Dale Earnhardt Jr. cautions NASCAR fans, media not to blame Goodyear for tire issues at Phoenix

Tire failure was a major story for many during this past Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series championship race at Phoenix Raceway. As it would play out, a blown tire would change the outcome of the race.

If not for William Byron‘s tire blow-out with three laps to go, Denny Hamlin would be the 2025 champion. Instead, Kyle Larson is now a two-time champion, thanks a two-tire call on the final pit stop before overtime. Ultimately, these are Goodyear tires but what happened at Phoenix is not its fault, Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. Teams were running low air pressures, creating more speed, yes, but at the risk of failure. As a result, Goodyear should not be blamed.

“Do not blame Goodyear for this sh*t,” Earnhardt said on Tuesday’s Dale Jr. Download. “… If we aren’t careful with our words around Goodyear’s involvement — so like, fans, what Goodyear’s done to soften the tire and make the racing better at Martinsville and all the other short tracks, is a massive gain, and they had a pretty solid tire for this weekend. If we get on social media or if our drivers get out of the car or I come on this show and sh*t on Goodyear, they’re gonna say, ‘We don’t need bad publicity, no matter what. Even if we know the direction we’re going with the tire is correct, we do not need negative publicity, so we will make sure that when we go to the next race, we avoid negative publicity.’

“Which means bricks, and we’re gonna have drivers not being able to pass, we’re gonna have a bad product on the racetrack. So, be careful, though, because if they see negative press around their involvement in the sport, they react to that, and they’ll go change whatever they need to change to avoid that. They want the race to end and not anyone say anything bad about Goodyear.”

Goodyear earned praise from NASCAR for efforts to build softer tires

Goodyear was challenged this season to provide NASCAR teams with a softer tire compound in an effort to produce better racing on short tracks and road courses. The feeling was consensus at Phoenix: the teams were the problem, not Goodyear.

So, Earnhardt is cautioning fans to not call out Goodyear. He was pleased by the progress they made in 2025 and wants to see that continue moving forward.

“Let’s be careful because Goodyear’s going in a really good direction and honestly, we’ve asked for a lot of change for the product on the short track and the road course, and we understand that changing the car is a long process,” Earnhardt said. “… The tire itself, they can change by race-to-race. This has been a very good year for Goodyear.

“A lot of progress made, let’s not derail that getting all up in arms about something that none of us truly have data and information on why those tires are failing, but we can all assume it’s more often something that the teams are doing with gambling to find speed. You can build any tire you want, and teams can find a way to tear it up if there’s speed at running that risk.”