Previous Dover tire test a boon to Johnson, Montoya (cont'd)

Denny Hamlin wasn't so worried about advantages as he was critical about Goodyear's new compound.

"There was a tire test here, and from what I hear, they didn't bring back the tire that everyone liked again," Hamlin said. "Same as Atlanta. They keep increasing the stagger in the tires, and it just keeps making guys loose in and loose off.

"You'll see it during the race. You're going to see guys sliding all over the place, just like you were at Atlanta. I don't know. They won't listen to us drivers, so I don't know why we even tire test these race tracks anymore."

But Montoya defended Goodyear's decision, saying the previous tire just wasn't the right fit for 400 miles on Dover's rough concrete surface.

"If you looked at it last year, after first practice, there was people on cords and there was no rubber [on the track]," Montoya said. "If you look at the track right now, it's black. So they definitely improved the tire again. It's good to see Goodyear doing a really good job improving the tire and making a more competitive tire for everybody. It's nice to see."

In Johnson's opinion, with two more practice sessions scheduled for Saturday, everyone will be on equal footing by Sunday.

"There's no doubt that the tire test we had here that the tire was different," Johnson said. "It laid down more rubber and it made the car turn much stronger. And my suggestion to Goodyear was, 'We've done everything we can to make these cars turn. It would be nice if you could help us make the cars turn, and we can back off some of the crazy setups we're running, tighten the cars up, put some more mechanical grip in them and then maybe we can run side-by-side and maybe we can race better.'

"I think a lot of guys came with the setups they had before and it's too loose, and it's frustrating. By the time the race gets going, they'll have them all tightened up and where they need to be."

If anyone knows what it's like to be excluded from a critical tire test, it's Johnson, who didn't get a chance to test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And he's quick to remind everyone how that all turned out.

"Goodyear contacts us and tells us where they'd like to use us," Johnson said. "I'd have liked to test Indy. There were 75,000 cars that got to test Indy and run laps and miles, and we didn't go. So you just go where they tell you to go and run and test.

"We tested here. It was our perk. There's no doubt there's an advantage, but we overcame that at Indy where he didn't have a chance to test and won the show."