Auto Club tire results still pending

“There’s no set time frame on that,” Buck said. “Obviously we’d like to have the results as soon as we can so we can close the chapter on that. We hope we aren’t going to find anything, but if we do and it’s conclusive then we’ll have to react on it. Obviously being able to react on that quickly so we can move down the road and close that chapter is what we’re looking for.”

Tires were taken at ACS from the teams of Kevin Harvick and teammate Kurt Busch (Stewart-Haas Racing) as well as Richard Childress Racing teammates Ryan Newman and Paul Menard.

Tires were also taken from teams at Phoenix a week earlier (race winner Harvick and the No. 2 entry of Team Penske driver Joey Logano), and again this past Sunday, from the teams of Logano, Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing) and Matt Kenseth (Joe Gibbs Racing).

Officials said the tires taken at Phoenix had been checked and that no irregularities had been found.

Although a NASCAR spokesperson said taking tires to the R&D Center for further evaluation was a fairly common practice, sources in the garage said it was an unusual move.

Buck said officials often do an at-track inspection of tires following an event after teams have obtained any relative information such as tire pressures and temperatures.

“Once the teams have gotten the information that they need, we impound those tires and we take them to Goodyear at the track; we go through a process there … of inspection,” he said. “Then we bring them back to the R&D center where they go through further inspection with our engineers here. We also employ some outside expertise. In this case we’ve got them out to an independent source that’s going through some further inspection and analysis.”

Speculation in the garage had been growing for weeks that some teams were using unapproved processes to regulate air pressure in their cars’ tires. NASCAR officials met with crew chiefs Friday morning at Martinsville to stress the seriousness of any such attempts.

According to NASCAR’s deterrence policy, the penalty for such infractions would be a Level P5, which include the loss of 50 championship driver and team owner points and fines ranging from $75,000-$125,000.

Engine, fuel and tire violations are considered the most egregious in the NASCAR community.

“Those are known throughout the garage area,” said Buck. “There was a lot of noise, the noise level had risen throughout the garage area and we addressed it. … We reiterated to the garage area that it is very serious; our process has not changed. The penalty level starts out at the P5 level with multipliers possibly to be added to that. But we communicated to the garage that things had not changed. We take that very seriously.”

Heat buildup results in increased air pressure in the tires, which lessens tire grip and can alter a car’s handling characteristics. By allowing the increased pressure to “bleed off” or stabilize at a predetermined level, more of the surface of the tire remains in contact with the race track throughout the course of a run.

Rumors of minuscule holes being drilled in tires, in wheels and in valve caps/stems to affect air pressures are not new to the Sprint Cup Series.

“We’re doing our due diligence and will continue to do that,” Buck said. “And that’s most important for the garage area, to know that they’re not racing against it. As we say it’s a fair, level playing field. So we assured them of that but we also assured them that the penalty is very, very severe should somebody get caught.”

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