On the Wings of Confusion

H

HardScrabble

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Seems the more info I dig into on TireGate - Round ?? the more conflicting the stories become. And the more I believe it is likely much ado about nothing new.

Tony Stewart attracted attention by complaining publically and viciously (again) about the Goodyear tires at Dover (again). Claims that the next to last set of tires were "bad" and cost him the race were somewhat negated by the fact that despite Tony's claims that no changes other than tires were made the facts as reported during the race disputed the "no change" story. Air pressure adjustments were reported as having been made.

Then we hear that Goodyear is bringing "old" tires to the track. How old is old, no one has made any real statement to that issue. Nor has anyone bothered to relate if "old" tires are common at other tracks. We do know that the tire used at Dover was only introduced one year ago. So one can perhaps assume that the oldest tires could only have been a year or so old.

Then the tale is that Goodyear has scrubbed the date codes off the tires to hide its sins and secrets this necessary information from the teams. Conspiracty is afoot here . Then I find a tire specialist for one of the teams who comes forward and says "all the information is right on the tires". He goes on to say that he was able to mix and match the tires to pevent any surprises. And truth be told, most teams seemed to accomplish this as well.

Another crew chief is reported to say that he bought 17 sets of tires and threw 4 of those sets out. That is reason for complaint of course, if you are paying for the tires. But it also demonstrates that if you do your work, the problems could probably be identified.

And since talk now seems that Gibbs will lose his tire deal (again) because of Tony's remarks, one has to wonder why the team did not identify their problems and if not enough "good" tires had been acquired simply go get more. After all according to the reports the "tire deal" means you don't pay for them, so the cost to Gibbs would have been just about a total of zero.

Perhaps the one thing that everyone agreed on is that Dover is hard to match up to with chassis and tires.. And that teams have pointed to bad tires there for years. Nor have I read or heard of anyone who claims this problem will be avoided in the future, no matter who supplies tires. So has Larry Mac likes to point out when asked about late race pit stops and adjustments. You got what you got, shut up and drive.
 
Looks like you did alot of digging to bring all the facts to light...thkx HS.

(read between the lines: Tony, would you like some cheese to go with your 'whine'?) :lol:
 
Good research and interesting info. It still doesn't erase my own personal experiences.

I gotta agree, I don't believe in the scrubbing of the date info stuff...that's molded right into the sidewall. That would have to damage the tire somewhat.

Here's something that does remind me of, somewhat. Prior to moving Drag Race Eagle production to Chile, each tire was marked in yellow chalk/pencil what the runout was. Somewhere on the tread. That value was based on the actual runout with the tire mounted. Tires from Chile have the mark alright, but it doesn't come from a true runout reading. It's a number on the side of the Mold...then of course, depending on climate the tires coming from the mold set up a bit differently even as the day goes by. So even though I had tires from the same lot, they would always come way out of match...and I'd have to go through the return process to get a matched set.

I would never run from different lots as happened at Dover. Our car would never settle down. (albeit a Drag car). One can only guess how things were mixed and matched at Dover. I could imagine some set ups might be more sensitive than others.

Goodyear burned me way too many times to think they are completely innocent of all wrong doing.
 
Casting blame is ALWAYS easier. And casting it as far away as possible is always important when doing so. But.....there is always a but

The fact that teams have to go to such extremes to get matched tires imo shows very poor quality control on Goodyears part, and puts many lessor funded teams at a severe disadvantage.

as always, your experience, opinions, and mileage may vary
 
*Sigh* It's amazing how easily douped we are by what is "reported" during a telecast.

I was at the Dover race and listening to Tony throughout the entire race. Contrary to what Dave Burns might have reported (yes, I went home and watched the tape afterwards), there were NO adjustments made in air pressure when Tony came back in for his last pit stop. Four new tires and out. That was it.
 
Interesting KMK.....

But what WAS said during the period time surrounding the last two pits stops?

I have no idea what may have been discussed, but I would like to know what Zippy and Tony were planning on both those two stops and the period in between.
 
Tony was pretty quite during the bad tire segment. He came on the radio and said that the set of tires were off and that the rear end of the car was skating around and looked like it could snap around on him at any moment. The car hadn't been loose all day. If anything, it had been tight. The changes made throughout the day weren't very aggressive either because Tony was very happy with the handling and the lap times were getting better towards the end of each run. They took out one round of wedge early in the race and made 1/2 lb. air pressure adjustments once or twice.

On the pit stop in question (bad set of tires) Zippy was calling out lap times and you could really tell a difference. It usually took the car about 15 laps to come in, but on that run it was off right from the front end.

When he came in and changed tires (again NO adjustments) the car was back to being a rocket ship. He was able to put the car wherever he wanted and was making some pretty amazing three-wide passes that TV didn't bother showing.

That may not tell you much, but it's what I heard...
 
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