Kurt Busch was one of several drivers who suffered left-front tire problems at Pocono. Credit: Autostock

Questions remain where rubber meets rumble

LONG POND, Pa. -- More than 20 tires deflated in Sunday's Pocono 500, but in the end there was no definitive reason, Goodyear and the affected teams agreed.

In an unprecedented move, NASCAR summoned a number of Goodyear representatives to its office trailer after the race, including Rick Heinrich, Goodyear product manager for Nextel Cup.

NASCAR and Goodyear later said that data from the weekend would have to be analyzed before any tire changes for July's Pennsylvania 500 were contemplated.

Left-front tire wear was a key issue at Pocono Credit: Autostock

POCONO 500 •   Results •   Standings •   Lap-by-Lap Coverage Final lapsRyan Newman's late wreck sets up a two-lap shootout A bit deflatedJunior on his tire problems and his chances for the Chase Top finishersVickers talks about his best career Nextel Cup finish Early cautionKurt Busch spins and tags Terry Labonte on Lap 28 Three strikesJason Leffler tags Dave Blaney and Kyle Petty is collected Tire troublesDale Earnhardt Jr. hits pit road with tire problems Sign up for TrackPass now BUY YOUR NEXTEL DRIVER PHONE

"We were just reviewing what happened [Sunday], trying to get together and to get all the facts sorted out," Heinrich said. "It's premature right now to say we'd go back to a tire we used here previously.

"We're still sorting out the facts."

Heinrich said a combination of camber settings, air pressures and hitting the "rumble strips" or curbing on the inside of Pocono's three turns -- particularly in the Tunnel Turn -- all contributed to the issues seen Sunday.

Heinrich commented on the tire problems at length during the race, particularly addressing the rumble strips in the Tunnel Turn.

"We've had some feedback from some drivers who were running into those, which is very, very abusive on the left front tire," Heinrich said, adding the new tire combination in place at Pocono for the first time was not the issue. "I don't think it's the particular tire being used. Rumble strips are always very hard on tires."

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne lost about five tires between them, but crew chiefs Steve Hmiel and Tommy Baldwin independently said their troubles were "self-inflicted."

"I would say, yeah, [there were issues with] camber settings, because other people did a good job and didn't have trouble," DEI's Hmiel said. "Our teammate, Michael Waltrip, was one of them.

"We had the wrong combination of starting air pressure, A-frame lengths and static camber, obviously. We didn't think that going in or we would have changed it -- but we were a little bit different from Michael.

"We were not different from a lot of people. We didn't get crazy on air pressure, but if we got below a certain number, we hurt [the tire]. The only time we hurt tires was twice when we got below a certain [air pressure] number, and after that we were fine.

"You can't blame Goodyear for that. The tire just didn't want to operate at that camber, at that temperature at that pressure. Too many guys did too good a job with it -- we just didn't do a good job with it."

Baldwin agreed.

"It was pretty much self-inflicted -- we were low on air," Baldwin said. "It's a different tire than last year, and those lower air pressures weren't right for this tire.

"It's all self-inflicted -- it had nothing to do with Goodyear. You don't run enough laps in practice to find out that something like that is going to happen."

Five flat left front tires ruined Ricky Rudd's day, and he seemed somewhat skeptical of Heinrich's assessment.

"I don't have a clue -- I've been coming here a long time and I haven't ever seen anything like that," Rudd said. "At one time they came on the radio and said 'Don't hit the curbs.'

"That was sort of a lame excuse, really. I don't know -- we just had a major problem [Sunday].

"Some tires looked perfect and other tires, even after a short run, when they came off they looked like they were ready for the junkyard."

NASCAR and Goodyear said data from the weekend would have to be analyzed before any tire changes for July's Pennsylvania 500 were contemplated. Credit: Autostock

Rudd, one of the series better road racers, said his team was conservative on its camber settings and hitting curbs was not an issue, either.

"I usually get to the curb, but I don't hit it," Rudd said. "Goodyear passed [the word] through the garage to stay away from the curbs so I stayed two feet away from the curbs and we still blew three tires after that, so I don't know."

Earnhardt, who had two top-10 finishes at Pocono last season, said the tires should have still been able to stand some of the teams' abuse.

"I don't have a very good opinion of the tires right now, so it's probably best that I just keep my mouth shut about it," Earnhardt said. "It ain't the tire's fault but the tire's pretty damned fragile if it can't handle that, if you ask me."

Earnhardt, Kahne and Rudd in particular -- with four flats in the first 98 laps -- had trouble early and often enough that it was impossible to determine what their races' outcome would have been without the tire troubles.

Team owner Jack Roush said Mark Martin would have finished second without a flat right rear tire. Martin was seventh, while teammate Carl Edwards won the race.

Ryan Newman, who opted not to change tires on his last green flag pit stop, suffered a flat tire that put his car into the wall while running sixth with only five laps to go.

"We're not sure what happened," said Matt Borland, Newman's crew chief. "We didn't have any issues with wear prior to that."

Heinrich said Newman's team had been warned earlier in the race that the car's tires were showing some of the same tendencies as those that failed due to camber and air pressure settings.

Defending Nextel Cup champion Kurt Busch fell out of the series' top-10 in the standings for the first time in 48 races after he suffered a flat tire with less than 15 laps remaining, relegating his Roush Racing Ford to 22nd.

"It just went flat on us," crew chief Jimmy Fennig said of the team's first tire issue of the day. "It was just one of those days -- a bad day."

Busch spun in Turn 1 early in the race but made no contact. He had battled back into the top-10 before the flat.

"That was our first tire problem, but it came at a bad time," Fennig said.

Rudd's car owner, Eddie Wood, said he did not recall any tire issues at Las Vegas, where the exact same tire combination was used.

"We did not, but then we wrecked early," Wood said. "I don't remember anybody having trouble."

The same tire combination will be used again at Pocono and at Bristol in August.

Scott Riggs, who qualified fifth but had fallen back into the 20s before he suffered two flat left front tires -- one of which broke his MBV Motorsports Chevrolet's oil lines and caused a lengthy garage stay, questioned the decision to change tires.

"Nobody knew they were going to pave [a patch] over the Tunnel Turn -- there were big rough bumps and the tires would actually leave the ground over there," Riggs said. "Then you had a new tire that you had never had here before and not many people came here and tested.

"I think it was a combination of a lot of things. I don't know why we brought a different tire here in the first place -- I don't know what was wrong with the tire before.

"I think this tire has got more grip, but it's not going to have more grip if the softer sidewall construction causes it to blow out.

"I think they just need to re-evaluate what kind of construction you need to bring here with how rough the track is."