No Changes To The Car In 2009, What About The Tires?
By: Gregg A. Shultz, RaceFanVote.com 10-27-08
After another race where Goodyear was in a sticky situation or not so sticky, depending on how
you want to look at it, NASCAR may want to re-think its no-change decision in 2009.
The tire manufacturer brought a softer [right rear] tire compound to Atlanta, which provided for
about 5 laps of good racing on new tires and then it was back to slipping and sliding with no one
able to pass or race hard. All of the drivers were hanging on for dear life just trying to keep from
spinning out.
Goodyear’s dilemma is that the new style car is top heavy and exerts too much force on the right
side tires, so they are forced to bring an extremely hard tire compound, especially at rough track
like Atlanta. If they didn’t do it, the headlines today would be “More tire failures at Atlanta”.
The problem hasn’t just been limited to ‘rough’ tracks and you could see the same issues at any
of the venues considered to be ‘handling’ tracks.
I am not usually one to jump up and say that NASCAR needs to change whatever is the issue of
the week, but this one has been the issue of the season. If it is a prerequisite that in order to be a
competitive stock car driver you have to know how to drive a sideways car, then let’s put wings
on the cars and let them run on dirt.
Understanding the problem is one thing, but coming up with a solution is another. In a nutshell,
the tires need to be wider because of the higher center of gravity of the new style car. Just like
you would have to buy a wider tire for a top-heavy SUV or pick-up truck over a passenger car,
the same applies for the re-designed Cup car.
It’s not rocket science, but it may take the same amount of money as a space shuttle launch for
Goodyear to re-tool it’s manufacturing facilities for a wider tire, not to mention the cost to the race
teams to retro-fit the wider design. All of the suspension geometry would be affected as well as
anything learned during the season and testing would be useless. The teams would basically be
starting over, just like they had to do with the COT.
With that said, the ‘multi-million-dollar’ question is why NASCAR didn’t think of this when they
were re-designing the car? NASCAR did a good job with the car from a safety aspect of it, but
when you see a driver like Mark Martin go 2-laps down with less than a third of the race
completed at Atlanta, there’s a problem.
Martin, along with numerous other drivers, didn’t forget how to drive a racecar and I think that a
lot of the fans are thinking the same thing too.
With the cost of changing to a wider tire considered, it was understandable why NASCAR
wanted to give the teams a season to see if they could make adjustments to the cars to
overcome the tire woes. I would say that we are far enough into the season to say that the
answer is ‘no’.
Goodyear may not be chomping at the bit to commit to a re-design of their racing Eagles, but
from a promotional stand point, how much advertising value are they getting from being the tire
supplier to NASCAR?
When the talk every week is whether the tires will be so hard that the cars will be sliding around
or they will be blowing out, that’s not the sort of press that will encourage people to run out and
buy a set of Goodyears for their personal car.
The new style car was a complete re-design from the ground up and the key word in that
statement is ‘ground’. It has turned out to be a major over-sight in the overall process and it will
be interesting to see how NASCAR addresses the issue going forward.
By: Gregg A. Shultz, RaceFanVote.com 10-27-08
After another race where Goodyear was in a sticky situation or not so sticky, depending on how
you want to look at it, NASCAR may want to re-think its no-change decision in 2009.
The tire manufacturer brought a softer [right rear] tire compound to Atlanta, which provided for
about 5 laps of good racing on new tires and then it was back to slipping and sliding with no one
able to pass or race hard. All of the drivers were hanging on for dear life just trying to keep from
spinning out.
Goodyear’s dilemma is that the new style car is top heavy and exerts too much force on the right
side tires, so they are forced to bring an extremely hard tire compound, especially at rough track
like Atlanta. If they didn’t do it, the headlines today would be “More tire failures at Atlanta”.
The problem hasn’t just been limited to ‘rough’ tracks and you could see the same issues at any
of the venues considered to be ‘handling’ tracks.
I am not usually one to jump up and say that NASCAR needs to change whatever is the issue of
the week, but this one has been the issue of the season. If it is a prerequisite that in order to be a
competitive stock car driver you have to know how to drive a sideways car, then let’s put wings
on the cars and let them run on dirt.
Understanding the problem is one thing, but coming up with a solution is another. In a nutshell,
the tires need to be wider because of the higher center of gravity of the new style car. Just like
you would have to buy a wider tire for a top-heavy SUV or pick-up truck over a passenger car,
the same applies for the re-designed Cup car.
It’s not rocket science, but it may take the same amount of money as a space shuttle launch for
Goodyear to re-tool it’s manufacturing facilities for a wider tire, not to mention the cost to the race
teams to retro-fit the wider design. All of the suspension geometry would be affected as well as
anything learned during the season and testing would be useless. The teams would basically be
starting over, just like they had to do with the COT.
With that said, the ‘multi-million-dollar’ question is why NASCAR didn’t think of this when they
were re-designing the car? NASCAR did a good job with the car from a safety aspect of it, but
when you see a driver like Mark Martin go 2-laps down with less than a third of the race
completed at Atlanta, there’s a problem.
Martin, along with numerous other drivers, didn’t forget how to drive a racecar and I think that a
lot of the fans are thinking the same thing too.
With the cost of changing to a wider tire considered, it was understandable why NASCAR
wanted to give the teams a season to see if they could make adjustments to the cars to
overcome the tire woes. I would say that we are far enough into the season to say that the
answer is ‘no’.
Goodyear may not be chomping at the bit to commit to a re-design of their racing Eagles, but
from a promotional stand point, how much advertising value are they getting from being the tire
supplier to NASCAR?
When the talk every week is whether the tires will be so hard that the cars will be sliding around
or they will be blowing out, that’s not the sort of press that will encourage people to run out and
buy a set of Goodyears for their personal car.
The new style car was a complete re-design from the ground up and the key word in that
statement is ‘ground’. It has turned out to be a major over-sight in the overall process and it will
be interesting to see how NASCAR addresses the issue going forward.
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