Opinions vary on Indy tire debacle, but most negative (cont'd)

Believe it or not, Sunday's 11-caution event didn't set the record for the greatest number of caution periods, though 52 caution laps was a high. But face it, you just never know.

Sunday's race could have had that many cautions in it naturally, though in the previous 14 editions the average number of cautions was 6.57, the average number of caution laps 26.79, with highs of 13 cautions in 2004 and 47 caution laps the same year.

That was followed the next year by 10 cautions for 45 laps in 2005 -- not coincidentally the last race held before the track was repaved and the first held after it was diamond-ground in the spring of 2005.

Brickyard to dust

A debacle like the one that happened Sunday shouldn't happen anywhere. But it absolutely cannot happen at Indy, writes David Caraviello.

• Complete story, click here
• Indy black with dust, cautions

No, the problem was that this was totally preventable, as Dale Earnhardt Jr. insisted after exiting his car on Sunday and rightly praising NASCAR for how it handled the situation, once it realized it had painted itself into an inextricable corner. In Earnhardt's opinion, the situation could have been worse for everyone.

"That was terrible at the start of the race -- very, very frustrating," Earnhardt said. "But there wasn't any other way around it. I think we were going longer [than we needed to] -- I think 10 laps [between cautions] was too long, you know, a lot of guys were having trouble, so we just need to do a better job."

Earnhardt's always been good at poking fun at himself, but he also cuts no corners -- and he cut right to the root of Goodyear's problem.

"I was at the tire test here -- blame it all on me if you want," Earnhardt said, grinning. "But when I was here, they were wearing out in five laps, too, and that was that. We run some other tires and they were better, but [Goodyear] didn't bring 'em back, so ..."

So it was what it was.

Goodyear had a backup tire on site Sunday at Indy. In 1994 at Dover, the last time a tire "situation" of this magnitude occurred, NASCAR brought in an alternate tire, staged a Sunday morning practice for the field and ran the race.

Jeff Burton, who competed in that Dover event in his rookie Cup season, spoke from hindsight Sunday, and wouldn't have even brought it up if he wasn't asked.

"Chaos is a good way to describe it," Burton said of the Allstate 400. "I was real nervous about this race because every time we come here, we know there's going to be an issue with tires. Typically it gets better, but I didn't see any evidence in practice [Saturday] that it was getting better, and that made me nervous.

"We need to find a way to be dealing in facts -- that we know it will get better, not hope that it will, because by then your bed is made and you've got to sleep in it. In retrospect, [switching tires] would have been the right thing to do, but past history has said it will get better. But we never saw [improvement]."

It led to drivers running more than two-thirds of the race at three-quarter throttle -- in survival mode.

It led to comments like these: "I want to thank the fans for supporting us and the other cars and staying out here [Sunday] to watch despite the situation we had out there," Kevin Harvick said.

"I've got to stop and just apologize to the fans," Brian Vickers said. "We got some awesome, awesome fans that come out here and watch these races. I don't want to point the finger at anybody; it's a culmination of a lot of things that took place [Sunday] that caused the problem we're seeing with the tires. We as a sport should have done better. I'm embarrassed; I'm sure a lot of people are. But we appreciate everybody staying here [Sunday], watching the race and sticking behind us."

"Look, I heard people go on tirades [but] everybody is doing their job, everyone is trying their hardest," Carl Edwards said. "Every once in a while I run into the wall or act like I'm gonna punch somebody after the race or something like that -- everybody makes mistakes. I just hope the fans understand this, that nobody wants to see this happen -- Goodyear the least [of all], I'm sure."

And what can be expected this week in Pocono? Goodyear's Greg Stucker, as fine a pro as you'll ever want to deal with under any circumstances, said "we've already raced Pocono and we didn't have any problems whatsoever."

But amidst all the glossing over, he'd also made a statement that was the root of the problem, when he said on Saturday, speaking of the April tire test that Earnhardt referred to, "everything we did to improve the wear, the handling penalty was there, of course. We felt like that penalty was a little bit too much to pay, so we stayed with that tread compound."

I think Eddie Gossage's "shut up and drive" campaign at Texas Motor Speedway in 1997 was one of the more misguided PR efforts, ever -- but he was trying, and you can't fault that.

But in this case, letting the best drivers in the world drive would've been the best solution, and whatever handling issues Goodyear feared might have occurred in a normal, largely green-flag race should have been placed in their hands.

Some fans still might have been disappointed -- but when aren't some fans?

But there wouldn't have been a need for many apologies.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.