HAMPTON, Ga. -- Preliminary results are in, and it appears both NASCAR teams and Goodyear officials are pleased with the performance of the new, slightly softer tire compound being used this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

After two full practice sessions Saturday in conditions that will be very close to those for Sunday's Pep Boys Auto 500, Goodyear general manager of worldwide racing Stu Grant said the tire compound selected after a pair of tire tests at the speedway is a significant improvement over the tire that caused so much consternation back in the spring.

"I was really pleased with the initial reactions of these guys," Grant said. "We're seeing things right now that we saw in our tire test here, which means we've been able to give the guys a little more grip."

Denny Hamlin, who suffered the hardest hit three weeks ago at Talladega when a cut tire -- one of several that day -- put him hard into the wall, was happy with what he saw Saturday.

"I didn't get to do either of the tire tests here, but this new tire is pretty good," Hamlin said. "It's a lot better than what we had here in the past. The control is a lot more than what we've seen in the past. I definitely think that they did a good job picking out a softer tire to give us a little more grip, and I'm glad they did."

Carl Edwards' initial reaction was also positive.

"It seemed like the tire had a ton of grip and you could drive the car pretty hung out," Edwards said. "It wasn't a real hard-feeling tire. I felt like I could get the tire real sideways and drag that tire around, so I hope that tire wear is not an issue.

"I'm a little nervous about it just because it's a change. I guess they had Kyle [Busch] here testing or something and I'm sure he ran some really hard laps, so I hope it holds up and I hope it works out. They didn't have tire failures, I believe, the last time we were here, people just didn't like the tire so it makes me a little nervous that they changed it."

Grant said crews in the garage area want a tire compound that will allow them to correctly determine what will happen when they make changes to the handling of their cars -- and that wasn't necessarily the case in March.

"The main thing is, the cars are more predictable and they're responsive to the changes they make," Grant said. "I think what we had in the spring was a right-side tire that was hard enough that it was difficult for the guys to get the feel of the car. They tried to make changes and it didn't really seem to affect it. They couldn't predict what was going to happen, one way or the other.

"Now we've got a tire that if you talk to them, they say, 'Yeah, the car is loose. We can make a change and I can feel the change.' I'm really pleased with what we're seeing after the first two sessions."

Other drivers in the Chase were looking forward to seeing how the new tire combination would do under race conditions.

"They said this tire on the right side is a little softer and should add more grip," Earnhardt said. "I think that is a good thing. We definitely didn't have grip here last time so a softer, a grippier tire is going to help us a lot even if wears out and gets real, real slick late in the run.

"That's OK. You just want a little bit of grip to go racing there for at least 25-30 laps. A softer tire should do that."

Jeff Burton said the lack of grip is one of the things that makes racing at Atlanta unique.

"Obviously Goodyear has brought a different tire than what we had in the spring so we're going to have to get adjusted to that," Burton said. "I always think this is one of the most fun races of the year because it just gets so slick and control gets really low and I think that's fun."

There are three characteristics of Atlanta Motor Speedway that cause the grip to go away quicker than at other venues on the Sprint Cup circuit, according to Grant.

"One, it's really fast. Two, you're in a corner all the time. If you look at the configuration of the racetrack, you're in a corner nearly the whole time. And three, it's very abrasive," Grant said. "All of those things combined give you some nice grip for a few initial laps, and then the grip is going to fall off."