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FORT WORTH, Texas – A combination of low tire pressures and lack of track time before the race led to a rash of tire issues for several teams during Sunday's AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
The problem didn't play favorites – teams competing for NASCAR's Chase for the Sprint Cup as well as those not in the title battle were affected.
Among the victims were Joey Logano (Team Penske), Kyle Larson (Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates), Ryan Newman (Richard Childress Racing) and Greg Biffle (Roush Fenway Racing). Even race winner Jimmie Johnson wasn't untouched by the problem, but a fortunate caution allowed the Hendrick Motorsports driver to escape without issue.
"It just blew apart off Turn 2," Logano said as his team worked to get the driver back in the race after the left rear tire on his No. 22 Ford exploded just 10 laps into the race. "The left rear tire came apart and shredded everything inside the car. It did a lot more damage than just the tire blowing apart."
Logano finished 40th as a result of the damage and time lost in the garage while repairs were being made, leaving him last among the eight Chase drivers still fighting for one of the four spots in the Championship Round scheduled for later this month at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
RELATED: Cut tire puts Logano in big Chase hole
Newman, who finished 22nd, called it "a frustrating day."
"We had at least a top-10 ... Chevy before experiencing not one but two cut-down tires," he said. "After the first one, we were looking good to race back onto the lead lap. All we needed was a caution since we were the free pass.
"Unfortunately we had a right-front tire unravel and it really hurt us. I'm not sure what was happening out there but it sure is frustrating to have a fast car and have issues like this."
Goodyear's Greg Stucker, Director of Race Tire Sales, said there was no single answer for the numerous problems. Some teams had tire issues as a result of running over debris. Others were likely caused by running low air pressures for more grip on a track that teams hadn't been on since Friday. Saturday's two scheduled practice sessions were canceled due to wet track conditions, leaving teams to guess at set-ups and tire pressures.
"It's a combination of everything," Stucker said of the issues. "We know where they are air pressure-wise; it varies but it's all on the lower end.
"It's hard to say it's one thing; just a combination of how they're using the left rear."
Stucker said Goodyear officials noted "signs of over-deflection type air losses" when teams began having issues during the race. And tires, he said, "are just like a spring – when you put a load on it it's going to deflect.
"We give (teams) a spring rate, it tells how many inches that tire deflects for every bit of load. If you put more on it, it's going to deflect more; if you take air out and soften the springs it's going to deflect more. Then the ... tire starts to fail."
Chad Knaus, crew chief for Johnson, said his driver had mentioned a change in the car's handling just before he came to pit road and the team discovered a problem with the left rear tire.
"We were slipping back a little bit. Jimmie was talking about getting loose," Knaus said. "The caution came out shortly thereafter. As he came down pit road and we took the tires off, we saw we had a left rear tire going flat.
"But ... I was kind of prepared for it. This track does that a lot. So we were pretty conservative on our settings knowing we didn't get any race trim practice to make sure we wouldn't have a problem. Thankfully we really didn't."