An escalation in speed, evidenced by the 32 cars that broke the track record — set just last September — in qualifying for the MBNA 400 on Friday, has led Goodyear to recommend and NASCAR to grant a 30-minute extension to today’s final Winston Cup practice. The purpose of the extra time is to allow teams preparing for tomorrow’s MBNA 400 to scuff their tires. “Our engineers have notified every crew chief this morning that we recommend scuffing their race tires,” said Wayne Torrence, product manager for Goodyear Racing Division. “You can’t tell much from the short-run practices before qualifying, but none of the longer-run pre-race practices in either Winston Cup or Busch have produced any evidence of a problem. “However, increased speed means increased tire heat and scuffing, which reduces tire temperatures by 10 to 15 degrees, is a proven way to offset that increase,” said Torrence. A second round of grinding Dover Downs International Speedway’s concrete surface during the off-season has made the track smoother and faster, according to two of Friday’s top qualifiers. Third-quickest Mark Martin said, “They’ve made significant progress. See all the white spots on the track? Everywhere it’s white, they’ve ground bumps off.” Outside pole-sitter Dale Jarrett said, “The people here at Dover have done a really good job of smoothing it (the track) out and Goodyear has a good tire here for us. It makes not only for fast speeds here today (in qualifying), but for good racing on Sunday.”(Goodyear PR)
