Goodyear Makes Gains on Indy Tire Recommendation
AKRON, Ohio (Oct. 10, 2008) -- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company brought 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup teams to Indianapolis Motor Speedway this week and made significant progress toward its 2009 tire recommendation for the track. In all, teams logged nearly 2,000 laps and 5,000 miles around the speedway during Monday and Tuesday's sessions. The test was scheduled to continue into Wednesday, but that third day's on-track activity was canceled due to rain.
The teams that took part in this week's test were the No. 07, 1, 5, 9, 17, 20, 26, 29, 38, 41, 43, 44 and 84.
More important than the number of laps and miles run, though, was the progress that was made. Unlike at this past July's race, the track took on a significant amount of rubber and enabled several teams to make runs of 30+ laps.
"We are extremely pleased that the efforts of all of our engineers and research team has paid off," said Stu Grant, Goodyear's general manager of worldwide racing. "Our test program has been built on the knowledge that the team has gained over the last several months and the results indicate that we will be able to provide an excellent tire for next years race at Indy. We had several tire set-ups that ran full fuel stops and provided good grip and good wear."
The "control tire" for this test consisted of a new right-side compound derived from a test held with Kyle Petty just two weeks ago (Sept. 22-23), combined with the same left-side tire used in this year's Brickyard race. Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, and Clint Bowyer evaluated an extensive range of tread compounds and constructions, while Mark Martin was in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, equipped with Goodyear's vehicle instrumentation to accurately measure car parameters and effects on the tires.
Another important element to this week's test was measuring the Indianapolis Motor Speedway track surface throughout the test in an effort to quantify how the surface changes during the "rubbering in" process.
But while Goodyear has seen many gains, the work is far from over.
"Right now we plan to go back to re-test some of our results on a 'green' race track this coming Monday," added Grant. "Then, of course we will return to Indianapolis next spring to determine the tire that we will provide for the race, but we are very pleased with the results of our track testing programs so far this fall."
This Monday's session will have the No. 10 Gillett-Evernham Motorsports team with driver A.J. Allmendinger participating.
Contact: Mike Siberini -- 704-905-3309 (C). For more information: www.racegoodyear.com.
