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Rubber, Rubber everywhere–and not a Bit Sticking to the Track

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by Steve Wronkowicz

I am co-host of the syndicated radio show: ON PIT ROW. Over ten years on the air and three on the net; see what can happen when I don't let the facts get in the way of my opinions.

July 29, 2008 5:26 am CDT 6 Comments

How many times Sunday did you hear that “The track didn’t rubber up”?

Untitled PostMany casual fans may have had to be schooled in the phrase “rubbering up a race track”. They got quite the quick education on Sunday at Indianapolis. Fans have put up with bad racetrack tire combinations before. Charlotte’s Lowes Motor Speedway and the Goodyear boys have been at odds several times in the last few years.

Indy itself had one of the most catastrophic tire scenarios in modern times when the Formula 1 gents visited in 2006. That resulted in Michelen pulling their tires out of competition for the race weekend, leaving only six cars to start the US Grand Prix. That could have been avoided with a little flexibility of their rules.

NASCAR found out that the track wasn’t taking rubber on Friday. And it didn’t take rubber on Saturday like it had in the past. In previous years the complaining about poor tire wear usually disappeared about race time on Sunday when the laps that the cars had turned in practice and qualifying had left a significant amount of rubber imbedded in the abrasive asphalt of Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But this time around, the new heavier car with more side pressure on the tires was turning the tires into dust that couldn’t adhere to the track, making for racing that was not what NASCAR, drivers , teams and especially fans wanted to see. It was interesting how Rick Hendrick, Richard Childress, Ray Evernham and Joe Gibbs all went public with their support of NASCAR and Goodyear.

Jimmy Johnson had this to say about the race in his post race news conference:

“I commend NASCAR in handling today like they did. I’m sure it was long and boring today, but NASCAR called a great race. They kept us from tearing up racecars for no reason. We had a couple of guys blow tires out. But I think as an entire sport, we did everything we could today. We’ve learned a lot. We’ll take our lumps, I’m sure, and come back next year and put on a better show.”

And that leads us to this weeks BUZZ ON PIT ROW:

What else could NASCAR have done to solve their tire/ race problem?

Let us know your thoughts and we may use them on this weeks ON PIT ROW radio show. Listen live at www.onpitrow.com from 5-7pm ET and then for more racing talk INSIDE ARCA takes the stage from 7-8:30pm ET at www.arcaracing.com.

photo credit: Icon Sports Media

Filed under: Car of Tomorrow, Hendrick Motorsports, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Inside ARCA, Jimmy Johnson, NASCAR, NASCAR & the Media, NASCAR Bidness 

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Comments

6 Responses to “Rubber, Rubber everywhere–and not a Bit Sticking to the Track”

  1. User Avatar Marc on July 29th, 2008 2:17 pm

    Um…that happened in 2005, not 2006.

  2. User Avatar Bram on July 29th, 2008 3:04 pm

    What could they have done… Used the old car… and that’s about it…

  3. User Avatar Charlie Turner on July 29th, 2008 5:18 pm

    Test the tire. Until you know what’s going to happen.

  4. josh on July 29th, 2008 5:44 pm

    I feel that NASCAR did the best they could considering the situation, but it was far from a smooth recovery. Maybe they should try an open tire test before something similar happens again.

  5. User Avatar Luke on July 30th, 2008 8:42 pm

    At least the phrase “and not a drop to drink” didn’t come into play.

    Although by the time this fiasco was over, there probably wasn’t much left.

    Hindsight is 20/20. However, they had enough indication of what was to come to avoid it or at the very least minimize it. Where NASCAR failed is in reading the signs and having the sack to make the right decision.

    They knew the tires would be a big problem. All the signs were there, and then some. Goodyear flew in additional tires, so NASCAR could have just as easily asked for harder tires, held an extra happy hour Sunday morning, and make the best of it.

    Instead, the heads were hidden in the sand on a whimsical prayer that it would play out like it had in the past. Even though all the signs pointed to it not, they ignored them.

    Applaud them for forcing safety on the teams, shame them for failing to stand up and make the call they knew they should have.

  6. User Avatar Steve Wronkowicz on July 30th, 2008 9:38 pm

    ‘05, ‘06–time flies–sorry for the mis-speak. Luke you hit it dead square man. NASCAR, did have some options, but they did choose to ignore the signs and do nothing.

    As Josh said; NASCAR gets props on two levels, one for making sure the event went on regardless of the circumstances and secondly for keeping drivers safe.

    They could have done better, they could have done worse. NASCAR and Goodyear were not prepared–period.

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