Judging by the reaction on various message boards and radio shows, many NASCAR fans were shocked by the latest outburst from Tony Stewart.
Moments after Sunday’s Sprint Cup race in Atlanta, the two-time series champion blasted the performance of his Goodyear tires.
Consider this zinger from the always combustible Stewart.
“If I were Goodyear, I’d be really embarrassed about this weekend and what they brought us here,” Stewart said. ...”Most pathetic racing tire in my career.”
Traditional NASCAR fans have heard this all before. Let’s remember that drivers demand perfection, plus it’s the job of a driver and his team to basically destroy tires in pursuit of that goal. It’s called driving on the edge.
Certainly, tires played a big reason in Sunday’s snoozer of a race at Atlanta. Only 13 drivers remained were on the lead lap at the finish as veterans and rookies struggled to maintain control of their slippery cars.
The engineers from Goodyear place their reputation on the line each week, seeking to main that elusive balance between safety and competition with either hard or soft tire compounds.
It’s impossible to keep every driver happy, and Goodyear has been criticized many times before.
A possible remedy to this situation, which seems obvious to everyone in the sport, would be to establish a Goodyear research and development team which would travel to different tracks to test compounds. Another option would be open to ease the current testing restriction on Sprint Cup teams.
Unless something is done, we are sure to see more driver tantrums. It’s just the nature of the sport.
One has to wonder what ruffians such as Curtis Turner and David Pearson would think of Sunday’s controversy. Those guys toughed it out on bias-ply tires at gritty tracks such as Rockingham and Darlington, then came back for more next week.
This game is called racing for a reason.