

Stewart is quick to point out the problem, but not so eager to offer a solution.

“What’s it going to take to do that?” he said. “I don’t know. We don’t have the answers. I’m not any smarter than their engineers are.”

Not to further disappoint Stewart, but the teams and drivers are more responsible for the problem then they would care to admit.

Goodyear is not the only culprit here. With NASCAR’s rules, teams are allowed to use bump-stops on the shocks, which almost eliminate suspension travel at high speed. When teams combine the bump-stops with an aggressive suspension setup, tires wear out in a hurry.

“They’re putting a lot of load on the right-front tire with the bump-stop,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. “It’s not because it is a bad tire…you wear them down to the air, but you just need to slow down if you’re wearing tires out that bad.”

The problem is race car drivers are not terribly interested in slowing down, so tires wear quickly and fail. If Goodyear reacts by providing a harder, safer tire that does not handle as well, the drivers blame the tires for a bad race.

Goodyear is stuck in the middle.

Was the racing in Atlanta disappointing?

Yes. We did not see the great side-by-side action and the thrilling finish that we are used to at the fastest track in NASCAR.

At the same time, however, these are the best drivers in the world, and they get paid a lot of money to put on the best show possible. Surprisingly enough it was Busch, a driver known for voicing his opinion, who put the situation in proper perspective.

“We all had the same tire,” he said. “They’re going to pay somebody to win the race, so that’s what I focused on. I just drove the thing to the best of my ability.”

There is no question that something needs to be done, and Goodyear, the drivers and NASCAR need find a solution. The only thing worse than a boring race is listening to the best drivers in the world complain about tires after the race.

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