Despite some complaints from competitors this weekend, Goodyear marketing manager Justin Fantozzi said he was pleased with the tire his company brought for competition in Sunday’s Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. “I was not pleased at our open house test last fall, and that’s why we came back in December,” Fantozzi said. “Now what we have is a right-side tire that’s harder for better durability and a left side that has better grip in it.” Tony Stewart was highly critical of the tire Friday after qualifying, and other drivers echoed his concerns Saturday after practice. “We’re on the edge,” Gordon said. “It’s a handful. We’re all sliding all over the place.” Michael Waltrip agreed that the tire was a handful, but he saw that as a positive. “That’s what racing is all about,” Waltrip said. “Before, whatever you could give that car, it could take. But now a driver can give it more than it can take, and you have to finesse it. So, yeah, you’re sideways and slipping all over the place, but it should make for some fun racing.” While the drivers can’t agree how the new tire will affect competition Sunday, it has obviously slowed the cars dramatically. Jeff Gordon’s pole run Friday was 185.251 mph – more than eight mph slower than last spring’s pole run by Ryan Newman. “This tire makes it harder to get a hold of,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said after qualifying second Friday. “You can’t enter the corner nowhere near as fast as you used to.” Fantozzi said Goodyear is continuously looking for a better tire, and that won’t change now. “We’re never stagnant, we’ve got a whole crew of engineers back at the shop that you never see, analyzing data and working on next year’s tire,” Fantozzi said. “But at the end of the day, we always err for safety.” (AMS Pit Notes)(3-8-2008)
