Goodyear returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway Wednesday for a continuation test to gather data in preparation for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the track July 24-26. Testing this week were #9-Kasey Kahne (Dodge), #17-Matt Kenseth (Ford), #39-Ryan Newman (Chevy) and #83-Brian Vickers (Toyota). Once again, due to rain in the Indianapolis area, Goodyear and the teams were confronted with a ‘green’ race track and a delayed start to their day. After working to get the track rubbered in, teams got down to testing the various tire set-ups Goodyear brought. “We were able to make significant progress laying rubber down on the track surface at Indy during our test with just four cars this week. Having said that, we still have some work to do and some things we’d like to try to enhance overall performance and come up with the optimum tire set-up for the Brickyard 400,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s Director of Race Tire Sales. “With the limited amount of track time we’ve been able to squeeze in over the last two weeks because of rain, we will likely go back to IMS right after the Indianapolis 500 in May in preparation for our multi-car test in mid-June.” The dates for the initial test in June are yet to be determined, while a 12-car test is scheduled to be run at the Speedway June 15-16.(Goodyear PR) AND Ryan Newman described Wednesday’s tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a “small gain” in regards to the number of laps he could run on one set of Goodyears. “The tires [used for racing at Indianapolis] are still not ideal,” he said before Friday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup practice at Richmond International Raceway. The test was the fourth since last year’s fiasco in which NASCAR had to call a competition caution about every dozen laps in the Brickyard 400 because tires were wearing so fast. Newman said he got a maximum of 18 laps on a set of tires during Wednesday’s test. “Last week it was 10 laps,” Newman said. “So it was a gain in number of laps.” Newman said Goodyear may have to consider bringing one set of tires to put rubber on the track during practice for the July race and another to actually race on.(ESPN.com)(5-1-2009)
