Fontana

[Wanderer]

Any thoughts on the race? I was happy it wasn't rain delayed!

I liked it. Plenty of passing and the ever present threat of overdriving the tires. Couldn't tell who was going to win for sure right down the end. I found myself rooting for drivers I normally don't root for, i.e. Gordon. I thought he did a fantastic job driving after his penalty.

I was glad to see Tony back in the top 5. I saw he made it in at Bristol too but without FS1, I didn't get to see the whole race.

I'm finding myself getting more interested in Sprint Cup this season than the past couple.

[LMITOUT]

Hard to feel like it was a good race when tires were blowing out every 20 laps like clockwork. Had flashbacks of Indy which was the same type of S-show. NASCAR and Goodyear should feel embarrassed about the product they put on the track yesterday.

Sure, it made it somewhat exciting but was still not a good "race", IMO. Not when you're at the mercy of faulty tires or a track that is rougher than an old section line.

[pushbutton]

I actually got to watch and thought it was fun. Am not a motor head but repetitively heard it was the new car set up and not the tires....apologist speak for a big sponsor.....or teams over pushing the set up? Don't know. Wouldn't actually mind this happening on all the 1.5's

[LMITOUT]

The tread wasn't wearing out (which you would normally see if teams were riding on the edge of the tire to make the car turn), it was blowing out on the sidewall... randomly on all four tires, not just the fronts.

Some even said they increased air pressure and it didn't help.

My bet is that after Nascar saw what was happening during practice they knew they were screwed which led to a little meeting with the track operator and advised them to repave the backstretch before the next race.

[Wanderer]

Well, they knew what they were up against going into it. They spent quite a bit of time talking about the increased camber allowed and that it seemed to affect the left side tires the most.

They had the choice to set up for speed or tire management and tire management won yesterday. They were all dealt the same cards.

I remember the Indy tire debacle too but yesterday seemed different to me.

[tunrevir]

Not sure about the tire issues if it was setup or bad tires but you rarely see multiple teams going through tires like they did. I would have to say that racing at 200 mph and not knowing everytime you went into a corner if a tire was about to go down it would been a hair raising experience for a driver. I enjoyed the race for the most part but I hate the 5 minutes of commercials and a tiny split screen to watch the race on.

Tunrevir~

[LMITOUT]

I remember the Indy tire debacle too but yesterday seemed different to me.

It was different in what was happening to the tire, but the predictability of the tire failing was similar to yesterday. I don't remember the number of laps but they were failing right on cue at Indy, just like yesterday. Definitely a black eye for NASCAR.

I believe there is tire testing being done at Fontana today. Just like Indy, I'm sure they'll be testing pretty hard so they don't have a repeat of yesterday. With the severity of the bumps on the backstretch I have to wonder if Goodyear even has a tire configuration that will hold up to that beating. There is talk of backing down the HP of the Cup cars next year so maybe they're banking on that helping the problem. I'll be curious to see if they bring this same tire to Atlanta or Charlotte if there are any problems.

[gregg52]

Atlanta and Charlotte are recently paved I believe

so it will be different all together and not near as ruff

I like the idea of tires going bad makes for better racing

maybe not every 20 laps that was a little to often but they need to get

racing better Atlanta and Charlotte and all the mile and half's need

something to get away from that follow the leader stuff

I think it was just hard for you to watch cuz havick was laps down early...lol

And the candy man won.... lol which I knew he would on that last restart

hes awful hard to beat in that situation

[LMITOUT]

I'm all for the tire tread wearing out, but not sidewalls blowing out. Big difference.