CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR apologized Tuesday for the tire fiasco that ruined its prestigious race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and vowed to avoid a repeat.
A durability issue with the tires Goodyear brought to Indy forced NASCAR to call cautions every 10 to 12 laps Sunday to slow the action and force teams to change their tires before they failed. The longest run under the green flag was 13 laps, and Jimmie Johnson claimed the victory at the end of a seven-lap sprint to the finish in the second-slowest race in the 15 years NASCAR has competed at the Brickyard.
The drivers were disgusted, fans were frustrated and NASCAR is still trying to figure out why things went so wrong.
“I can’t say enough how sorry we are, and it’s our responsibility being NASCAR that we don’t go through this situation again,” said Robin Pemberton, vice president of competition. “The race didn’t come off like we had hoped, the fans didn’t get what they exactly wanted and we’ll do everything in our power — it won’t happen again, I can tell you that much.”
NASCAR must first figure out why Goodyear’s tires struggled so mightily at Indianapolis. The only thing certain is that the tire compound Goodyear selected was not strong enough when combined with NASCAR’s current car.
The new car is a heavier model that puts significantly more stress on right-side tires, and Goodyear’s inventory last weekend couldn’t hold up to the pressure.
“It’s obvious that we didn’t go there with the right car-slash-tire combination,” Pemberton conceded.
Petty to try three drivers in No. 45.
Petty Enterprises will use three different drivers in the No. 45 Dodge over the next three races as it continues to evaluate the slumping team.
Chad McCumbee will attempt to qualify the car this weekend at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. Kyle Petty will try to qualify the car the next week at Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Terry Labonte will drive it at Michigan.
The No. 45, which is typically driven by Petty, is 41st in car owner standings and 273 points out of the top 35. Petty has not raced the car since Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May. He took a six-race hiatus to join TNT during its portion of the NASCAR broadcast schedule and has given up seat time this season to McCumbee and Labonte.
He will get back in the car at Watkins Glen, where he has one victory and four top-10s in 20 career starts.
F1 teams form association.
Formula One’s 10 teams created an association to safeguard their interests in response to rule changes, including a plan to decrease team budgets by 50 percent, by motorsports’ governing body, Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). The Associated Press
