MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Tony Stewart defended his harsh criticism of the tires Goodyear brought to Atlanta last weekend and said that it was time to speak out after years of closed door meetings failed to produce a solution.
“You finally get to the point where, if you get frustrated enough, now it’s gone from doing things in a nice, calm manner to I want to make sure I get somebody’s attention about this,” Stewart said Wednesday. He had called the tires “the most pathetic racing tire I’ve ever been on in my professional career.”
Some of Stewart’s critics dismissed the remarks, saying Stewart was just being his usual outspoken self. But many drivers have agreed that the tires were subpar, including former champions Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett.
“I think we are all pretty frustrated. Tony took it to the fullest,” Kevin Harvick said. “But he’s definitely right in the way the tire stuff has worked out. None of us really enjoy the way that we had to race.”
Stewart said all the drivers were fed up with the hard tires at Atlanta, and he just drew the most attention because he was the most outspoken in his criticism.
“Everybody talked about (it),” he said. “Just nobody got real vocal about it until after the race. When you’re stuck in a car for 3½-4 hours and it drives like crap, you’re going to be upset about it.
“Guys are screaming at their crew chiefs that it was the worst car they’ve ever driven. Well, it wasn’t the crew chief’s fault. It wasn’t the team’s fault. These guys spend millions of dollars to build these cars. It was the tire we were running and tires should never, ever be the deciding factor in a race.”
Stewart also said his comments were not directed at the people that make the tires or the ones that mount them on rims at the track, but at the designing engineers.
“Think about it. Every year we’ve blown tires. It’s like, how many years have they been doing this? At this stage of the game, how do you not figure it out? How could you have not figured out how to not blow tires and build a competitive tire?” he said.
Stewart said the tire company that has exclusive rights to NASCAR needs to understand that those rights bring responsibility, among them listening to the thoughts of drivers and taking them into account.
“They have to understand that we’re the ones that drive them, we’re the ones that have to give them the feedback. They need to start listening to us more,” he said.
Harvick, who attended a Philadelphia Flyers game on Wednesday night, said Goodyear “flat out didn’t do a very good job,” with the tires in Atlanta.
“I think they could do a better job with the way that they approach the testing and things like that,” he said. “As the sport has advanced, it seems like the tires haven’t advanced as much as the rest of the sport.”
During a question and answer session with members of the Martinsville-Henry County Chamber of Commerce, Stewart said it was quickly apparent his message had been received.
Even before NASCAR president Mike Helton summoned him into the NASCAR hauler, he said, Helton had already heard from a top executive with Goodyear who wasn’t happy.
On Monday, Goodyear issued a statement that said it was satisfied with the performance of its tires at Atlanta, and that it had no safety issues in the race, but promised to re-evaluate before returning to Atlanta in October.
“Even though both Goodyear and NASCAR were satisfied with the tire’s performance in Atlanta, if the drivers are not happy, then Goodyear’s not happy,” the company said.
But the company’s comments have done little to ease his concern.
“For them to say that they were satisfied with the race, that’s insane,” Stewart said. “If they really firmly believe that, if they believe what they put out in their press statement that they were happy with the result, that scares me to death.”
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