TALLADEGA, Ala. -- Cup Series tire testing will continue at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Wednesday, as Goodyear Tire & Rubber company officials continue to work toward a tire compound that will wear less quickly than the ones that caused catastrophe at last summer's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, with no more than 14 green-flag laps run in succession and six competition cautions thrown.

“

When you make these tires slower and harder, they just slide across the pavement and because of that grooving it just turns into a shredder and they just don't last.

”

-- BRIAN VICKERS

However, with three months to go, finding a tire with grip that will also survive long green-flag runs remains an elusive goal. Goodyear held three separate test sessions at the speedway last fall, and brought a control tire to last week's rain-shortened test. However, Goodyear director of race tire sales, Greg Stucker, said results weren't what engineers had hoped for.

"The goal was to build upon what we've learned up to this point," Stucker said. "We started last week on the control tire from last fall, the one that enabled us to make some 25-lap runs at the time. We went on to evaluate some additional compounds and constructions and we just didn't see the same results.

"The one thing we know that changed over the winter was the amount of rubber on the race track. Our test last week was the first on-track activity since our fall tests, and the race track is much greener than we saw at that time. We're not getting the wear levels we'd like to see at this point."

Brian Vickers was selected as one of the four drivers to participate in the tests, and said the tires are an improvement over what was brought to Indianapolis a year ago.

"Obviously last year was an embarrassment for the sport at Indianapolis," Vickers said last weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. "It was not at all what anybody wanted and I commend NASCAR and Goodyear. They're going above and beyond to try to get this problem fixed. They've already done several tests there. They've made some huge gains in the tires. We tested there last week and made more gains. (Continued)