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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: No News Is Good News For Goodyear
Drivers were very pleased with how Goodyear’s new tire combination performed Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 24, 2009   Indianapolis, IN
Drivers were very pleased with how Goodyear’s new tire combination performed Friday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Last year, tires ruined the Allstate 400 at Brickyard.

This year, tires appear to be a total non-factor.

That’s the preliminary judgment after two practice sessions Friday afternoon at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where drivers were able to practice without incident.

“As far as I am concerned it is a non-issue,” said four-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon. “When we tested here, absolutely non-issue. If there is a little bit of rubber that has been washed off, we will see a little bit of excessive wear the first time out, but this tire is going to lay rubber fast and we’re going to see a great race. We are going full-field stops. I am confident in that. Unless something has changed since testing which I don’t think that is going to happen.”

“Goodyear has done an awesome job,” said Steve Addington, crew chief for the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driven by Kyle Busch. “We haven’t seen any issues yet, but we’ll get into longer runs tomorrow. We made some race runs today, but we didn’t run more that 15 laps on them, just trying to get a baseline for tomorrow. … We made long runs at the tire test and everything looked great, so I think they’ve done an awesome job.”

“They feel OK,” added Bobby Labonte, driver of the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing Ford. “We didn’t run enough laps, but from the test here I felt fine, so I don’t think this should be a surprise. I think we should be OK.”

According to Goodyear Director of Race Tire Sales Greg Stucker, no issues surfaced during Friday’s practice, with the longest green-flag run by any driver on one set of tires being 27 laps.

“I just think it was needed,” Stucker said of Goodyear’s new tire combination for Indy, which was arrived at through a long and costly series of seven tests. “We did our homework. And we just had to make sure we again asked all the tough questions and had good answers. I just think it’s a good, solid recommendation.”

Stucker said that Goodyear spent a lot of time and energy in the process. “A lot of good engineering work went into it,” he said. “A lot of good analysis, a lot of good research. The great thing is, it’s going to help us build from here and at other race tracks.”

And that pleases the drivers.

“I really don’t believe there is any tire issue at all,” said Jeff Burton.

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to



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