Tony Stewart is the man. Aside from driving the Sprint Cup Home Depot NASCAR racecar at 200+ mph, he boldly smoked the shit out of Goodyear in a recent interview this last Sunday. Apparently many of the drivers were VERY dissatisfied with the Goodyear racing slicks at Atlanta Motor Speedway, but other drivers answered questions a bit more politically correct. Tony Stewart just came out and rocked Goodyear.
Immediately following last Sunday’s race, he said, “That was the most pathetic racing tire that I’ve ever been on in my professional career,” Stewart said on pit road at AMS Sunday. “They (Goodyear) exited out of Formula One. They exited out of IRL. They exited out of World of Outlaws and there is a reason for that. Goodyear can’t build a tire that is worth a crap. If I were Goodyear, I would be really embarrassed about what they brought here. I guarantee you Hoosier or Firestone or somebody can come in and do a lot better job than what they are doing right now.” “They (Goodyear) don’t have the technology and the people that are smart enough to build a tire. This was pathetic today,” he said. “It is just a shame that the teams work so hard and spend so much money to compete and then it is all dictated by a tire company that is building tires that aren’t worthy of a street car. The first thing I’m doing when I get home is dismounting anything that has got Goodyear’s on it and putting Firestone or something else on it so I feel a lot safer.”
“This was just a bad combination, this tire at this track,” said third-place finisher Dale Earnhardt Jr.
“I felt like I was going to crash every single lap,” added Jeff Gordon. “… This car, this tire, at this track was just terrible.”
NASCAR is far bigger than our little tuning/small time racing industry will ever be. Understand that for a top ranked driver to come out and rip the shit out of the sole tire sponsor in his form of racing takes some MASSIVE balls. Although I’m not an avid NASCAR fan, I do enjoy the last 20-30 laps of racing. I am glad that there are still drivers at the top who are willing to speak up about how they feel in NASCAR. Much respect to Tony Stewart.
If you want to read the original article on the SPEED TV website, check it out here. You can also read about Goodyear’s weak ass reply. Good stuff.