NASCAR Apologizes To Fans For Sunday's Indianapolis Race

[DebWilliams-GFN]

By Deb Williams

CONCORD, N.C. (July 29, 2008) – NASCAR issued an apology Tuesday for Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard and promised race fans the disastrous tire situation that existed at Indianapolis Motor Speedway would never happen again.

“We've already got after it, and we're moving forward with a plan to get ahead of the situation so we don't go through this again,” NASCAR Vice President for Competition Robin Pemberton said during Tuesday's teleconference. “I can't say enough how sorry we are, and it's our responsibility being NASCAR that we don't go through this situation again.”

During Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the drivers could run no more than 12 green-flag laps without the right-side tires wearing out, exposing the cords. NASCAR found itself having to wave six competition yellow flags and issuing orders for three more that ended up being designated on the race statistics as either an accident, debris or oil on the track.

Pemberton said NASCAR and Goodyear officials talked extensively Tuesday morning. They also conversed with IMS official Joie Chitwood.

“Once again, I think it deserves to be said that the race didn't come off like we had hoped,” Pemberton continued. “The fans didn't get what they exactly wanted, and we'll do everything in our power and it won't happen again, I can tell you that much. We're going to put a lot of effort towards it and get a better plan moving forward.”

Since the race many fans have asked why NASCAR didn't rubber-in IMS by dragging tires around the track Saturday night, but Pemberton said the sanctioning body didn't realize the tires wouldn't respond as they had in previous years until race time on Sunday.

“Goodyear followed suit on their tire test in April like they have those past two or three years, and we know that it takes the track a while to rubber in,” Pemberton said. “Our best guess at it, or Goodyear's best guess, is it is going to take the same path that it did in previous years. It looks like it was headed in that direction on Friday. Friday was not much different than past Fridays at Indianapolis.

“But Saturday it didn't rubber in, and we were left with tires that only lasted 10 laps. We didn't realize until race time that the track wasn't going to be in tip-top shape at lap 40 like it was a year ago.

“At the end of the day, you look at it, and we ran a 400-mile race there with 43 competitors and at the end of 400 miles, the track wasn't even rubbered in. I don't think there's anything we could have done given the circumstances that could have gotten us over the hump and gotten the track rubbered in. It never did all day on Sunday.”

Pemberton noted the COT has a little higher center of gravity than the old car and its track was a little wider.

“This car winds up having more of an even balance of weight from left to right, which, therefore, does load the right-side tires a little bit more,” Pemberton said.

Since 2005, NASCAR has conducted and managed tests for the teams at designated tracks, which Pemberton said the teams picked as a group. That won't be the case in 2009. He said the tests next year would be more of a “team-specific type” with the proper tires from Goodyear.

“I can almost guarantee that almost every track next year will have some sort of activity with a private test leading up to the race at some point in time,” Pemberton said.

Pemberton -- a crew chief for such drivers as Mark Martin, Neil Bonnett, Kyle Petty and Rusty Wallace before joining NASCAR – noted that six months was an eternity on car improvement from the team's side. Prior to this year's car, the sport had been on a 25-year history with basically the same chassis and body style. The car evolved, the teams took it, perfected it, and obtained their advantages, he said. Now, however, there's probably greater changes in shorter periods of time with the new car.

Pemberton said NASCAR's testing policy for the remainder of this year wouldn't change, even though the series has yet to race the COT at Kansas. The spring Charlotte test was added, Pemberton said, in hopes it would benefit all of its 1.5-mile to nearly 2-mile tracks.

“Next year will be a different set of circumstances, and the test policy will be a little more wide open where teams can hit the places they need to hit,” Pemberton added.

During the eight years the COT was under development, Pemberton said Goodyear was involved in the process, running load sensors at all of their tire tests comparing the old car to the new one and gathering information on what it takes to develop a tire that's a little more durable and will handle the loads.

“But when you look at Indianapolis, the car loads up a little bit harder on the right-hand side,” Pemberton said. “At Indianapolis, the tire handled the load. The tire just could not handle the wear rate, and that's a little bit of a different situation.”

In fact, the tires turned into a very fine powder on Sunday, and Pemberton admitted they were confused over the reaction by this year's Indianapolis tire.

“Right now, the right sides – it's the same compound,” Pemberton said. “I was assured that it was the same compound that we had run there the last three races, basically. The left side was softer to help the driving part of the car and the construction was a little bit different.

“It is something we have seen in the past, but I don't think we've seen the powder to that extent. We're still working on it. We're trying to find out what was different, if anything, but everybody's pointing towards the fact that the rubber looked to be a little bit drier or a little bit dustier. So we're going to look into it and find out exactly what it is.”

Pemberton said NASCAR officials take each race personal and when there's an embarrassing debacle such as Sunday's race, it hurts.

“I grew up a race fan, and only being able to watch tape-delayed broadcasts on 'Wide World of Sports' or wherever it wound up being,” Pemberton continued. “We take it and it hurts us when we have a weekend like we've had. There is nothing worse than coming away from a race and knowing that the result wasn't even close. It wasn't even in the 25 percentile of what we're capable of doing and what we do, week-in, and week-out.

“I don't feel real good about it right now. I think if you had talked to anybody that's been around me the last 48 hours, they'll probably back me up on that. It's difficult, it's hard. We do beat ourselves up.”

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