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Roush Miffed At Goodyear About Something Else

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By TONY FABRIZIO The Tampa Tribune

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 28, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS - Team owner Jack Roush got a second-place finish in Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard from Carl Edwards, but he was not in a good mood.

Roush said that because his team wasn't invited to the Goodyear tire test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in April that involved only three drivers, his engineers and crew chiefs had no idea what to expect this weekend.

"We only missed by an inch," he said. "This is a game of inches, but Goodyear didn't give us a chance to test here. We were one change behind all the time during practice."
Goodyear tires were wearing out so quickly on the right side of the cars Sunday that NASCAR instituted "competition yellow" flags every 10 to 12 laps. That didn't help one of Roush's drivers. Matt Kenseth blew a tire on the 47th of 160 laps.

The other Roush Fenway Racing drivers, Jamie McMurray and Greg Biffle, finished sixth and eighth. So it was hardly a bad day for the Ford team.

Asked what NASCAR and Goodyear can do to prevent such a situation from occurring again, Roush said, "You need to go talk to Chad Knaus winner Jimmie Johnson's crew chief. He said it wasn't going to be a problem with this tire. He and Goodyear have something figured out that the rest of us don't."

Johnson wasn't one of three drivers invited to the April test, but Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. participated, and his information was available to the entire organization.

"No, I didn't say that," Knaus said in response.

STEWART MUM ON TIRES: Defending and two-time Brickyard champion Tony Stewart made a quick exit after fighting an ill-handling car and finishing 23rd - his first Indy finish outside the top 12.

"Just a tough day," Stewart said in a news release from his public relations representative. "There are really no other words to describe it."

Stewart lambasted Goodyear earlier this year, but he chose his words carefully Sunday as ESPN's in-car reporter during the race. And he had nothing else to say afterward.

He wasn't invisible in the race. Though he never led a lap, he was fourth with 20 laps remaining.

But after taking two tires on his next pit stop when some other leaders took four, he drifted backward. He was 16th when the final caution flag waved on Lap 160, and when he took four tires on that stop, he dropped to 27th.

MARTIN NO FACTOR: Mark Martin practically predicted a Brickyard victory Sunday, but after qualifying second Saturday, he finished a quiet 11th without a lap led.

Early tire problems forced two green-flag pit stops, costing him considerable track position.

"We had a monster motor and a great race car today," Martin said "We definitely had a top-five car. We probably didn't have anything for Jimmie Johnson, so I wasn't going to be able to back up my finish. But we had a lot better car than where we finished."

CAREER BEST: Indy made a guy named A.J. famous, but Sunday, it was A.J. Allmendinger rather than A.J. Foyt running near the front of the pack.

Allmendinger, a former Champ Car star, ran in the top five late in the race and wound up with a career-best 10th-place finish in the No. 84 Toyota. He even led four laps.

"It was fun in some ways, and in another way it wasn't fun at all," Allmendinger said. "Every tie we would get to about lap seven or eight on the tire, you were just praying that you wouldn't blow a right-rear. Every lap I felt it, and I would just ask when the yellow was coming out."

BUSCH 15TH: Points leader Kyle Busch didn't come close to adding to his seven 2008 victories. He led twice for 14 laps but finished 15th.

"We messed up on our strategy at the end," Busch said. "We didn't take two tires early enough to get ourselves track position. Then on the last pit stop, Earnhardt Jr. ran over one of my guys and shoved him under the car. We had to wait for him to climb back out before we could drop the jack, and that just killed our day.

EARLY WRECKS: Michael Waltrip spun and crashed on the fourth lap, collecting Paul Menard, and Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick got together on Lap 14 and sustained major damage.

"I got beside another guy Sam Hornish Jr. and got loose and then somebody just ran over me," Waltrip said.

Said Busch, "I was just trying to hold position, waiting for the competition yellow to fly on Lap 15 when I got loose and just overcorrected the car into Harvick."

INDY WINS: There can be no debate any more about which is bigger in Indianapolis, the Indy 500 or Allstate 400.

The grandstands were full for this year's Indy. While there still were close to 200,000 fans on hand for Sunday's race, based on an eyeball estimate, several areas in the massive grandstands were thinly populated.

HOT LAPS: Zephyrhills' David Reutimann tagged the wall early and finished 30th. ... Martin Truex Jr. said he has not agreed to a new contract with Dale Earnhardt Inc., as was reported on ESPN.com, but that talks are progressing. Truex is one of the top remaining prospective free agents. ... Joe Gibbs Racing probably won't add a fourth team next year, owner Gibbs told the Associated Press before the race. Teen phenom Joey Logano remains the favorite to replace departing Tony Stewart.

Tony Fabrizio

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