There was no visible Firestone branding on the tires, car or uniforms - even the tire machines were brandless during a "technical exercise to try and develop current stock car technology" held earlier this week at Homestead. (Image: SPEED)

"We've been working for a long time indoors in a laboratory but we couldn't learn anymore so it was time to go out to a track."

Pruett was Firestone's test driver back in 1994 for its re-entry into Championship Auto Racing Teams and the Indianapolis 500 and Speyer was pleased with the veteran's feedback.

"We were quite encouraged," he said. "We ran a lot of different constructions and compounds and we learned a ton. Like I said, this environment is so much different than Indy cars.

"We used the road course because the natural progression is to start out with an easier application and work our way up to a superspeedway. We've got things started, we'll gather our results and we'll continue testing in 2009."

Goodyear has been under verbal attack the past couple years because of its rash of blown tires. Two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have been outspoken about the unreliability of the tires from race-to-race.

This past Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis was Goodyear's darkest day as tires only lasted 10-12 laps and the race was a fiasco of mandatory yellows and pit stops to try and avoid accidents.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEEDtv.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or Speed Channel

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DECEMBER
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