NASCAR's Tire of Tomorrow

NASCAR's primary focus this race season has been on the Car of Tomorrow (now the Car of Today) being run at every race.  The governing body brought the development of this car to fruition in an effort to improve safety for the driver.

NASCAR also developed the COT in an effort to improve "the show."  Leadership wanted tighter racing, better passing, and closer finishes at every race venue.

While drivers and fans agree that some "tweaks" need to be made on the COT, NASCAR seems to have accomplished their two major goals.  With the exception of a few bumps and bruises and Dario Franchitti's broken ankle, there have not been (knock on wood) any serious injuries in the COT this season.

At least during the Chase, the COT also seems to have reached the goal of tighter racing and much more exciting race finishes.  Almost every race to date in the 10 race battle for the championship has come down to the wire, often ending with a last lap pass for the win.

But NASCAR, and its partner Goodyear, now faces another safety and racing "show" issue and that is in the area of tires.  This season has most certainly seen its share of tire troubles. 

This weekend at Talladega, there were tire issues early in the race.  Just ask Denny Hamlin, who ended up staying overnight in the hospital with a possible concussion and foot injury, about his tire troubles.  He was in the lead when his tire blew, sending him hurtling into the wall.

Thankfully, Goodyear officials at Talladega quickly diagnosed the problem, determining that teams were using too much pressure.  Once this word spread on pit road, the tire problems calmed down for the remainder of the race.

The greatest tire debacle of this season, however, occurred at the famed Brickyard at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  During this awful race, tire after tire blew after just a few laps of racing. 

NASCAR ultimately compensated by throwing precautionary cautions every ten laps or so in an effort to protect the drivers from the blown tires.  It was one of NASCAR's and Goodyear's most shameful moments in the race season, and was a terrible "show" for the fans. 

In an effort to address these problems, NASCAR and Goodyear went back to work this week on the tire problems.  A testing session with several drivers and teams was set up at Indy in order to find out what happened at the last race and correct it for the upcoming year.

The tire testing began on Monday and is expected to last through Wednesday, weather permitting.  Some of the drivers participating in the test include Kasey Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex, and Mark Martin.

A spokesperson for Goodyear announced that, based on the feedback from the drivers and teams, they had gotten to the bottom of the tire issue.  They determined it was not a manufacturing problem, but simply a problem of choosing too hard of a compound for the tire for that particular track. 

With the too hard of a compound, once the tread wore off, the tires disintegrated into particles too small to put down the appropriate amount of rubber on the race track.  This led to the lack of grip and the inability of the tires to stand up to the pressures of the race track.

While NASCAR and Goodyear were feeling very positive about their discoveries, have they really and fully addressed these critical tire problems?  Only time—and future racing—will tell. 

But just as they devoted themselves to improving safety and "the show" by developing the Car of Tomorrow, the governing body and the tire carrier must now work on the Tire of Tomorrow just as diligently.

They must—or the drivers and the fans alike—will suffer the consequences. 

 Photo Credit Gary Buchanan at the Monster Mile