Allstate 400 at The Brickyard

[Hepatic]

it was funny watching that last night, made me think of the F1 farce of a few years ago and remembered that they'd "diamond cut" the surface or something. to not test was just stupid, the amount of rubber coming off those tyres was shocking. be interesting to see how the US public react to that compared to the f1, as far as i could see it was almost as bad apart from NASCAR know how to put on a show, despite the issue

[Fish_Flake]

The race was a joke, and I am not going to give it the dignity of talking about it further. The IndyCar race at Edmonton was not the most exciting in the world, but at least Firestone brought enough tires.

[gomick]

I missed the race, saw Ambrose came 22nd & finished on the lead lap - thats a good drive. did he rub anyone up the wrong way

[gomick]

I missed the race, saw Ambrose came 22nd & finished on the lead lap - thats a good drive. did he rub anyone up the wrong way

[deeks6]

No, he drove great ... first qually then the race. Lots of good guys behind him ... and, for once, he had good stops mostly. Now for the short tracks and the flat ovals!

[col49]

Got up early this morning to watch the 'race', not sure if it was worth it. The F1 farce kept poping into my mind.
Planning on being at next years race, hope they sort this one out. Long way to come from Sydney for what ever I watched this morning

[mattcat]

I notice that people have been referring to this event as a race. I would like to ask that we stop calling it a race, and begin to refer to it as a debacle. I am certainly glad that I did not hop a plane, fly to Indiana, spend money on a hotel room, purchase race tickets, and take time off work to witness this debacle in person. Sadly, it appears as if 250,000 people did.

How, in this day and age, can a "leading" tire company such as Goodyear allow this to happen? Why did they not test the tire? Were they so arrogant to believe that they could figure it out without any track time? And why all the defense of Goodyear from the drivers and crew chiefs? NASCAR must have had a "sit-down" with the drivers after all of the complaints earlier in the year about the tires, kindly asking them "not to be too hard on Goodyear" on national television.

I was looking forward to this debacle, before it turned in to one. IMS is a great circuit and it deserves better than what we witnessed on Sunday. If Firestone can make tires that can handle the surface for 40 laps at 225 mph, surely you would think that Goodyear can design tires that can last for more than 12 laps at 150 through the corners.

I think it's time that we re-introduced tire competition in NASCAR. I'm sure that there is an abundance of companies who would love to have a shot at showcasing their technology to the most watched form of motorsport in North America. If Goodyear is not up to the task (which they have not been all year long), let someone else come in and show that they can do a better job. NASCAR fans should never again have to witness a clown-around like this again.

Maybe we could also change the name of this thread to "The Allstate 17.5 at The Brickyard". Good show, boys.

[V8thunderfan]

Ok .. yup it was a debacle. But you have to give it to the drivers and teams out there.. The show must go on attitude kicked in pretty quickly.
Most F1 outfits would have been packing the trailer at the slightest sniff of a tire issue.. blind stupidity in the face of the risk of losing a tire at full speed in a turn .. maybe it shows the faith the drivers have in the CoT that losing a tire and clattering the wall at 150 is no biggy ..whatever.. but they didn't loose sight of the fact that there was a hell of a lot of people who made the effort to come and watch.
I was disgusted watching the thing unfold on TV BUT .. 24 hours since the debacle I think NASCAR, Goodyear and all the teams made the best of a bad situation. There was never anything that could be done about the tires after the race had started. Sure they should have done their home work and yup a huge company with as much racing experience as Goodyear should have brought a tire up to the job. Its not the first tire issue by a long shot but I think the media stink from this one should prompt action .. in fairness NASCAR aren't the sort of organisation to sit on their hands after a poor show.

I guess we will only know if they did this time next year.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by deeks6

No, he drove great ... first qually then the race. Lots of good guys behind him ... and, for once, he had good stops mostly. Now for the short tracks and the flat ovals!

You know, tracks don't really get flatter than IMS.

[Matt]

Oh, and since they only ran about 16 laps at a time, every restart should have been double file.

[johntt]

Originally Posted by Matt

You know, tracks don't really get flatter than IMS.

And he's done a season of Trucks and two seasons of Nationwide so he's done the high banked tracks a fair few times as well.

