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Johnson's Win Overshadowed By Tire Fiasco

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Jimmie Johnson poses with the trophy after winning Sunday's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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By TONY FABRIZIO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 28, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - In only the first 47 laps of Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, a flat right-front tire cost Dale Earnhardt Jr. a lap, and exploding right-rear tires ripped apart the fenders of Juan Pablo Montoya's and Matt Kenseth's cars.

Jimmie Johnson won the 15th edition of NASCAR's pilgrimage to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the biggest story was Goodyear tires that were everything but good.

The weirdest race in years even had a suitable encore, with Johnson blowing a tire during his victory burnout.

"Man, the race itself was bizarre to say the least," said crew chief Chad Knaus, whose driver held off Carl Edwards during the last seven laps for his second Brickyard victory.

The tire problem surfaced during Saturday's practice. Tires were wearing to the cords in five to seven laps. Nervous crew chiefs petitioned NASCAR for extra tires, worried there wouldn't be enough for the race. Goodyear trucked in some emergency backups earmarked for next week's race at Pocono.

NASCAR vice president Robin Pemberton predicted the tread wear would improve as used rubber got squished into the track's grooves. But the compound Goodyear selected came off the tires as a powder rather than rubber marbles, and the grip never improved.

For the race, NASCAR officials took the unprecedented step of scheduling "competition yellows" every 10 to 12 laps. The race had 11 caution flags for a race-record 52 laps and no green-flag stretch of more than 12 laps.

"I've never seen anything like this," four-time Brickyard winner Jeff Gordon said after finishing fifth. "I really hate it that it happened at the Brickyard. It's such a big race."

The second major embarrassment for exclusive tire supplier Goodyear this season - Tony Stewart lambasted the company after the Atlanta race in March - also was the second tire debacle at Indy in three years.

Only six drivers raced in the 2005 U.S. Grand Prix after everyone else withdrew over concerns about the safety of Michelin's tires. Michelin eventually issued refunds to all fans who applied for them.

Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales, said the company used the same compound for Sunday's race that was used in last year's Brickyard but that NASCAR's next-generation car, raced for the first time at Indy, stresses the tires in a different way.

A tire test at Indy in April with Earnhardt, Kurt Busch and A.J. Allmendinger did not expose flaws with the compound, he said.

"It's nobody's fault," he said. "It's the package, and that we understand."

Pemberton said Indy presents a challenge to Goodyear because of the track's abrasive surface, diamond-cut grooves and drastic dramatic change in grip as the track "rubbers in."

"Hindsight is 20/20," Pemberton said. "I think we'll just learn from this weekend and try to do a little better job next year."

For drivers, the race was three hours and 28 minutes of major anxiety. Every time they drove into a corner at 185 mph, they had to wonder whether their tires would hold together.

Kenseth's tire blew on a straightaway.

"Every lap I was concerned about it," Johnson said. "Every corner. You could almost feel the tire life being taken out of it if you leaned too hard. The start of the race we were running 54-second laps. Everybody was taking care of their stuff. At the end, we were running like 51s."

The race was not without intrigue. Crew chiefs had to decide whether to change all four tires on every stop or go for track position and try to stretch the life of the left-side tires, which weren't wearing as quickly.

Knaus took the safer approach of four-tire changes on every stop, and the crew that helped Johnson win the last two Sprint Cup championships still got him out first on the final pit stop.

Earning the first pit stall with the pole Saturday proved especially valuable for Johnson.

"If Jimmie hadn't won the pole, if he was pitted down on the other end, we might have beat him off pit road," Edwards said about the last stop, during which he took two tires. "Might have been a different race."

Jeff Burton finished third after leading laps 106 to 115 of the 160-lap race.

Denny Hamlin, who was leading the race when the final "competition yellow" was called with 10 laps remaining, also took two tires and finished third. Elliott Sadler finished a season-best fourth.

Hamlin, who was trying to give Joe Gibbs Racing its ninth victory of the year, said he may have been too conservative coming off pit road on his final stop and that could be what allowed Johnson and Edwards to beat him off pit road.

"I don't think our stop was stellar by any means," he said. "I had to wait because the 41 Reed Sorenson was coming in. And then ... you don't want to get busted for speeding."

Defending champion and two-time winner Tony Stewart never led and finished a quiet 23rd. Earnhardt, who led eight laps early, regained his lost lap and finished 12th. Kenseth was still running at the end but finished 38th.

"It's really, really a disappointing situation," Kenseth said. "This is one of the two biggest races of the year. ... I feel bad for the fans. We're running three-quarter speed early in the race because we're worried about the tires blowing out, and they get blown out every eight laps. So, pretty disappointing."

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at (813) 259-7994 or afabrizio@tampatrib.com.

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