Goodyear Implodes at Indy

Well what a  disappointment. Nascar and Goodyear really blew it at what is considered the second biggest race of the year. Now they have to go back to the drawing board because this simply can't happen again at any track.

As I was listening to the race on Sunday, the radio announcers kept repeating, and   repeating the race would be difficult and that was understatement.

Every driver interview had the same words, my car is great, but the tires, my car is  not so great, but the tires. And at NASCARS  top level that just shouldn't be happening.

What should have been an exciting race putting the suddenly stronger Hendrick trio up against the dominant Kyle Busch and race favorite Tony Stewart.  Turned into competition yellow marathon that included six  of 11  and five that were due to on track incidents.

When the green flag did wave after a record 52 caution laps, there was some great passes for the lead and throughout the field. With a total of 1545 green flag passes up some 115 from last year. If it wasn't for tire issues this race would have been probably one of the best so far this year. 

But Goodyear and NASCAR need to take this black eye and  figure out a way to make these cars and tires work. At Atlanta Tony Stewart was brutally honest about how awful the tires were. And many other drivers felt the same way.  But this race makes Stewart's post Atlanta  rant, look like the calm before the storm.

Goodyear's director of race-tire sales, Greg Stucker, said the company would keep working.

"We've got to really sit down and see [if the problem could have been prevented]," Stucker said. "Obviously, the tread wear didn't improve as we thought it would over the course of the afternoon [and] we don't have an answer to why that didn't happen, so we've got to go back and look at it and try to figure out how to make it better."

I don't doubt  they won't fix this, but it came 160 laps to late for this years Brickyard. Dale Earnhardt Jr,  Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch they tested here.

"I helped tire test here [so] blame it all on me if you want to," Earnhardt said, momentarily smiling. "But when I was here [testing], they were wearing out in five laps, too."

So if at the testing they were having issues with the tires why didn't NASCAR and Goodyear work on getting a different tire compound  set up?  

"I'm just shocked they did a tire test here, and this is what they ended up with," Jamie McMurray said.

Kasey Kahne added "they should probably learn something from it instead of bringing us back on something you can't race on."

Why did they bring back the same tire? NASCAR didn't have an answer for that.

They may have assumed that throughout the afternoon the track would gain more grip and the tire issues would get better instead the track and tire issue got worse and left NASCAR scratching there heads and Goodyear on the defensive.

They even had 800 Pocono tires flown in that were suppose to be used for next weeks race to be used if the teams used  there sets of tires up  before the end of the race. 

Why didn't NASCAR knowing the  situation before the race change the tires they used  for the race, knowing they were falling about  before ten laps?

NASCAR  needs to really look at what these drivers are finding out at testing. Because had NASCAR been really aware of what was going on with tires at the Indy tests they would have been able to bring a different tire to the race and  maybe some of  this could have been avoided.

But that is what testing is for so these drivers have an idea of how the track will when they come on Thursday. It shouldn't be on race day that these teams are learning about the compound of a tire.

NASCAR did keep the safety of the drivers first which I commend them. Like the drivers,Goodyear is still trying to find the gray area on these cars. And they have come a long way since  Daytona and they will continue to bring the drivers and crew the best tires for that race.

But this is a example of how being just a little bit off can wreak havoc on the race cars, the drivers, the crews and the race itself.

They did the right thing no matter how disappointing the race was, they made the best call for the safety of the drivers. But it came at the expense of 200,000 fans who couldn't just turn the race off, go  do yard work or laundry they paid good money for a race that is the second most anticipated  race of the season and all they got were  yellow flags and six heats of racing.

And what has become the side story in this weeks race, Jimmie Johnson gave Hendrick Motorsports it third win of the season. Tony Stewart finished a disappointing 23rd. While Jeff Gordon finished fifth behind a strong run by Elliot Sadler and his Dodge who came home fourth. Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin  came home second and third respectively.

Hopefully NASCAR and Goodyear will come better prepared for next year race, and the thing we will remeber  most about the race will be who kissed the bricks not the number of cautions.

But you move forward and learn from Indy and look to next weeks race at Pocono. If NASCAR didn't have days like yesterday we would never have such high expectations as fans.

Qoutes provided by nascar.com

Stats provided by Jayski.com