Successful or not, rain tires aren't option for Cup -- yet (cont'd)

Pemberton equated learning how to run in the rain with the introduction of radial tires, when teams discovered using previously unseen rear camber improved tire grip, but resulted in large numbers of broken axles.

"It's just something new," Pemberton said. "Some people will stand up and applaud, some will stand up and shout about how bad it was, and some people will stand back and look at it as an experience and do better the next time around."

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On the Cup side, if you do that, it has to be a situation where there is no other option. We could probably find another option, but it is a great opportunity in the Nationwide Series to try to learn from it.

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DALE EARNHARDT JR.

But this weekend, it's not an option for the Cup Series. Pemberton did say that the sanctioning body would continue to evaluate the tires' use in the Nationwide Series and that using them in the Cup Series was not a dead issue.

"Never say never but never say always [either]," Pemberton said. "I think we'll always consider anything. Knowing now that we ran a race in the rain, I think we'll sit down as a group and discuss the potential of doing that and the nightmare of doing that and see if it's worth it or not. It goes into our 'learn as you go' basket, and we'll take that and see where we're at."

If that decision were made, it would take extra work for Goodyear to create the tires for a Cup application. Heinrich said the Sprint Cup tire for NASCAR's new car had a greater circumference than the tire used on the Nationwide cars.

"We don't have a rain tire to match that circumference," Heinrich said. "So it's really only a viable option for the Nationwide Series."

He added that the tires produced in 1999 -- that were individually inspected before being loaded on the trucks to be brought to the racetrack -- had about reached their effective lifespan and that, in the offseason, "we're going to be rebuilding the rain tires and have a new, fresh batch that we'll be bringing to the appropriate events in 2009."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is entered in this weekend's Nationwide race, and he said he observed last weekend's race with some interest. He could wait to run rain tires on his Hendrick Motorsports Cup car, though.

"On the Nationwide side, it would be a lot of fun to give it a shot like they did last week. I think that Goodyear would obviously like to learn a lot more about the tire before we tried that on the Cup side," Earnhardt said. "On the Cup side, if you do that, it has to be a situation where there is no other option. We could probably find another option, but it is a great opportunity in the Nationwide Series to try to learn from it.

"Being the second-tier series, that is really where a lot of things are tested and a lot of trials and tribulations happen. It's a good series for that."