Tired Act by Goodyear

NASCAR's primary goal each week is putting on a spectacular show for the fans, but Goodyear's practice of utilizing the same tire for its top three series is hurting the show.

The tire problems that surfaced in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race last weekend at Dover may have been avoided if Goodyear had in place a specific tire for the Truck Series instead of a general design that services Trucks, NASCAR Sprint Cup and NASCAR Nationwide Series cars.

Goodyear often runs the exact same tire compound in each of NASCAR's top three divisions, as was the case at Dover. However, the vehicles in these three series are polar opposites these days and, therefore, should have equally diversified tire designs.

I think that competition is sacrificed across the board because tires are not created explicitly for each series, but none suffers more than the third-tier Truck Series. If Goodyear would develop a Truck Series-specific tire, they could zero in much more effectively on the Nationwide and Cup Series and, in turn, improve the product there, as well.

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Dover was evidence that the tire cannot hold up and perform well for all three types of vehicles at the same time. Since the Truck Series and Nationwide Series teams are restricted in the number of tires they can purchase every weekend, teams were forced to try to squeeze 55 laps out of a set of tires instead of the 35 laps the Cup guys ran, giving the Trucks too long a run on a tire that was more suited for their Cup counterparts and their infinite opportunities for fresh rubber.

Veteran Truck Series driver Mike Skinner may have put it best when he said, "If anybody thinks they can build a tire that will fit all three of these divisions at the same race track, they're crazy. The trucks have a great tire one weekend, the COT has another great tire another weekend, but there's no way that you can do both at the same time for the two vastly different divisions."

Make no mistake – Goodyear faces one of the toughest challenges imaginable and does a superior job of putting a competitive and safe product on the track every week. If their lone charge was overseeing tire development for the Cup Series, Goodyear's plate would be full with the responsibility of designing the right tire for assorted tracks amidst intelligent and crafty crew chiefs and engineers who are constantly massaging their cars and creating additional challenges.

Please don't underestimate the disparities between the Trucks and the Cup cars. Goodyear's job is all the more intensified because constructing one tire to accommodate all three series, each with its own needs, is a monumental task. The scientific data of down-force, drag, side-force and corner speeds are incredibly divergent across the trio of divisions and those discrepancies are magnified by them sharing the same tire. For example, the Trucks were probably running 20 mph faster in the center of the corner at Dover than the Cup cars. That alone indicates the need for a separate tire.

Goodyear's policy worked well a couple of years ago when the Trucks looked and drove totally differently and before the COT came into the picture in the Sprint Cup Series.
Throw in the fact that the Cup guys are now running a completely different race car (which single-handedly has outdated the practice of all Cup teams running the Nationwide races as a prep course for Sunday), and the policy of running the same tire for all three series is absolutely antiquated.

Even with a Truck Series tire, Goodyear still must overcome the different needs of the various drivers and the manner in which they prefer their vehicles to drive and feel. At Dover, Kyle Busch's truck probably was an '8' on a scale of 1-10 in "looseness," while Mike Skinner's was a '3.' That's a broad spectrum for one tire in one series alone.

Crew chiefs and engineers are constantly clamoring for data and tires are no exception. With the testing ban, teams can no longer gather tire data at the track prior to an event, with the exception of a few Goodyear tire tests, so they obtain their information through their manufacturer in the form of 20-page reports from a company called Cal-Span. These reports contain an obscene amount of data for each individual tire. This data comes as fixed numbers but all three divisions interpret and use the data in their own unique way pertinent to their highly differing vehicles. So, to give all three series an equitable shot at having a terrific race, Goodyear must give them a tire specific to their needs.

Unfortunately for the tire manufacturer, they make headlines only when a problem arises or when a driver goes on a crusade to smear their name in the media. The blood, sweat and tears they put into NASCAR goes virtually unnoticed until something goes awry. I am a big fan of Goodyear and purchase their product for my personal vehicles.

No one puts more effort into NASCAR than Goodyear but I believe they're operating under the wrong policy. A Truck Series-specific tire would go a long way toward improving the competition in all three of NASCAR's premier divisions.

Ray Dunlap is a veteran pit road reporter for SPEED in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and also reports for The SPEED Report, NASCAR Live and other programs on SPEED. Dunlap has covered the Truck Series since 1997 and has served as a play-by-play announcer and pit road reporter for several series, including the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, IPower Dash Series and ARCA Series. He was honored in 1997 as the Electronic Motorsports Media Personality of the Year and enjoys scuba diving and woodworking in his spare time.