Tire troubles continue to plague Cup Series teams

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Holly Cain

Pemberton is confident Goodyear will develop and test new tires for Richmond in September

RICHMOND, Va. — Tire issues during Saturday’s Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway were quite literally a hot button issue as a handful of right front tires caught fire during the race.

While it was frustrating and race-ending for some of the teams, in driver Reed Sorenson’s case, rubber from his tire started coming off and got into the oil and brake lines causing a fire and his entire Chevrolet to engluf in smoke and flames. He had to be pulled from his cockpit on pit road by a crewman.

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Even drivers who did not have issues Saturday night, such as third place finisher Kyle Busch, suggested that Goodyear needed to work on the tire some more, specifically with the newly developed duel tread tire used at Richmond and earlier this month at Texas Motor Speedway.

"It was really tough for all of us to keep the tires under our cars and for putting a harder compound on the outside edge having it cord and come apart," Busch said. "Actually it’s supposed to be more durable; I think it was just the not the right way to go."

Stu Grant, Goodyear’s General Manager of Global Race Tires, acknowledged the recurring issue with the right front tires Saturday night.

"Some cars are perfectly fine, but we are seeing a number of cars with wear issues in the right front," Grant said.

"Back when we tested [at Richmond] in October we were testing two things. One, the heat and durability and the second thing is wear. It looked like we were effective in being able to reduce the heat and improve the durability with the construction change we made.

"But it looks like we’ve got some work to do on the wear because I don’t think we made any improvement on the wear with this particular package.

"It looks like the operating window between acceptable wear on the right front and unacceptable wear is pretty small. You get some guys that are just fine, just fine, just fine, and then all of a sudden they’ll develop an issue.”

The camber setting — the way the wheels are angled — by a team may have also played a role in the tire troubles Saturday.

"It plays into certainly because all the issues are the inside shoulder of the right front that they are leaning on," Grant said. "You could straighten that up and improve that for sure."

But, he said, he expected the company would further test a new tire to use when NASCAR returns to the Richmond three-quarter miler in September for the regular season finale that sets the Chase for the Sprint Cup field.

"I think it’s pretty likely we’ll be back to Richmond and test before September," Grant said. "Obviously when we have a change like that we have a lot of discussion with the teams and NASCAR to make sure we make the right call. With it being the last race before the Chase — they are all important — but that’s an important one and we need to all be on the same page if we’re going to schedule a test and make a change for the Fall race.”

Jeff Gordon was runner-up Saturday and at Texas Motor Speedway earlier this month using the duel tread tires, but still said he wasn’t necessarily a "fan” of the tire.

"While I don’t like the way it drives, I also think we’re very competitive with it, so I’m not going to say a whole lot," Gordon said. "I will just second what Kyle (Busch) said is that I think the idea behind this is to make it more durable and that does not seem to be the case. So I think there definitely needs to be a little bit more research to go into it to try to perfect it."

NASCAR Vice President for Competition Robin Pemberton said after the race he was absolutely confident that Goodyear would handle the situation.

"The tire was adjusted properly on many cars and some of them took it overboard," Pemberton acknowledged. "But Goodyear being a good partner, if it’s something we need to re-do before we get back here in the fall, I’m sure Goodyear is more than happy to test and develop another tire for us."

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Posted on April 26, 2014 by Holly Cain

Washington Redskins has permanent smile affixed to his face at first NASCAR race

RICHMOND, Va. — It was difficult to tell who was enjoying Robert Griffin III’s first visit to a NASCAR race more — the fans and drivers or Griffin himself.

At the Twitter invitation of good friend Dale Earnhardt Jr., the Washington Redskins star quarterback Griffin attended his first NASCAR event Saturday, the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway.

Fans flocked around him taking photos and drivers came out of their team haulers to shake his hand. Former Redskins coach and current NASCAR team owner Joe Gibbs gave Griffin a behind the scenes tour of the Richmond, Va. track’s garage area.

“The power of social media is definitely showing itself today,’’ Griffin joked, of the way the whole experience came together.

“It’ll be great for me to see this first-hand,’’ he continued, noting he absolutely believes NASCAR drivers are athletes. “Dale Jr. and I have talked a bunch about this. It takes a lot to be a football player but it also takes a lot to be a NASCAR driver. What we do is pretty hard to do and I’m pretty sure I couldn’t just jump in a car today and do what Dale Jr. does. We definitely respect them and that’s why I wanted to come out here. Just to check it out and see how it goes.”

