BRISTOL, Tenn. -- High speeds, including 200 mph recorded at the end of Darlington Raceway's backstretch, was only one thing that caught two-time Darlington winner Greg Biffle's attention during a Goodyear tire test this week.

Biffle, speaking at Bristol Motor Speedway Friday afternoon, said he was happy that Goodyear had decided to come back for a second try at the test, using the same three teams: Biffle's and those of Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman.

Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of race tire sales and marketing, said it was an easy choice for the manufacturer to decide to go back in about two weeks for another brief retest.

"We're not quite there yet," Stucker said. "We're going to go back, and we feel like we can make it a little bit better."

Biffle and Gordon appreciated that decision, they said.

"I think we all knew it, but it's extremely fast -- too fast for that size of racetrack," Biffle said. "We went 200 mph into Turn 3 at Darlington, and I could go faster than that probably. It's just extremely, extremely fast because of our cars today and how much grip that we've been able to get out of our cars and tires and how much power we make now. But that's two-and-a-half seconds faster than we were going. It's just astronomically fast.

"Jeff Gordon and I couldn't really drive the car -- it was just not enough grip, so we came back in and they found a middle ground that we think is gonna be decent. Goodyear is going back to the drawing board. We had a left-side tire that was maybe a little too fast still, and then they had a tire that was too hard. So they're gonna split that middle ground and we're gonna go back just to double-check it.

"That was kind of all of our suggestions to do that and I think they were really receptive to that. Let's face it, they don't want us complaining about the tire being too hard, yet it can't come apart."

Gordon was one who said he was glad he was testing NASCAR's new chassis versus last year's car.

"If we had last year's car, we would be doing 210 mph at Darlington under these new conditions and Goodyear would be really challenged on the tire," Gordon said. "This particular [new] car, it is doing its job and we are going slower through the corners than we were before."

Gordon particularly praised Goodyear for having three teams at Darlington for its latest test, as he said he typically concentrates on getting Goodyear "consistency, give them a really good feel and give them good feedback. But I am not going to put the car out on the edge."

Gordon said Biffle did just that and the problems Goodyear saw with its tire were the result.

"Heck, this week at Darlington, had Biffle not been there, I don't know if we would have realized some of the issues we had on the repave at Darlington that we needed to come back for a second test," Gordon said. "I felt like Ryan [Newman] was right in the middle between Biffle and me. I thought it was crucial to have us three guys and those types of teams and drivers there. I thought it was awesome." (Continued)