Tires concern many drivers heading into Sunday's race

HAMPTON, Ga. -- One week after the tire grumbling at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the issue seemed to be an afterthought at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Until Saturday's Busch Series race.

"There was a little bit of trouble with the tires all day," said Carl Edwards, who finished fourth in the Nicorette 300. "The tires dictated the race [Saturday]. They had a lot of grip and they fell apart, so we just had to go cautious. You just had to go slow enough not to have a tire come apart and fast enough to run where you wanted to run."

Teammate Matt Kenseth agreed.

AP

Jeff Burton

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Jeff Burton took advantage of some bad luck on pit road for Kyle Busch to win the Nicorette 300 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. It's Burton's second consecutive Busch Series victory.

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"Yeah, we'd wear the right rears to the cords, and 10 laps at the end of the race, the tire wear kept getting worse as the race went on, which is unusual because it usually gets better," said Kenseth, who finished ninth. "It was so bad that I just had to slow down at the end or it was going to come apart."

One driver who didn't experience any tire trouble was runner-up Kevin Harvick.

"We didn't have any tire problems whatsoever on our car," Harvick said. "We didn't have any tires down to the cord or anything. Maybe I wasn't driving the car hard enough. I don't know."

But winning teammate Jeff Burton did.

"Did you watch the race?" Burton sarcastically retorted -- following a long pause -- upon being asked if it was good to race and not have to worry about the tires. "Just because we're not talking about it doesn't mean it's not a problem.

"That's what's kind of humorous about last week, is that they brought a tire that nobody had problems with and everybody complained about it. This week we had problems and nobody said a word. I don't get it."

Now attentions, worries, concerns, etc., turn to Sunday's Cup race, which is 200 miles longer, or 130 additional laps.

"It's a problem," said Burton, who led the final 26 laps. "I don't know how long that last run was, but my right-rear tire was completely killed. We were five laps away from wanting to pit. People were pitting way before they needed gas. It's an issue. It'll be an issue [Sunday].

How much of a problem it could be is up for debate. (Continued)