Goodyear, Bad Weekend

I can’t believe I’m saying this. See, I’m usually the first to step up to criticize NASCAR for its shortcomings — and there are many — but this time, it wasn’t NASCAR’s fault.

It’s easy to blame the sanctioning body for the fiasco that was the Allstate 400 at The Brickyard, because it was NASCAR who threw the yellow flags that divided the race into some bizarre caricature of a race — a cross between a 400-mile Cup event and a Saturday Night Special, complete with nearly a dozen heat races. Really though, there was little else NASCAR could have done. There is, however, something it can do to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

Perhaps NASCAR was a little too liberal with the cautions. It might have been left up to teams when to come in, knowing the tires were terrible and if they chose to wreck rather than pit, well, that would be their problem. But safety is NASCAR’s problem, too, and it did what was ultimately the safest course of action for the competitors. In short, NASCAR decided that mandatory cautions were better than those coming from a dangerous crash, and that was the right call.

Perhaps NASCAR could have had an open test at the Brickyard after a three-team tire test session yielded exactly what we saw on Sunday. But when NASCAR asked crew chiefs where they would prefer to test, most said Pocono. There is heavy criticism that the sanctioning body does not listen to teams enough, but in this situation, it did, and in the end, it backfired.

NASCAR VP of Competition Robin Pemberton apologized for the Indianapolis debacle on Tuesday, and maybe he should have — after all, someone had to. But again, this was not NASCAR’s fault.

The fault for the tire problems at Indianapolis — and the entity that should be apologizing — lies squarely with the company that provided the rubber: Goodyear. The tire company has an exclusive contract with NASCAR to produce tires for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series. That means it is Goodyear’s responsibility to provide tires that are safe and that race well at different tracks. This is a huge responsibility, and Goodyear owes to the drivers, teams and fans to deliver on it.

The tires used in Sprint Cup are the same compounds used in the Nationwide Series at companion events. The problem here is that both series don’t run the same cars. The Car of Tomorrow is the current car in the Cup Series, while the Nationwide cars resemble the “old” Cup cars. Nationwide cars are lighter with a different center of gravity. The Car of Tomorrow’s high center of gravity, loads the right side tires much more heavily in the corners. You don’t have to be a physics expert to know that the increased weight load on the right-side tires causes them to wear more quickly.

Sure, it’s cost and labor efficient to use the same tire compounds for both series, but it is also both dangerous and disappointing. Goodyear has provided tires for the CoT for a year and a half, which should have been enough time to develop a CoT-specific compound that works with, not against, the car.

This issue boiled over at Indy, but it’s been a problem all year. Chad Knaus, the two-time reigning champion crew chief and one of the smartest individuals in the garage, has been openly critical of the tire, stating that tires designed for the old car constitute a large part of the performance issues that show up on track with the current car. It is clear that Goodyear needs to be concentrating the energy of their racing division on creating tire compounds specifically for the CoT. If it can’t, NASCAR simply needs to find a company that can.

I’m not suggesting another tire war, because having two companies sparring over tire compounds in the past led to compounds being developed too quickly and without adequate safety testing. But what does need to happen is the methodical development of series-specific tires with extensive tire testing. And if another company can do that better than Goodyear, so be it. 

Hoosier Tire and Rubber got a bad rap during the tire wars of the 1990s for its role in some serious crashes. However, Hoosier has come a long way, supplying tires for ARCA teams as well as in various lower NASCAR series. If these tires are safe for NASCAR’s more inexperienced teams, surely they can be made safe for the big boys.

Bridgestone-Firestone also makes racing tires for the IRL’s open wheel series, and its tires produce outstanding racing without compromising safety.

In the past, having the same tires created parity, but now the CoT provides that with its lack of adjustability. Letting teams choose from multiple tire manufacturers just as they do other equipment — from driving suits to carburetors to engine oil — would give teams another variable to work with, making racing more exciting for fans and safer for drivers. In the end, giving teams the choice of a tire brand would provide for better racing.

So what NASCAR needs to do to prevent another Indy fiasco is two-fold: It need to issue an ultimatum to Goodyear to make tires specifically for the CoT. If Goodyear can’t do that then NASCAR needs to take its business elsewhere. In the process of tire development, NASCAR needs to insist on larger tire tests, as three cars per session is simply not enough to recreate race conditions. NASCAR should then insist on more teams at said tests — at least one team per multi-car operation and all single car teams. While that may give single-car teams an advantage, they already find themselves in such a hole that any ground made up would be negligible.

NASCAR handled the Indianapolis race the best it could; it was Goodyear who failed miserably, and it is Goodyear who should ultimately pay the piper if it cannot fix the problem.

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