Drivers confident in Goodyear tires

LONG POND — Anyone who comes to Pocono Raceway expecting a replay of last weekend’s tire troubles might be running with a couple of loose lug nuts, NASCAR drivers say.

Coming off an embarrassment at the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard – where extreme tire wear on the new Car of Tomorrow caused an extraordinary 52 laps to be driven under caution – drivers view Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 as a chance to rebound with a strong showing.

“Last week was unfortunate,” said Kasey Kahne, who won the Pocono 500 in June. “I’m sure that won’t happen again.”

To ensure that, Goodyear – NASCAR’s official tire company – will use the identical tire for Sunday’s race that drivers used at Pocono in June.

“I think this is actually a really good tire they brought here for the first race,” Kahne said. “And it’s the same one we brought here for this weekend.

Drivers didn’t have that confidence at the Brickyard in Indianapolis last Sunday.

After some drivers had a few tires shredded early in the Allstate 400, and with other competitors complaining the tires weren’t taking to the track, NASCAR officials allowed only short intervals of racing. The longest stretch drivers raced without a caution flag spanned 13 laps.

“At the end of the day,” Brickyard winner Jimmy Johnson said, “we need to find out why the tire rubber would not lay into the track, why it turned into a powder.”

Added Denny Hamlin, “That track did something we’ve never seen it do before, that’s not take rubber. I’ve never seen it not take rubber.”

Although the tires that drivers will use at Pocono were similar to the ones NASCAR ran on in Indianapolis, they aren’t an exact match. Granted, a few truckloads of tires were shipped from Pocono to Indianapolis for emergency reserve, but they weren’t used last week. And both the track surface and configuration on the regular oval at Indianapolis differ drastically from the tri-oval at Pocono Raceway.

“That was an anomaly,” Carl Edwards said of last week’s run. “Last week’s over and done. I’m sure everyone has a plan to fix it.”

More than a few drivers said it was a matter to fitting the right tire to NASCAR’s Car of Tomorrow.

“We’ve got a different world today with this car,” Johnson said. “You have a lot of things that are promoting the abuse of the tire.”

The debacle at Indianapolis could have been avoided, Dale Earnhardt Jr. believes, with a little more practice.

Earnhardt was one of the few drivers who did a day of testing at Indianapolis, and said the Brickyard could have benefited from a two-day test session similar to the one most drivers completed at Pocono two weeks before the Pocono 500.

“Track surface and the lack of testing and the lack of rubber during the race,” Earnhardt Jr. said, identifying the instigators of last week’s problems. “The track does directly have an affect on tire wear,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Anyone who wants to say otherwise is just in denial.”

“Every year to go to Indy,” Burton said, “it’s the only race that we go to all year long where we only run five or six laps of practice before the tire is completely worn out. Indy doesn’t deserve a bye. They do have something to do with it (tire wear).”