Joe Nemechek (right with MBV teammates Boris Said and Scott Riggs) was one of the drivers who experienced tire problems Wednesday at Daytona. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Notes: Teams worried about tires for Duel

Heavy wear puzzling to teams, Goodyear

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Several Nextel Cup drivers and crew chiefs are worried about a possible tire problem in Thursday's Gatorade Duel qualifying races at Daytona International Speedway.

Goodyear officials said six tires showed either excessive wear or loss of tread, and the tire maker shipped seven tires back to its plant in Akron, Ohio to figure out exactly went wrong.

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The problem? No one is sure, not even Goodyear.

"We have a tire issue," said Ryan Pemberton, crew chief for Joe Nemechek, who has been fast during Speedweeks. "If it's just the setup then I have a lot of searching to do to figure out what it is. On the other hand it could be a combination of both (tire and setup) or it could be isolated or it could be just us."

Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales and marketing, said his company pulled a group of about 300 tires before the Budweiser Shootout last weekend as a precaution because of a "significant amount of tread rubber" during practice.

Most of the problems were with right-rear tires, which Stucker said was consistent with teams' complaints of loose cars. A loose car slides the right-rear tire more than the right-front.

But Wednesday, the problems were with right-front tires.

"Most of the tires we saw today with the same situation were right-fronts," Stucker said. "We've looked at those tires and tried to determine what's exactly common about them. We haven't really determined that there is anything common.

"There's nothing within the manufacturing process that we think is causing the particular situation."

Among the tires Goodyear is sending back to Akron, Stucker said, were some that had problems, some tires that didn't and some new tires.

Stucker maintained that the problems could be setup-based. A new compound is being used this year which doesn't wear as much, but the new tire doesn't dissipate heat like last year's.

Plus, Wednesday was the warmest day of Speedweeks, with temperatures reaching the upper 70s. And another factor is the track surface itself, which Stucker said grates on the tire more than some other tracks.

Doug Richert, crew chief for Greg Biffle, agreed with Stucker's assessment that the problems are random and uncommon.

"It's not all the inside of the right-front, so it's not camber related," Richer said. "Maybe it's some lamination issue or something like that. I don't know. I'm not a tire expert. Goodyear is all over it. Their guys are all in the garage area trying to figure it out too."

Stucker said there were no problems with Craftsman Truck Series tires, and there was only one minor problem with a Busch Series tire.

Besides Biffle and Nemechek, Mark Martin, Jeremy Mayfield, Kenny Wallace and Hermie Sadler also had tire problems.

But many other drivers didn't.

"We haven't yet and I hope we don't," Jeff Gordon said. "Our stuff is looking pretty good. I don't know if we're a little more conservative than other guys or if they are just having rare instances. I'm not really sure but so far things are good with us and I hope it stays that way."

Don't count out Dale Earnhardt Inc. quite yet. Even though the DEI cars were slow in qualifying, both Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Michael Waltrip were near the top of Wednesday's speed charts.

Michael Waltrip turned some fast laps during Wednesday's Nextel Cup practice sessions. Credit: Autostock

Earnhardt Jr. was 12th in the second practice, while Waltrip was seventh in the first.

"Yeah, we were really happy with practice today," said Tony Eury Jr., Waltrip's crew chief. "That kind of just shows what we had down here at the test. We knew we weren't going to be really good with the single-car runs, but in the draft the car is awesome and it handles great. We're happy everything is showing up the way it did."

The Craftsman Truck Series carnage from January testing spilled over into the first practice Wednesday. Kerry Earnhardt's No. 15 truck slid in front of Steve Park's, sending both into the outside wall.

Jimmy Spencer led Wednesday's Craftsman Truck Series practice at Daytona. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Todd Kluever couldn't avoid Earnhardt, and Sean Murphy hit Deborah Renshaw's truck.

"It's just ignorance," Park said. "I've been racing here a long time, and we're out there just getting drafting practice. There's a couple guys I didn't want to draft with, and I obviously chose the wrong person to draft with again. It's just ignorance. The Orleans Dodge Ram is torn up."

Jimmy Spencer led the practice session, clocking his No. 2 Dodge in at 191.538 mph. Ricky Craven was second at 191.481 and David Reutimann was third at 191.371.

Truck qualifying is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. (ET).

His father isn't racing this week, but Justin Labonte is holding the family honor just fine, thank you. Labonte led Busch Series practice Wednesday with a 186.939 mph lap.

Justin Labonte won at Chicagoland earlier this season. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

That edged defending Busch Series champion Martin Truex Jr., who went 186.703. Brent Sherman was third at 186.679.

Terry Labonte is running a limited Nextel Cup schedule this year, and the Daytona 500 is not among the 10 races he'll run. The team he formed for Justin merged with Haas CNC Racing last year, and apparently the team has plenty of speed.

The Busch cars qualify Friday at 3:05 p.m.

You won't find a lot of competitors crying over the cancellation of the NHL season, but native Canadian Marty Gaunt, general manager for Brandon Whitt's truck team, understands the impact.

"As one of the few Canadian nationals in stock car racing, it probably affects me more than almost anyone else," Gaunt said. "There are thousands of NHL fans in the United States, but I don't think they really understand the impact of no professional hockey in Canada.

"You tell an eight-year-old Canadian kid that there is no Santa Claus, he'll live with that. No hockey? He won't stop crying until it starts next winter."

As for some of the empty arenas, Ken Schrader had an interesting idea.

"You know, some of those hockey rinks would make some great Midget tracks," Schrader said.