Goodyear Tire and NASCAR officials, along with Sprint Cup Series drivers Kasey Kahne and Mark Martin [tested the #5 Hendrick Chevy], expressed optimism at the progress made in tire testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A total of 14 Sprint Cup Series drivers tested Oct. 6-7 at IMS as Goodyear developed a tire for the 16th Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, scheduled for Sunday, July 26, 2009. The final day of the three-day test, Wednesday, Oct. 8, was canceled due to rain. This was the second Goodyear test at IMS in three weeks and, according to Stu Grant, Goodyear’s general manager of worldwide racing, the effort is paying dividends. “We tested with Kyle Petty a couple weeks ago, saw some very, very encouraging results out of that test,” he said. “Now, of course, we’re here with a lot more cars. We’ve got what we believe to be a good start toward a 2009 race recommendation. Just look at the racetrack, you can see there’s a groove in the racetrack where the cars are going around, just kind of looking normal. We’ve got rubber debris on the outside of the groove, and we’re seeing some significant improvements in wear.” Goodyear also plans to test again with multiple cars in April 2009 at IMS, Grant said. Detailed laboratory analysis after the 2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, which was slowed by frequent competition cautions, identified the causes of excessive tire wear during that event, Grant said. The 2008 event was the first for NASCAR’s “Car of Tomorrow” at IMS. “We saw that the additional load and additional slip that the right rear tire saw was considerably more than it was in 2007,” Grant said. “Then we started to do some laboratory analysis to try to figure out, “OK, why did we see that kind of wear debris, why did the track not rubber in?’ To make a long story short, what we found out was that the additional load and slip that the right rear tire saw changed the particle size of the wear debris.” Goodyear brought tires to this test that lasted longer and will produce better racing next year at IMS, Sprint Cup stars Mark Martin and Kasey Kahne said.(IMS PR)(10-9-2008) UPDATE: “We are extremely pleased that the efforts of all of our engineers and research team has paid off,” said Stu Grant, Goodyear’s general manager of worldwide racing. “Our test program has been built on the knowledge that the team has gained over the last several months and the results indicate that we will be able to provide an excellent tire for next years race at Indy. We had several tire set-ups that ran full fuel stops and provided good grip and good wear.” Another important element to this week’s test was measuring the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track surface throughout the test in an effort to quantify how the surface changes during the “rubbering in” process. But while Goodyear has seen many gains, the work is far from over. “Right now we plan to go back to re-test some of our results on a ‘green’ race track this coming Monday,” added Grant. “Then, of course we will return to Indianapolis next spring to determine the tire that we will provide for the race, but we are very pleased with the results of our track testing programs so far this fall.” This Monday’s session will have the #10 Gillett-Evernham Motorsports team with driver A.J. Allmendinger participating.(Goodyear PR)(10-11-2008)
