Indy Cup Race Thread

What a crappy race. As a fan of all motorsports, Goodyear continues to tarnish their image as a tire supplier for any series. Like Smoke said earlier this year, Goodyear was run out of F1, CART, IRL, etc because they could not compete with Bridgestone/Firestone.

I really hope NASCAR will consider other tire suppliers when their contract with Goodyear expires.

At least Firestone is well known for their Quality control issues across all forms of motorsport. Their R&D and reliability is unsurpassed as compared to Goodyear.

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Originally Posted by DavePI2

as one who is not a fan of nascar I will defend nascar here. As was mentioned above this is not the first time this has happened at indy. At least nascar is running a race. It certainly isn't the best but at least there is a race. That can not be said of f1 who refused to make any changes and had the worst debacle in motor sports history.

david

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The F1 debacle was a different set of circumstances due to tire war between Bridgestone & Michelin. In the end, Michelin's tire choice for the F1 race was claimed to be a so-called (cough) hazard :rolleyes: . However, another big factor for most of the teams refusing to race was the political ramifications behind the scenes (the possible breakaway series due to the Concorde agreement and, of course, money paid out to the teams).

We all know that Nascar has a single tire supplier. Like every other year, Goodyear has failed to deliver a consistent tire on a race to race basis. A pathetic excuse when you consider they have no competition.

I don't blame Goodyear alone. They could have done better, but I put more fault on the track. In 2005 the track was repaved to remove weepers. Then it was levigated because the new pavement was too bumpy for IndyCars.

The new pavement has been bad for the Indy 500 because too many marbles accumulate outside the racing line that slow cars can't yield. Formula 1 had the 2005 debacle. NASCAR has been walking on egg shells this whole time. Indy's new surface makes Rockingham look like a skating rink.

I vote that Indy moves to ORP, put 100,000 seats around the track and that will be much more successful than another Indy debacle

Hey I was just throwing it out as a possibility not an excuse. I don't watch nascar enough. Just asking a question as a occasional observer. I am glad for the imformation from everyone in this forum on the state of goodyear and nascar as in dealing with this issue becuause I don't watch it enough.


david

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Originally Posted by oldhippie

you cant blame nascar for this mess
goodyear dropped the ball again
disgusting!

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They shoulder the blame. Most sactioning bodies work with their partners to ensure safety, and reduce issues. NASCAR should keep track of their technical partner, becuase this is not the first time they have dropped the ball.

as for realiability when i bought my truck brand new it was a performance truck and the goodyear eagle gt i had on it were shot by 12,000 miles is this the r&d that goodyear does? this today everyone that was involved was at fault indy for the track surface goodyear for bringing something that was junk and nascar not testing before and allowing this circus act to go on today. bring in tire competition

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Originally Posted by dont_be_jack

I'll agree with you on that one. NASCAR flew in the Pocono tires in case they needed them as teams ran out of the Indy tires and are doing what they can to keep people safe.

There are very obvious issues with Indy and everyone but the IRL. The speeds that the teams race at, the lack of banking, and the levigating of the track a few years ago have ruined whatever racing there once was.

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I'll add one more: Talladega 1969.

Drivers went on strike at that race, and NASCAR ran it with half of the field and replacement drivers. They put competition cautions every 25 laps and had no crashes. Lessons learned from that first race at 'Dega were used today.

No drivers in the hospital tonight (or worse), 41 of the 43 cars were running, and much to Allstate's business, they applauded the moves.

"With Allstate's more than 75 years of history as a leader of safety and protection, we support the safety precautions taken by IMS and NASCAR today because the safety and protection of the drivers is what matters most."

Sounds like the race was in good hands with all that happened. It turned into your neighbourhood short-track race, and even into early IMS races that were sprints. In that light, maybe it was good to be a short-track fan since they were treated to old-school short track racing they see on Saturday nights -- 8-10 lap heat races with a pit stop contest every round. Those pit stops turned into endurance matches as the race turned into heat races mixed with an athletic contest between heats by the pit crews.

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Originally Posted by call_me_andrew

I don't blame Goodyear alone. They could have done better, but I put more fault on the track. In 2005 the track was repaved to remove weepers. Then it was levigated because the new pavement was too bumpy for IndyCars.

The new pavement has been bad for the Indy 500 because too many marbles accumulate outside the racing line that slow cars can't yield. Formula 1 had the 2005 debacle. NASCAR has been walking on egg shells this whole time. Indy's new surface makes Rockingham look like a skating rink.

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That's a bunch of crap!! The previous Indy overlay was placed in 1996 and diamond ground in 2002. The current overlay was placed in fall of 2004 and ground in spring 2005. That means that NASCAR has been running on Indy's diamond ground pavement since 2002 - 6 races before today. Goodyear has a responsibility to understand what the track is like and provide a tire that will withstand the forces of the track. If you are trying to tell me that Goodyear doesn't have enough data from the last 6 years, you're completely clueless. Firestone doesn't have a problem building a tire to last for 100 miles and I guarantee you the forces on an IndyCar tire going through the turns at 225 are significantly greater than a Cup tire going through the corners at 145 mph, even if the Cup car does weigh twice as much.

Your claim about the new pavement being bad for IndyCar is completely baseless. The 2005 and 2006 500's were two of the greatest races in the history of the race, the 2007 one was on it's way to being that way, and the 2008 was very good for 2-33.

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Originally Posted by pdalbey

That's a bunch of crap!! The previous Indy overlay was placed in 1996 and diamond ground in 2002. The current overlay was placed in fall of 2004 and ground in spring 2005. That means that NASCAR has been running on Indy's diamond ground pavement since 2002 - 6 races before today. Goodyear has a responsibility to understand what the track is like and provide a tire that will withstand the forces of the track. If you are trying to tell me that Goodyear doesn't have enough data from the last 6 years, you're completely clueless. Firestone doesn't have a problem building a tire to last for 100 miles and I guarantee you the forces on an IndyCar tire going through the turns at 225 are significantly greater than a Cup tire going through the corners at 145 mph, even if the Cup car does weigh twice as much.

Your claim about the new pavement being bad for IndyCar is completely baseless. The 2005 and 2006 500's were two of the greatest races in the history of the race, the 2007 one was on it's way to being that way, and the 2008 was very good for 2-33.

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What are you smoking?

If the current overlay was placed in 2004, then what does data from 2002 matter? I recall the diamond grinding in 2002, but that doesn't really matter if the whole thing is repaved in 2004 now does it?

Firestone's tires don't last 100 miles. IndyCars go about 75 miles between pit stops. Plus the IndyCar tires are in open air so they run about 40 degrees cooler than Cup Car tires.

The Indy 500 has been a good race for the last few years, but the passes have all been outbreaking or slingshot manuvers. Nothing along the lines of running side-by-side for a few laps.

Here's footage from the 2005 I500. The lack of a Formula 1 starting grid confirms this is the first race with the current pavement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtPnP...eature=related

Here's footage from the 2007 I 500. In this clip John Andretti moves out of the line to yield to a faster car, and the marbles created by diamond grinding cause him to crash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67g8Vb_WYdU