Griffin got a high-def look at what goes on Saturday morning as he took a tutorial for his race duty: driving the pace car to start the race. After a few laps, he conceded that he was definitely not ready to imagine racing door-to-door at 100 mph hour.

“I’ll let the professionals do the driving and I’ll stay at 41 mph and then get off the track,’’ he joked.

“My wife was in the back [seat] and I think she got a little scared when we got to 100 mph.

“But it’s going to be real safe so (Redskins General Manager) Bruce Allen, (team owner) Dan Synder, Coach J (Jay Gruden) you don’t have anything to worry about.’’

Griffin said he planned to stay for the whole race “soaking up that whole experience.” And how could he repay the VIP favor for Earnhardt?

“There’s some things he could experience, but no pace car-like things in football,’’ Griffin said smiling. “So we’d have to suit him up full pads and put him in at quarterback and let (defensive end) Jason Hatcher tackle him.

“That’s probably not an experience he would want. But we could figure out some things.”

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Holly Cain

Johnson: ‘I don’t have this big fear that I’m not going to make the Chase’

RICHMOND, Va. — A huge smile slowly filled Jimmie Johnson‘s face as he listened to his introduction at Friday morning’s press conference at Richmond International Raceway. He shook his head and grinned as his record at the track — highlighted by three wins — was duly noted.

"Are you sure we have three wins?" Johnson joked. "We suck here. We’ve been terrible and hopefully we’re a lot better this weekend. The last couple trips especially, we have been junk."

But, Johnson quickly pointed out, "I think it’s a fantastic race track, it put on a great show, it’s great for the fans and in my heart I think we need more short tracks on the schedule. I just need to get this one figured out."

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He’s right about that for many reasons — the least of which may be that it would finally stop the "When are you going to win in 2014?" query that has followed the six-time and reigning NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion the first three months of the season.

Ironically, in a season whose new championship format emphasizes wins over consistency, the champ is a little slower getting to Victory Lane in his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet than he’s used to. Or perhaps everyone else feels used to.

Of course, it’s all relative.

In his 12 previous full-time seasons, Johnson has always scored at least one win by the summer.

Richmond is the ninth race on the schedule and Johnson has failed to win by race nine only three times — two of those instances occurred in his first two seasons. It took Johnson all of 10 races into his 2002 rookie year to score his first career win (at Auto Club Speedway). It took him 12 races in 2003 to visit Victory Lane (at Charlotte Motor Speedway) — the deepest into a season he’s gone before winning. In 2012, he won the schedule’s 11th race at Darlington Raceway.

In all but two of his six Cup championship seasons, though, he’s hoisted a trophy by the third race.

"Honestly, I get asked about it and that is the only time it comes through my mind," Johnson said of still seeking his first win of 2014. "I don’t have this big fear that I’m not going to make the Chase and I’m not going to win a race. If we were running 15th and 20th every week I would be up here nervous, and honestly I would tell you about it.

"But the fact we have been knocking on the door gives me great hope and optimism and doesn’t change anything from this year versus any other year mentally."

Other than a couple of hard-luck races — a blown tire at Fontana and damage incurred from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s wrecked car at Texas — Johnson has an enviable record of five top-six finishes. He was runner-up at Martinsville Speedway four weeks ago and placed third in the previous race at Darlington.

Johnson says the slightly modified 2014 version of the Generation-6 car has proven to be challenging for the team to get mastered.

"Right now we are still trying to find exactly what gives us the best vehicle dynamics and what gives me the best feel," Johnson said. "A lot of time when you create the perfect car on the race track when you look at video and photos, it’s not turning as strong as I want it to.

"We’ll get there and I think we have been there at a handful of races this year. So we are just going down the road and trying to figure out where the speed is and balancing those two worlds."

In the meantime, Johnson would love to rekindle the success he had here from 2007-08, when he won three of the track’s four Cup races. He has only four top-10s in the 10 races since his September 2008 win.

A victory Saturday night would both silence the critics and invigorate the fans, who are hoping to see Johnson win a historic seventh Cup title this year in yet another new championship format.

For Johnson, it’s always been all about winning.

"Yes, there seems to be a least a conscious effort to win races more and this big discussion about winning races, but you need to win races to win a championship, period," Johnson said. "That has really been the mindset the No. 48 has always had. We have knocked on the door a few times and I think a win is out here for us very soon, hopefully this weekend."

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