In the Indy blame game, a few things deserve a pass

Let's get this straight right away: What unfolded last Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was unacceptable. Shouldn't have happened, can't happen again. NASCAR and Goodyear have both been roundly and duly chastised by drivers, reporters and fans, all of whom viewed the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard as the result of a lack of foresight, a lack of preparedness, and a lack of communication.

But the blame game here goes only so far. Yes, maybe the crew chiefs should have insisted on an Indianapolis test. Yes, maybe the three teams involved in the April tire test at the speedway should have raised more of an alarm. Yes, maybe there should be a crackdown on setups that are placing more strain on an already over-strained right side. Ultimately, though, NASCAR and Goodyear are responsible. Yet that hasn't stopped a few undeserving parties from getting nicked by collateral damage in the hail of recrimination that's been unleashed this past week.

The racetrack, for instance. Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief executive officer Tony George had every right to say his facility wasn't the issue, and that it wouldn't be altered for the NASCAR event there next year. The racetrack surface at the Brickyard was diamond-ground in 2002, and repaved and diamond-ground again in 2005. As NASCAR vice president for competition Robin Pemberton correctly pointed out Tuesday, the Sprint Cup cars had competed on that same surface three times before last weekend. The racetrack was a known quantity. There were no surprises there. Blaming the speedway for the Brickyard fiasco is like blaming a traffic accident on the guy who built the road.

And while we're at it, we're going to stand up for the new car here. In the wake of the Brickyard, the vehicle formerly known as the Car of Tomorrow is getting batted around like a piñata by folks who believe its higher center of gravity and heavier right-side loads are to blame for what happened last week. Excuse me, but those characteristics have been quite evident since the first day this car was rolled onto a racetrack. And if you think NASCAR is going to suddenly scrap a vehicle it spent eight years developing after one bad weekend, then you're deluding yourself.

And why should they? This is, ultimately, a safer vehicle than the old one; the reason for that higher center of gravity is a taller driver compartment that reduces the likelihood of somebody getting thwacked in the head by a roll bar in an accident. The new car, and the tighter technological box that surrounds it, has made it easier for NASCAR officials to bust crew chiefs who are trying a little too hard to gain an edge. The new car has allowed NASCAR to institute a long-overdue zero-tolerance policy that results in big fines and long suspensions for anyone caught trifling with it.

The only problem with the new car is that it's surrounded by a lot of old thinking -- talking heads on television who want to trim it, raise it, or widen it, crew chiefs who want it to perform like its predecessor, a tire supplier that brings the same compound to the same racetrack from one year to the next. It's like everybody' is doing their best to try and turn this thing back into the old car, instead of adapting to the new one. Remember how race teams used to "twist" the old car in an attempt to maximize performance? That's one of the things the new car was designed to prevent. Of course, now you have cars "crabbing" down the racetrack, their rear ends stuck out like motorized humpbacks, trying to shave off another 20th of a second to keep pace with everyone else.

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A vehicle that keeps drivers safer, makes it more difficult to get away with cheating, and attempts to foster more even competition is not a bad thing. But it's almost like the sport now needs Crew Chiefs of Tomorrow and Drivers of Tomorrow and Tire Suppliers of Tomorrow and Fans of Tomorrow to keep up with it. Or perhaps one of those gizmos from "Men in Black" that erases your memory, so people will start concentrating more on what they have in front of them, and less on a racecar that no longer exists.

And while we're in the mood for absolution, let's give a little to NASCAR and Goodyear as well. In the Brickyard's aftermath, nothing has been more misguided or short-sighted than the call for multiple tire suppliers within NASCAR. History has shown us that competition among tire companies does not make for a safer sport. The last time a "tire war" took place within NASCAR's premier series was 1994, and the results were disastrous -- Michael Waltrip, Todd Bodine and Jimmy Spencer suffered broken shoulders, Dale Jarrett suffered a fractured wrist, Ernie Irvan suffered a life-threatening head injury, and Neil Bonnett and Rodney Orr were killed.

According to media reports from that time, the accidents were traced to higher corner speeds produced by softer tires, the end result of competition between Goodyear and Hoosier. It all left drivers begging NASCAR for new rules to reduce speeds. Do you really want to go back to that? Not Mark Martin. "It's not worth it, man," he said after the final race of that disheartening season.

Hoosier, at the time a small company that could never have supplied the entire series, eventually pulled out. Jeff Burton raced during that 1994 tire war. Even with the tire troubles of the current season, he has no desire to go through something like that again.

"When we had two manufacturers here, we saw I believe it was four cars on the lead lap at North Wilkesboro, we saw track records being broken, we really didn't see better racing. We saw more tire failures because the manufacturers were forced to put more emphasis on making the cars drive a certain way. I drove on Hoosiers. By no means is it my opinion that we would make Goodyear step up and do a better job if we had two manufacturers here. I'm in complete opposition of that," Burton said earlier this season.

"In order for Goodyear to do a better job, we have to find a way to integrate with the teams more. We have to find a way to let the people that do it every day, that spend their whole life on these racecars, become more a part of the process. We don't know how to build tires, we have not a clue how to build tires. Goodyear does a really good job of that. Goodyear could benefit from using the teams more than we are actually able to do now. That's my opinion."

And as usual, he's absolutely correct. So go ahead, blame whomever you want to for last week's race at the Brickyard. Plenty of mistakes were made. But if you're pointing a finger at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, at the new car, or at the fact that NASCAR has only a single tire supplier, then you might have ingested a little too much of the black dust all those failing tires left floating around the racetrack last Sunday afternoon.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer