Posted 3/10/2008 @ 6:38:00 am by dalejrandnascar.com

Starting on the outside pole, Dale Jr. persevered through the cold, wind and terrible tires to finish 3rd at Atlanta Motor Speedway yesterday, climbing to 6th in the point standings. He jumped into the lead at the start of the race, leading over 30 laps, but struggled after changing tires. “This was just a bad combination, this tire at this track. Just a poor combination. I know the tire we used to run would wear into the cords, but you could still run hard on it. It wasn’t dangerous. You would run into the cords and run like that for ten laps. That was a pretty good tire. Even though it was on a cord, you could still run it for a while, get to the next pit stop,” explained Dale Jr. “I’ll tell you,” he continued, “I’m still seeing the center line in my tires, the mold line in my tire after 30 laps. So, I went from running a tire that would wear to the cord to a tire that I still see the center cord after 30 laps. There’s got to be several combinations in between that. I mean, Lord, that can’t be the next step!”

Tony Stewart, finishing second, blasted Goodyear’s rock-hard tire after the race: “That was the most pathetic racing tire that I’ve ever been on in my professional career,” Stewart said. “They (Goodyear) exited out of Formula One. They exited out of IRL. They exited out of World of Outlaws, and there is a reason for that. Goodyear can’t build a tire that is worth a crap. If I were Goodyear, I would be really embarrassed about what they brought here. I guarantee you Hoosier or Firestone or somebody can come in and do a lot better job than what they are doing right now.”

Several other drivers complained of the hard tire. According to Fantozzi, Goodyear will evaluate the race before deciding whether to bring the same tire for the fall race. “We’ll do the same thing we do after every race. We have post race data now, so we will go back to Akron, Ohio and sit down with engineers and see where that leaves us for the October race. Driver comments are part of the data set we use when selecting tires, so we will gather input there as well.”“

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