#43-Bobby Labonte and #8-Mark Martin were the drivers who were drafted by Goodyear to perform what they both called “a tire check” for the company at Dover International Speedway on Wednesday [9/3]. Labonte and Martin each took to Dover’s high-banked, one-mile oval throughout the day in single-car runs, trying to ensure that Goodyear chooses the best tire compound for the Camping World RV 400 presented by AAA that will be held at the “Monster Mile” on Sept. 21. “It’s just about tires. Goodyear’s brought two different compounds of tires for us to test,” said Labonte. “The tire test sometimes consists of trying different compounds and constructions, but this is more of a ‘tire check’ just to make sure everything’s OK with the tire.” It is standard operating procedure for Goodyear to conduct a tire test at virtually every race track in preparation for a Sprint Cup race. “Goodyear does the picking [of drivers] and they do a lot of testing, so obviously they don’t have me and Mark [Martin] do all of the testing,” Labonte said. “They kind of pick and choose with these guys here and these guys there.” And since Dover is one of the races involved in the Chase, it was no coincidence that none of the championship contenders were asked to participate. “They’ve spread [testing] around a lot this year,” Martin said. “I think when you’re getting right on top of the Chase that they try not to choose Chase guys because that might give them an advantage or something.”(Delaware News Journal)(9-4-2008) UPDATE: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company tested at Dover International Speedway this past Wednesday and confirmed a new right-side tire for when Sprint Cup and Nationwide cars race at the “Monster Mile” on September 19-21. Participating in the test at Dover were Bobby Labonte in the #43 Petty Enterprises Dodge and Mark Martin in the #8 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevy. “We made three long runs on each car during the heat of the afternoon, and were very happy with the results,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of race tire sales. “Our goal was to provide a slight increase in grip without negatively impacting tire temperatures or wear, and we feel like we accomplished just that.” The new right-side code (D-4186) will be paired with the same left-side code (D-4134) that was successfully raced at Dover earlier this spring. Goodyear is in the midst of a busy testing schedule, starting with last week’s visit to Kansas Speedway and this week’s stop at Dover. In the coming weeks, Goodyear will hold confirmation tests at both Atlanta Motor Speedway (Sept. 16) and Homestead-Miami Speedway (Oct. 14), and conduct two large scale tests at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (Sept. 22-23 and Oct. 6-8).(Goodyear PR)(9-5-2008)