Originally Posted by mattcat

I think it's time that we re-introduced tire competition in NASCAR. I'm sure that there is an abundance of companies who would love to have a shot at showcasing their technology to the most watched form of motorsport in North America. If Goodyear is not up to the task (which they have not been all year long), let someone else come in and show that they can do a better job. NASCAR fans should never again have to witness a clown-around like this again.

Agree. Lets see who can make the best tyres.

I reckon Hooiser and BF Goodrich would be in there first if it opened up what with Hoosier supplying testing tyres and ARCA and Goodrich supplying USAR.

And another thing - lets open up fuel supply to competition.

[fieldodreams79]

i'm for a little competition in tires. however, there is already enough gripes and complaints about how one make of car has an advantage over the other. more the one tire manufacturer and fuel supplier will just open the door for more competitive advantage whines...seems there is plenty of that already.

it is time for a change. Goodyear has less than impressive for the last two years and down right terrible this year. I once had faith they would correct their issues, but have totally lost all good thoughts of their tires this weekend. Michilen messed up big once, and were outstead from F1.

bring on the Hoosiers. let Goodyear make tires for Hooters Pro Cup, ASA and the like.

[gsmith2424]

Pro Cup and ASA run on BFG's (Michelin). Also the need speedcar series runs on a Michelin stock car style tire.

[fieldodreams79]

Originally Posted by gsmith2424

Pro Cup and ASA run on BFG's (Michelin). Also the need speedcar series runs on a Michelin stock car style tire.

whoever makes tires for those series is beside the point...Goodyear needs to go back to a lesser series because they have forgot how to make tires for Cup stockcars.

This past weekend's should make that obvious.

[gsmith2424]

Originally Posted by fieldodreams79

whoever makes tires for those series is beside the point...Goodyear needs to go back to a lesser series because they have forgot how to make tires for Cup stockcars.

This past weekend's should make that obvious.

Exactly, its also the same reason they are out of F1, ALMS/Le Mans, and WoO. They just have forgotten how to make good tires.

[gttouring]

the continuing fight amongst the teams was great, those 10 lap shootouts weren't so bad...
but what a disaster, why not let them run and lift to conserve rubber?
or is it that Goodyear brought the wrong compound.

[indycool]

Looks like the big kids are fussin' to fix it..........

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...86/1004/SPORTS

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...S0109/80729051

[fieldodreams79]

i'm not entirely sure NASCAR should apologize for Goodyear's tires (good PR move tho). I'm sure the testing rules NASCAR has in place and the CoT have contributed to this issue, but how many years has Goodyear been making tires? how long has IMS been open?

for the first time since that faithful day in mid summer of 2005; i whole heartedly agree w/ TG.

[V8thunderfan]

NASCAR make changes to testing..

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69516

[fieldodreams79]

maybe i am bit naive, but NASCAR is really to be covering for Goodyear's mistake, IMO.

Goodyear and NASCAR must be REALLY tight. lots of money tied up, i guess.

[FIRE]

Today I watched the "race". What a joke.

[f1toy]

weird weekend.
everyone could see what was coming.
but they kept a max face and said the track would 'rubber in'.
best part. even tony kept quiet. i guess becoming an owner changes things.

[broadrun96]

The tire testing team sounds like a good idea if NASCAR wants to apologize for others mistakes. Not fair to the fans for NASCAR to take the blame though, they should be pushing Goodyear to admit a mistake and Goodyear, or whoever bids next, should be demanding tire test days anytime the racing surface changes. Not simulations or anything else but physical contact with tire on track on the current chassis.
Didn't see Bernie or anybody else taking the flack for Michelin at Indy, and doubt they would if Bridgestone arrived with a poor choice in both compunds; so why did NASCAR? They seem a little to close to Goodyear.

[Neil22]

Yesterday NASCAR said sorry, no refunds, it wasn't Goodyears fault, same old same old. Just more nails in NASCARS coffin.

[silver bullet]

I can understand the no refunds bit. At least some sort of show was put on for the fans and all the teams took part in what turned out to be lots of sprint races. Not like the F1 debacle when 2/3's of the field withdrew.

The thing I can't understand is why NASCAR has constantly defended Goodyear. In almost every other race series in the world the organisers would have been publicly blaming the tyre company and pulling out all the stops to reassure people that it will never happen again.