Drivers offer ideas for tire solutions (cont'd)

"Goodyear has to find a way to build a tire that we don't have to go through that process of having to lay rubber down on that particular racetrack to get where we can race on it," he said. "They have to find a way to build a tire that will not wear out but when they do that what's going to happen is the complaints are going to start coming about the grip level of the tire. That's what we had at Charlotte, that's what we had at Atlanta. If you go back and think about the last race in Atlanta where everybody complained so loudly about, the tire was the first time we haven't had a tire problem in Atlanta in a long time but everybody crawled up Goodyear's butt because the tires drove bad. Again, it's a difficult situation. If you ask me, if they're going to error I rather them error on the side that the car is driving bad than error on the side of wearing them out, but that's my opinion."

Lineup

Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500

Pos.	Driver	Speed	Time
1.	J. Johnson	168.215	53.503
2.	M. Martin	167.560	53.712
3.	D. Gilliland	167.187	53.832
4.	J. Gordon	167.106	53.858
5.	M. Kenseth	166.883	53.930
6.	R. Newman	166.784	53.962
7.	K. Kahne	166.522	54.047
8.	B. Vickers	166.522	54.047
9.	G. Biffle	166.516	54.049
10.	Ku. Busch	166.445	54.072

• Lineup | Videos

Burton added that the emphasis on the tire solution needs to focus on testing done away from the track, not at the track.

"The technology that Goodyear has access to and the technology that Goodyear needs to develop needs to be more concentrated in my opinion on what they can do from a simulation standpoint, from away from the racetrack standpoint because you can get so much more done there," Burton said. "Finding a way to build the tires correctly before they ever come to a test, to me that's where the technology needs to be invested and that's where if we're going to talk about doing tire testing that's more important than the actual testing itself, as seen by me."

Roush Fenway Racing driver Carl Edwards, coming off a second-place finish at Indianapolis, said Goodyear is faced with a Catch-22 explaining that drivers complain when the tire is too hard as well as too soft.

"I don't know what the answer is. All I know is that everyone gets the same time and as long as they are not blowing out I'm fine with it. They can make it as hard as they want to," Edwards said. "Personally, I had no problem with the tire they brought in Atlanta."

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin said he has appreciated the progress Goodyear has made with the softer tires.

"It seemed like last year we were going through a little phase where we were having all these hard tires and that was a lot of the complaining last year was that the tires were way too hard; they were chattering and you can't race on them," he said. "They have at least tried to work on that and have gotten a lot better. To have excess tire wear is usually an odd thing to have and not a problem to have. I think they were trying to work on it, but I think as soon as they got it figured out -- the tire that they needed on the old car, we switched to the new car and it wears on the tires even more. Now it's something that they have to learn all over again and I think that part is taking longer."

Overall, most drivers agree that the new car's unknowns and restrictions will continue to present challenges for tire development.

"This car is just so different than the car previous," Hamlin said.

Bottom line, the issue won't be fixed overnight, said Johnson.

"Everybody has an opinion and I think that hurts NASCAR and it hurts Goodyear from time to time. They are trying to listen to all the input and every opinion that comes in. At the end of the day, they have to make the decisions," he said. "A lot has changed. In some ways, I think a stable environment will allow Goodyear to catch up and do what they need to do."

Certainly it resolves to fix the issue that plagued Indianapolis and will continue to research the problem, but veteran Mark Martin is nostalgic for the tires of yesteryear.

"They used to be gooey. They used to have oil in them or something in them. They were gooey, rubbery," Martin said. "They're powdery now. They're carbon, they make black dust. They don't put rubber down in the corners, they put black dust down in there and I'm not sure that's the same thing. Over the period of the last five or 10 years the tires just get harder and dryer and spitting off more black powder. I don't know, I kind of like the old gummy tires."

Also
• Caraviello: In aftermath, little contrition goes long way
• Words between Stewart, Goodyear expose a gap