After about an hour and a half of practice on the front stretch B O O M a left rear goes and into the wall goes #41 Kurt Busch.He was 5th fastest in practice, now do we watch for more or is this an isolated incident??
Johnny, from what I've heard and seen yesterday, it appears Goodyear has the problem but is assigning the blame to the tire pressures and set ups used by the teams. However, all the teams have indicated they are using Goodyear's recommendations for minimum tire pressure so that seems to indicate set up. The Penske Team, which had experienced really bad tire issues at Fontana, has stated their set up is now far to the side of safety. I understand, as well, that Kurt Busch had a conservative set up. Could be mechanical technology has exceeded tire technology. I hope the race Sunday is not ruled by tire issues.
Goodyear's answer is always the same.........not our fault, we've informed the teams of the correct specifications........ problems are the result of our instructions not being followed.......And maybe that is the truth. But racers, are going to push the envelope......especially now as the cars essentially have no suspension, tire pressureisthe only adjustment.
By the way... the Texas right side tire is the multi-zone with a varying rubber compound. Goodyear plans to use it again at Richmond and possibly at Michigan.
"Rowdy" says he likes the excitement of the tire issue and wants NASCAR to stay away from too many rules:
"It's been more exciting, the racing we've had, with the rules being loosened up this year. So why do we need to add more rules to tighten it back up again?" Busch said. "I am against it. In California, there were people that abused the left-side air pressure. You saw them take off and have way more speed than others. Guys like myself that didn't abuse that left-side air pressure were able to still salvage on and didn't have problems with tires whatsoever. Ultimately we won the race."
Leave it be. Good on Goodyear for trying to bring tyres that wear again. It's all the teams fault for disobeying pressure guidlines. Time to go back to the days when both drivers and teams had to actually 'manage' tyres and provide good racing that we used to see.
