Tyre Issues at the Brickyard (F1/NASCAR)

[Roamy]

There is no excuse for this - plus they had a backup tire that would have eliminated the BS and the fans would have gotten what the paid for. Arrogance and ignorance in both sports lead to this result. If technology is no better than this after all these years then perhaps 300k should be the car allowance. But at least Crashcar when out and raced.

[Lee Roy]

There is no excuse for this - plus they had a backup tire that would have eliminated the BS . . . . .

They had brought in the tires for next week's Pocono race as a stop-gap measure, but there is no indication that those tires would have done any better than the original tires they had for this race.

[Valve Bounce]

True. According to Autosport: "NASCAR decided to run no more than 12 laps under the green flag, causing the yellows to come out another six times and for a total of 52 laps. However, drivers wouldn't drive those 12 laps on the limit, lapping nearly two seconds off the pace to avoid blowing out tyres before the cautions."

If this is all NACCAR can come up with, they need Max over there to whip them into shape.

[AAReagles]

If this is all NACCAR can come up with, they need Max over there to whip them into shape.

But with a politically correct theme this time of course.



Though I feel sorry for the fans, I'm glad in the sense that it's another pie in Tony George's face, beings that he's partly responsible for the CART/Indianapolis 500 split and for generating another spec-car series.

Also great to see Goodyear fall flat as well... for obvious reasons stemming from their decisions to cut AAR funding for GP projects in 1968.

[ArrowsFA1]

Interesting to see Dale jnr's latest comments on the subject:

...diamond-grinding the race track with the grooves does directly have an effect on tyre wear. Directly. And anyone who wants to say otherwise is just in denial. All right?

"So, with that said, obviously I wouldn't expect him to repave the race track even though they did diamond-grind it for no good reason. They just paved it. I wouldn't pave it either, or again.

"But what we're going to have to do, and I think that Indy is an isolated case, it's always this time of year that we see this. Whether we want to go or need to go or whatever, we're going to have to go down there and put two days of rubber on the race track one or two weeks prior to the race, just to fix that issue."

"I don't think changing the tyre is going to help it. A harder tyre might last 20 laps, but it didn't seem like the tyre got better as the race got better. The tyre wasn't putting rubber down; it was turning to dust and not laying on the race track and not merging with the asphalt.

"And you can't tell me that those grooves in the race track don't have a direct affect on tyre wear. That's crazy.

[speeddurango]

Reading that comments on Jr's again, it looks like somehow Indy has been an interesting place for the last few years, firstly it was the tyre gate where basically it was more of a political battle between F1 and GPDA, then it is this delicate situation between Indycar and NASCAR, some words Jr said there and I quote
"It's not like we turned our back on Indy and just didn't want to go."

And here's what TG said and I quote: "The problem is solely theirs, and by that I mean it's theirs to figure out"

Well, it doesn't look like Indy and NASCAR is not enjoying a well bonded freindship at the moment and again the interesting thing about it is the fuse of the conflict again is the tyre issue.

[call_me_andrew]

From what I've read the NASCAR race was every bit as farcical as the F1 debacle. Good on the organisers for getting all the cars to start, but a race interrupted by cautions every few laps could hardly have been a great spectacle.

At least the fans at the USGP were given a refund.

And a week after the USGP kerfuffle, Champ Car honored all USGP ticket stubs at the Cleveland Grand Prix.