Motorsports

NASCAR: Race no 'black eye'

By BRANT JAMES
Published October 17, 2005

CONCORD, N.C. - H.A. Wheeler, always a spirited sort, looked like he had screwed up the formula for sunshine. Mike Helton had that same resolute if pained look he gets when he has stomped out another smoldering issue with his cowboy boots.

Robin Pemberton looked tired. And Phil Holmer just sounded confused.

There they sat - the track president, the NASCAR president, the series vice president of competition and Goodyear's marketing manager of stock car racing - in the early morning hours at Lowe's Motor Speedway Sunday after an eventful and, as Helton put it, "extremely undesirable" UAW-GM Quality 500. At least 15 tire failures helped trigger many of a race-record 15 cautions Saturday night, including 12 for accidents, and greatly affected the Chase for the Championship, with five of the 10 Chase drivers having tire problems.

As a group they had every angle surrounded, but had not had time to figure out what went wrong. How had this been allowed to happen? And why was it allowed to continue in a race that cost Chase leader Tony Stewart his 75-point advantage when a blown rear tire sent him into the wall and to a 25th-place finish. He is tied at the top with Jimmie Johnson, who had tire trouble but managed to win his fourth consecutive race at Lowe's.

But all the group had at that awkward moment was a wish it hadn't happened and, they hoped, enough technical data to make sure it never happened again.

NASCAR discussed several midrace remedies when at least one driver had a tire failure about every 30 laps, starting with Robby Gordon on Lap 2. Officials discussed shortening the event, but settled on running the tire pressures recommended by Goodyear.

"We allowed the event to take its normal course because in most cases when you have an issue early in a race like that the minutiae up and down pit road makes adjustments to accommodate for that and the event goes on and the event unfolds and it unfolds successfully," Helton said. "As we got deeper into the event tonight, it was obvious to us that this was an abnormal evening.'

Still, Helton refused to categorize it as a "black eye."

"I don't think it's an evening that we're proud of but the nature of what we do, sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you don't and I don't accept that to be a definition of having a black eye," he said.

Wheeler had the track ground of its many bumps before the spring race, but the newly slick surface spawned a series-record 22 cautions that consumed much of the Coca-Cola 600. So he reground it, much to the delight of drivers until Stewart and Greg Biffle each wrecked two cars testing at the track a few weeks ago. So Wheeler had old tires dragged across it, again delighting drivers until they discovered over the weekend that the laid rubber created enough grip to spike speeds more than 5 mph from last spring.

With practice and qualifying largely free of incidents, drivers assumed the main negative by-product would be single-file racing as no one would let off the throttle, meaning no one would get a run on another driver if he tried to pass. But the truly nefarious result was that the tires Goodyear brought, when subjected to the heat of 30-or-so-lap runs, would degrade. Goodyear and NASCAR at least had an inkling, and had the math pretty close, deciding before the race to throw a competition yellow 30 laps in to check tires.

Holmer said though Goodyear brought every 1.5-mile track tire in its inventory to the race, the ones used in May proved to be the best. Extensive testing in the summer proved that, he said. When reminded the test was held before the May race, Holmer seemed confused but defended the amount of data the company used to make its selection.

Wheeler announced the remedy on Friday. He said the surface will be repaved in the spring, perhaps with banking adjusted in the corners in time to allow Goodyear to test a new tire.

"This was just a tough night, a tough night for everybody," he said. "Nobody liked it. I certainly didn't. ... We'll get back to normal next time."

[Last modified October 17, 2005, 01:19:13]