Disappointed Stewart has harsh words for tires

DOVER, Del. -- Tony Stewart lashed out at Goodyear after finishing a disappointing third in the MBNA America 400 at Dover International Speedway.

MBNA AMERICA 400  •  Results  •  Standings

Stewart was angry at what he perceived to be an inconsistency of the tires from one set to another. Stewart led twice for 97 laps but gave up the lead to pit for four tires with 73 laps to go.

"They sponsor all these teams, and basically what it is is hush money to keep us from talking about it," Stewart said. "And I'm tired of covering their a**. I mean, it's pretty bad that the sets of tires are so bad that you can't make an adjustment on the car and go out and win the race when you've got the fastest car on the track."

Asked by a television reporter if the tires were just different, Stewart said, "Ask Goodyear. They're the ones that built the pieces of s***," Stewart said.

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Stewart then stormed away from reporters and headed for the garage area. He later decided to skip his post-race interview in the infield media center. Car owner Joe Gibbs filled in.

Goodyear officials met with Stewart and his team after the race, and Rick Campbell, the team leader for Goodyear's NASCAR program, said they would talk again with crew chief Greg Zipadelli.

"It's not as clear-cut as what Tony would seem to indicate," Campbell said. "We're going to talk to him this week and get into the actual data and see what it shows us, see what actually happened -- did Tony get worse or did simply the other cars get better?

"It's an open book right now. If something happened tirewise, I would be surprised if it did, but if it did, then we'll take our lumps and try to fix it and make it better."

	Tony Stewart has one victory in 2003. Credit: Autostock.

Zipadelli said his team got rid of 14-16 tires this weekend after looking at codes stamped on the tires that "we didn't like or felt that didn't match up."

"It's just disappointing to have a car as strong as we have had in a couple different places this year and come in and just put four tires on and be terrible -- I mean, be four-, five- or six-tenths off of what you were running before," Zipadelli said. "It's hard to ask somebody to get in there and drive their ever-loving tail off for 400 laps and have that happen and expect them to be happy about it."

Second-place finisher Jeremy Mayfield said his team didn't have similar problems Sunday.

"Ours were pretty good all day," Mayfield said. "Ours stayed consistent all day. We really didn't have what you call a 'bad set.' Most of the day, they were all good."

Gibbs was more diplomatic than Stewart or Zipadelli.

"The 18, we couldn't tell because we were so far out of it, it didn't matter," Gibbs said. "Tony, everything was critical there at the end. We had the best car for a run or two. He got frustrated because that's what we did, we changed tires. Some frustration set in there. Then after the race, he was upset.

"It's so hard to tell when you're in a situation like that. I don't drive it, so I don't know."