Goodyear gives signs of listening, finally

BRISTOL, Tenn. — As we try to get to the bottom of this latest installment of “NASCAR Tiregate,” we have to make one quick observation. It’s not true that Tony Stewart’s tires this weekend resemble something Fred Flintstone used to make laps in.

OK, no more attempts at humor. Yes, Stewart did overreact following last week’s Atlanta race, but he was not wrong to do so. I’ve written many times over the past few years and will reiterate it one more time: Tires should be the last thing talked about before, during or after a NASCAR race.

They should be viewed like NFL referees. If you don’t notice them, you know they’re doing a great job. That’s not to say tires, like officials, aren’t important. Tires are, in fact, too important to a team’s success, which is why Stewart and others decided they had had enough following another questionable choice of tire compound last week.

Five days later, as he prepared for today’s Food City 500, Stewart hadn’t backed off his harsh words.

“Obviously I was really vocal about what I said, but the thing is, you shouldn’t have to get to that point,” Stewart said Friday. “The problem is that we’ve been in this situation with them before — and trying to do it the right way and trying to do it behind closed doors and trying to be politically correct about it — but we didn’t get results.

“Last week was just a gross example of it, the worst example I’ve seen from Goodyear in a long time. We covered every angle of it, so now it’s up to them to see what’s going to be the solution.”

That solution may involve more interraction between teams and Goodyear. An important tire test at Darlington this past week gave three selected drivers — Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman and Greg Biffle — the opportunity to have input on the tire Goodyear takes to the newly paved track in May. Tire tests are nothing new, but the drivers believe their input has largely been ignored in recent years, with Goodyear preferring to use scientific data recorded at the tests instead of driver opinions.

Maybe it’s time to use both.

“For me, it looks like it’s time to look at the procedure in selecting tires,” Kevin Harvick said. “I don’t know what the procedure is, what is going on. There has been for years a lot of inconsistency from one set of tires to the other. That is frustrating as a competitor. It might be time to re-evaluate how we approach it.”

If the Darlington test is any indication, that procedure may be changing. Speeds at the track increased to as much as 200 mph heading into the corner, which put a lot of pressure on the tires and Goodyear. After the three drivers informed the tire manufacturer that they weren’t satisfied with the Darlington tires — which went from too hard to ones that wore too quickly — another test was scheduled with the same three drivers.

“We’re putting so much load on the tire that the tire couldn’t handle it,” said Biffle, who, like most drivers, believes the new car is making it difficult to find a good balance of wear and grip. “So Goodyear backed up on the tires and went on the other side, where it got too hard. Jeff and I couldn’t drive the car, so we came back in and found a middle ground that we think is going to be decent, but we know it’s going to take a couple of races there to make it work.

“So we’re going to go back and double-check it with them. That was kind of all of our suggestion, and I think they were really receptive to that.”

Even Stewart had some nice things to say late Friday afternoon after an impromptu meeting with Stu Grant, Goodyear’s general manager of worldwide racing.

“I appreciate Stu taking the time to meet with me,” Stewart said through a release. “We’re hoping that Goodyear will now work with us a little better on the racing side of things and rely on our input a little more, because we are the ones driving the cars.”

This, believe me, is a step forward. Following Stewart’s tirade last week, Goodyear marketing manager Justin Fantozzi admitted that NASCAR has very little to say about the tire and that every driver has an opinion and the company can’t listen to all of them or nothing would get done.

Fantozzi has a point about the drivers, who will always want a tire that better suits their style, but there has to be a middle ground, where cooperation among Goodyear, the drivers and NASCAR would produce a better tire for each track.

Here’s one thing Stewart got wrong: NASCAR does not need a tire war. Maybe it needs a new manufacturer, but save that for after this season. Let tire companies compete during the offseason, but there has to be just one tire producer.

Maybe a lack of competition has made Goodyear a little lazy, but let’s hope this latest episode is the catalyst for change.