I heard Buck and Bass from over at rowdy.com call what happened Sunday as the “Debacle 400″ and, they were right.  Well, It must be my getting old but I held back on commenting on the tire situation at the Brickyard 400 just to get all the information possible.  We all know that in the early hours of a story, info is sketchy at best and that often results in inaccurate stories.  Given what transpired last Sunday, I wanted to be as accurate as possible.

First of all, we should probably take a look at what Goodyear has to say.  Here’s their follow up to the Sunday test.  And I do say test because that’s all it could be called, because it damn sure wasn’t a race.

Follow-Up To Tire Performance At IMS

Heading into the race, it was clear to everyone – Goodyear, NASCAR officials, race teams and the media – that the highly abrasive track surface would lead to rapid tire wear, as it always has. Typically, that issue resolves itself as the race progresses. However, this year’s race had one significant change.

This was the first race at this track with the “new” Sprint Cup car (the Car of Tomorrow). The car is heavier and has a higher center of gravity than the previous car, leading to more stress on the tires, particularly those on the right side. The car also possesses a significant reduction in downforce from the previous car.

In April, Goodyear staged a tire test at the track with three drivers (Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Brian Vickers and Kurt Busch) that resulted in the tire brought to Sunday’s race. The focus of the tire test was to improve treadwear. A number of right-side compounds were evaluated to address the treadwear, but none of the drivers were comfortable with the reduced level of grip of those compounds. The decision was made to use the same right-side compound as was used in 2007 because its performance under race conditions was a known quantity. The compound was paired with a revised construction and a softer left-side compound.

The exact tire combination that Goodyear brought to Indianapolis this year was tested with those drivers on the track in April.

However, actual tire performance in a 43-driver field in real-world race conditions on a new car is always going to be different than in a test. Sunday’s race was held in essentially new conditions. Although this surface has always been very abrasive, it has always “rubbered in” on race day. In other words, as the race progresses, rubber from natural tire wear effectively sticks to the track, making the surface less abrasive and improving tire wear. That didn’t happen on Sunday.

Certainly, Sunday’s race results are not what Goodyear wanted nor what it expected and we are committed to working with NASCAR and Indianapolis Motor Speedway to correct it. As an industry, we will solve this problem and we’ve already started that process.

Well, after reading the follow-up, it certainly is different from a  lot of what I had heard and read over the past week.  I heard everything from “Goodyear didn’t bring the tire they tested with” to “It was a new surface”.  It looks like it was the tire tested and that Goodyear was attempting to address a problem they had already noticed with wear.  Where NASCAR and Goodyear “screwed the pooch” was when they didn’t do more aggressive testing leading up to the race.

Not to fault Dale Jr., Brian or Kurt, but three cars basically doing hot laps do not constitute a proper test.  Indy is the second most important venue in the series so calling that a proper test is ridiculous.  Given that this was the very first appearance of the CoT at Indy and, that Indy is such an important race, NASCAR should have provided for an open, full test in full race trim for any interested team.

I know NASCAR and Goodyear are both in the business of making money but, some type of compensation should be given to the fans who paid good money, saved up vacation days from work all year and paid upwards of four bucks a gallon for the gasoline to attend the glorified test session.  If nothing else, maybe a discount on next years event.  NASCAR ie. the Brian France has forgotten what it’s like for Joe Sixpack to make an annual pilgrimage to one of these events.  Sure we see the rock stars all the time on the pre-race but for lots of people, going to one of these races is a huge part of their lives.  So, “We’ll do better next time” doesn’t cut a whole lot with me.

NASCAR has been having problems with event attendance and TV ratings over the past few years.  I myself sometimes get incredibly disgusted with the sport and things like this are the root of why.

NASCAR and Goodyear, be on alert, either get it together or, another sanctioning body will become king.  Personally, I like ARCA, USAR and even the ASA series.  All of these smaller series remind me of the NASCAR from the 70’s or 80’s back before the growth hit.  All these series need is the attention that is deserved.  If you want to see real racing with the “fire in the belly”, that’s where you find it.  Racing is like loving, it’s much better when the heart’s in it than when it’s the wallet alone.

Well, I haven’t decided if this one’s good or bad yet.  This is especially close to my heart as I live in Kentucky so, this is my home track in essence.  Man, oh man….  Humpy retired yesterday and this was announced today, coincidence?  I can’t help but to think of North Wilkesboro and Rockingham when SMI purchased both of them.  We all know how well that one worked out for the pair of NC tracks.  North Wilkesboro sits in ruin and Rockingham was saved only last year from the dozers.  In the interest of being fair, I’ll reserve judgement until more info is known.  I’ll post the full press release below for your review. 

jc

Courtesy: Kentucky Speedway Media

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (May 22, 2008) – Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (NYSE:TRK) has agreed to purchase Kentucky Speedway from Kentucky Speedway, LLC. The agreement was announced today by O. Bruton Smith, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Speedway Motorsports, Inc.  The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Kentucky Speedway, which opened in 2000, hosts one NASCAR Nationwide Series event, one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event, one IndyCar Series event and other racing events each year.  The speedway is located in Sparta, Ky., approximately one-half hour south of Cincinnati, Ohio. The speedway is easily accessible via modern highways.

Located on approximately 820 acres, Kentucky Speedway features a 1.5-mile tri-oval speedway, with chair-back grandstand seating for 66,089 spectators, 50 luxury suites with seats for approximately 2,000, 100 private RV spaces, 200 reserved camping spaces and 1,000 unreserved camping spaces. Kentucky Speedway regularly hosts near capacity crowds for its Nationwide Series events.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for our company to grow into a new market in a modern speedway facility. We continue to be committed to investing in the motorsports industry,” said Smith.

Smith added that he has offered Jerry Carroll, who was instrumental in the development of Kentucky Speedway, the opportunity to remain involved in its future operations.

Kentucky Speedway will join an outstanding lineup of SMI facilities. The company also owns and operates Atlanta Motor Speedway; Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn.; Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.; Las Vegas Motor Speedway; Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.; New Hampshire Motor Speedway, in Loudon, N.H.; and Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth, Texas.

With this acquisition, the company will own race tracks in the West, Northeast, Midwest, Southeast and Southwest, including four of the nation’s top-10 metropolitan markets.

The breakdown includes: the sixth-largest market (Infineon/San Francisco); the fifth-largest market (Texas/Dallas-Ft. Worth); the seventh-largest market (New Hampshire/Boston); the ninth-largest market (Atlanta); the 24^th-largest market (Cincinnati); the 25^th-largest market (Lowe’s/Charlotte); the 41^st-largest market (Las Vegas); and the 92^nd-largest market (Bristol/Tri-Cities).