TIRED OF TIRES

    In Friday’s blog, I wrote: “If racing Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is nearly as entertaining as happenings in the Brickyard media center today then it should be one helluva race.”
    I was close. It was a race from hell.
    Goodyear, gimme a break.
    NASCAR, get together with your tire partner and give rebates to those who bought tickets to Sunday’s Rubberyard 400.
    Fans who attended are owed something, and I doubt they will accept discount coupons for Goodyear tires.
    One of you screwed up with the tires provided for the race, and someone should compensate fans who bought tickets expecting in good faith that there would be a race.
     That wasn’t a race.
    The only positive was a limited post-race burnout by winner Jimmie Johnson because his rear tires blew.
    What a shock: Goodyear tire failures.
    How could Goodyear — with NASCAR’s blessing — send a tire to the second biggest Sprint Cup race of the year that couldn't take the pressure?
    Competition yellows called by NASCAR limited the longest green-flag run to 13 laps.
    Tires hadn’t been the topic since early in the year, but inadequate rubber bounced to the forefront again.
    Was nothing learned in April when Goodyear invited the teams of Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kurt Busch to Indy to supposedly try several different tire compounds to determine which would be produced for the track’s race?
    And why wasn’t a Ford team invited?
    You can’t change a track surface or race car, but you can formulate a tire compound to successfully marry the two. You should be able to.
    Thankfully, NBC was showing live racing of the Championship Off Road Series so there was some real racing to watch on the tube.
    But I kept going back to ESPN’s coverage of Cup. I just couldn’t believe what I was watching.
    A set of four Cup tires costs $1,700, and for that price, after a few laps they shouldn’t show more cords than my old corduroys.

GOOD AND BAD FROM THE BOOTH
    It wasn’t the best introduction for the ESPN/ABC broadcast team that will finish out the Cup season.
    Rookie analyst Dale Jarrett was a NASCAR/Goodyear apologist: “Goodyear did all they could to bring the right tire.”
    No it didn’t.
    At least fellow analyst Brad Daugherty stepped up and said he was disappointed and “wanted to watch these guys run and not these 10-lap segments.”

KNAUS BLAMES THE CAR
    Winning crew chief Chad Knaus, whose driver also won the pole, blamed the Car of Tomorrow's debut at Indy for the tire issue.
    "It's not the tire," Knaus said. "It's the same tire we used last year. The problem is the lack of downforce on this car. If the car had more downforce, we wouldn't be sliding all over the track. So it's not solely Goodyear's fault."
    Well, Knaus, it WAS the tires.
    With all of your knowledge didn’t you know the new-style car would put more downforce on the outside tires and cause more wear?

NASCAR: WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
    The following is part of a post-race news conference Sunday at Indy with Robin Pemberton, NASCAR’s vice president for competition:
    QUESTION: “What do you tell the fans who may be disappointed they didn't see a lot of green flag passing, side-by-side action that they normally see in a NASCAR Sprint Cup race?”
    PEMBERTON: “Well, you know, if they're good fans, they know that occasionally something like this will go on and not all you'd like to think that all of our races have something for somebody, right?
        “Not everybody's driver wins. Not everybody's pit crew has the best stops. And not every race is a barnburner.
    “But the fact of the matter is we've got 43 teams that are competing at the same time. It's OK. If you're a good fan, you don't get what you want, it's OK to be disappointed. You know, we can be disappointed right along with you.
    “You know, we're here to put on the best races we can, and we do a damn good job of it most of the time. Everybody inside of these walls works real hard to do that, all the competitors, all of our partners, Goodyear, the manufacturers, all of our officials do the best we can.
    “You know, there are times that you may be disappointed. And that's OK, too. That's what makes us try to do a better job next time around.”
    In other words, we can’t win ’em all.