| | | | | |  | | CIA Stock Photo | Tony Stewart is criticizing Goodyear's tire quality consistency. | | | | MAN SCORNED | Stewart says Goodyear's quality isn't consistent | |
| | The Associated Press HAMPTON, GA -- Tony Stewart took a hard lick last Sunday at Las Vegas when his right front tire blew out.
The two-time Cup champion wasn't injured, but he was still seething after arriving at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
"There isn't anybody, I don't think, who is happy with the tires we have got," Stewart said. "After 10 years in the Cup Series, you learn to be highly disappointed with everything that Goodyear does."
Stewart pointed out that the tires at Las Vegas were inconsistent, with some going a full fuel run without a problem and others wearing quickly.
"I expect it to be wacky this week, too. I hate to say it, but the best thing that Goodyear does is make that gold trophy at the end of the year," Stewart added, referring to the gold car model that is given by the tire company to each year's champion. "That is one thing that they always do right. Everything from that moment on until the end of the year, it's a crapshoot. You never know what you're going to get when you get here.
"This weekend is proof of it. I don't think you will hear a driver here who is happy with the tires we got this weekend."
Justin Fantozzi, marketing manager for Goodyear Racing, the exclusive tire supplier for NASCAR's top three series, said Saturday that the company is still gathering and analyzing data from Las Vegas, but he was confident it brought good tires to Atlanta.
"For 54 years we've been involved in NASCAR," Fantozzi said. "The process that we go about to make the tire recommendations are sound and I have complete confidence in that process and the engineers involved in it.
"I'm completely satisfied (with our Atlanta tire). We've gone through the development process. Very happy with the product we've brought here from the wear standpoint."
Fantozzi said tire development is a never-ending process.
"We're never stagnant," he said. "We're constantly looking and evaluating, looking at race data, looking at practice data, looking at different developments. We have an entire group of engineers that nobody sees at the racetrack because they're back home working on the next generation as far as the development of constructions and compounds."
| | Posted March 08, 2008 , 6:30 pm EST
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