Goodyear will work with NASCAR drivers, teams to take closer look at Bristol race
Following an exhilarating afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway, Goodyear is planning to work with NASCAR to take a closer look at what went wrong with their tires on Sunday.
Many around NASCAR believe the tire wear was too big of a jump for one race, but a myriad of factors contributed to the change, according to Greg Stucker, Goodyear director of racing. The company is going to do all they can to find out where it all went wrong.
“That’s we’re really trying to figure out, you know. I think there’s one, there is one difference with a race track, the application of the resin instead of PJ1. Trying to understand how much impact that’s having,” Stucker said, regarding the difference in Sunday’s race and last fall’s race. “Obviously, you said it. This was the same package that we raced here, very successfully, in the fall. That goal was to generate more tire wear, and we did that, at the right level. You know, we ran full fuel stops, and everything looked very, very good. So we really didn’t have any concerns coming here this weekend.
“The weather has been good, unlike the forecast coming in, but so that’s what we’re trying to understand. Exactly why the racetrack is behaving differently than it did last fall.”
During the race, Goodyear actually was able to provide teams with an extra set of tires from last fall’s group of tires. Continuing, Stucker elaborated on how they went about distributing those sets to teams.
“We always have extra tires on hand, right. In a lot of times, we’ll just have previous production on hand just in case of emergency. Obviously, that’s what we had this weekend,” Stucker explained. “So we were able to pull those out, and you know, make sure everybody had the same set. So everybody got the same allotment of the fresh production, and the one set of tires from last fall.”
Moving forward, Stucker revealed that Goodyear and NASCAR will meet this week to figure out where it all went wrong, and then try to get as much feedback from drivers and teams as possible, as the manufacturer looks to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“We meet with NASCAR every week, and he kind of talked about the previous weekend’s races. So we’ll do that obviously on Tuesday,” Stucker delineated. “Probably have one more discussion tonight, and understand exactly what everybody saw. But then, you know, obviously we will go for the feedback from the teams and drivers.
“That’ll be very important. And kind of see what they felt. Then we’ll decide what to do. More than likely we’ll come back here and test, and get ready for the fall.”
Alas, it’ll be fascinating to see if Goodyear makes any changes, or if it was Bristol that’s the culprit for Sunday’s race. Time will tell, but NASCAR and the tire manufacturer are going to get to the bottom of it.