Sprint Cup drivers pleased with tires after tests
March 9, 2010
DARLINGTON, S.C. (AP)—Elliott Sadler had no complaints for Goodyear, only forthose drivers griping about the manufacturer.
When asked what it meant that at least a dozen competitors faced tiretrouble at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, Sadler was quick with a response:“Yeah, but there were 37 others that didn’t,” he said Tuesday at DarlingtonRaceway.
Sadler and fellow Sprint Cup racers Marcos Ambrose and Clint Bowyer came tothe track “Too Tough To Tame” to shake out the dormant raceway and giveGoodyear some insight about what tire to bring to the Southern 500 in May.
Sadler said those racers bothered by tire compounds should instead look totheir raceshops for better setups designed to minimize tire wear and maximizethe rubber.
“I think it’s the best Goodyear tire we’ve had in Atlanta in years,”Sadler said. “You can race really hard with it. You can race side-by-side.”
Sadler acknowledged the complaints of some teams. “I know Denny Hamlin hadone, he had a fast race car,” Sadler said. “But he ran over something. To me,that’s not a tire issue.”
Ambrose and Bowyer were also complimentary about Goodyear’s product.
“I had a flat in Atlanta and I think that was my first flat tire in threeyears,” Bowyer said.
And Bowyer had more praise for Goodyear. He thought the tire brought to theCalifornia race last month showed vast improvement over what they’ve raced onthere in the past. At Atlanta, “we were just as much to blame as them.Everybody was searching around for” the best air pressure levels.
“A lot of times, you can’t always blame Goodyear,” Bowyer said.
Bowyer’s RCR Racing team tried different levels to see what worked best,pushing him from two laps down into the top 10.
“It wasn’t like we put a different tire company on it, we just trieddifferent things within the boundaries,” Bowyer said.
Ambrose continued to have problems at Darlington—not with tires, though,but with the track.
He finished 33rd here in the Southern 500 a year ago, his first time drivinga Sprint Cup race at Darlington. It took him only a few laps Tuesday to spinout.
“I reaffirmed that the tire here was difficult to drive on,” he said witha smile. “I couldn’t get around this place.”
Darlington has changed the past two years since a multimillion dollarrepaving gave the track a modern, slick surface. On top of that, Bowyer said theracers found a layer of grit and sand they needed to blow off with a few lapsbefore they could get meaningful data that might help next May.
The machines used also featured the new spoilers NASCAR plans to debut inMartinsville on March 28.
Sadler said former Sprint driver Brett Bodine helped with the adjustment tothe spoiler, which Sadler thinks might be the answer to keeping cars from goingairborne.
Brad Keselowski lifted off the track surface last Sunday in a frighteningwreck after getting intentionally hit by Carl Edwards. Edwards was placed onthree weeks probation by NASCAR earlier Tuesday.
Sadler wasn’t too concerned about Edwards’ retaliation, a practice he sayshas gone on between drivers for generations. What worried him most was howquickly Keselowski’s car took to the air and how it could’ve landed in thestands with horrifying results.
“The spoiler seems to better at keeping these cars on the ground, which iswhat we need,” Sadler said.
Bowyer expects an exciting, tightly contested race at Darlington in twomonths, helped by a Goodyear tire that will bring out the drivers’ best.
Sure, there are legitimate issues at times with Goodyear. The manufacturer,though, has learned from its breakdowns and improved, Bowyer said.
“I feel like they’ve done a good job of stepping up to the plate this yearand creating some good racing for us so far,” Bowyer said.
