Tire blistering no concern during Day 2 at Daytona

Drivers, officials say lack of rubber on track real issue

By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
January 8, 2008
08:33 PM EST

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Despite a bunch of blistered Goodyear tires Tuesday in Preseason Thunder testing at Daytona International Speedway and one crash that might have been a result of that issue, NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton said don't expect any tire changes before Speedweeks 2008.

Two-time defending Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, 2007 runner-up Jeff Gordon, were among those who experienced blistered tires. Casey Mears, driving the third Hendrick Chevrolet, slapped the wall broadside between Turns 3 and 4 when he said a right-front tire blew out at about 3:25 p.m.

"We had a little bit of blistering on the right-rear, and a little bit on the right-front as well, on the inside," Gordon said. "You always find a little bit of extra wear and [tire] temperature when you're testing, and I think we're doing quite a bit more drafting this time of year than we typically do, and running longer runs because of the new car.

"So I don't think it's out of the usual. You just have to be a little bit cautious on making long runs or putting a lot of laps on tires. When we come back here [for Speedweeks] with 43 or 50 -- or however many cars are out there on the track -- we should put more rubber down and hopefully take care of some of those issues."

"It's just Daytona in January with a green racetrack because all the rubber was taken off by the [Monday night] rain," Pemberton told MRN Radio's Mike Bagley. "If you go back 15 years, you'll see we've experienced the same thing when we first get here for testing."

Pemberton said teams were using a different tire at Daytona than was used in the COT's previous outing on a similar racetrack, last October at Talladega Superspeedway. He said the Daytona tire had "more stagger," or more circumference from the right to the left side to aid the cars' turning.

Mears became the first driver to crash a COT at Daytona in testing. He flattened the right side of his No. 5 Chevrolet, ending its test, though Hendrick vice president of competition Ken Howes said the car didn't suffer frame damage and probably could be repaired for Speedweeks.

"It wasn't a soft hit, but it wasn't a real hard hit," Mears said after testing concluded for the day. "I don't know whether the tire got cut or it just got hot, or what the deal was, but the right-front just blew out when I got down into [Turn] 3 and it just went right straight into the fence.

"We didn't have any blistering problems, in particular, but I know the 48 [Johnson] and the 24 [Gordon] did -- but we didn't have the amount of laps on [the tires] to that point to see whether or not we were going to have a blister issue. That set had from 25 to 27 laps on them, they said. I don't know if there's a problem there or not, but when I had my issue there wasn't any warning. It didn't start to vibrate and then go down and blow. As soon as I turned off into 3 it just blew out."

A short time before Mears had his issue, Reed Sorenson half-spun his No. 41 Ganassi Racing Dodge in Turn 3 when a right-rear tire apparently was cut down and blew out. Sorenson made no contact and he said the car suffered no significant damage.

A cross-section of drivers didn't seem to be concerned and felt setups might be dictating tire issues.

"We blistered a couple right-rear tires," Martin Truex Jr. said of his first day testing his No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Inc. Chevrolet, after he arrived late to the test from a hunting trip. "But it seemed to only be on our one car that wasn't really driving all that well.

"We had two cars, and the one that I was really happy with we had no [tire] troubles with, but we didn't run the amount of laps with it. The car that I didn't like was loose and it wore the right-rear out a couple times."

Truex said he was comfortable with Pemberton's assessment and that he was more concerned with getting three-wide testing in the draft on Wednesday.

"Somewhat, it might be a setup issue and if we run 40 laps on the good car, it might do it, too," Truex said. "Typically, when we come down here every year we'll have the same problems, then the same thing the first couple practices of Speedweeks, but by the time we get to the 150s [qualifying races], it's all good to go.

"I think it's just a matter of getting some rubber on the racetrack. It wasn't a great test of what we're going to have when we come back for the real race conditions, but it seemed to be close to what we've had here in the past."