F1 Slammed by NASCAR Drivers

Unfortunately, although Grand Prix racing would previously have clamoured for any attention it could get from NASCAR, the kind of comments coming from the sport's biggest stars do not portray the image that Formula One's teams, sponsors and especially Michelin will want to hear.

The message coming from the NASCAR field, which recently overcame its own tyre safety problem at Pocono, was that Formula One did itself a disservice with what happened at Indianapolis.

"It's unbelievable when only a few cars start the race after travelling that far," Jimmie Johnson told the Marin Independent Journal. "It's a shame to see their teams didn't race and there wasn't some sort of happy medium between the sanctioning body and the race teams so the guys could put on a show for all the fans."

Boris Said added: "I think those F1 guys are a bunch of (wimps). I mean, that's a joke they didn't give the fans a race. I was shocked. Bridgestone had a tyre that could make it, and I think the Michelin guys should have raced and they just should have slowed down."

Tony Stewart, who is never afraid to let his feelings be known, added: "I thought it was absurd. If I was Bernie Ecclestone, I'd ban Michelin from Formula One racing over that incident. Being a premier series in the world, that was, in my eyes, totally unacceptable."

And in the wake of the Pocono tyre dramas, where the field was hit with an astonishing 22 tyre failures, Stewart claims that there was no excuse for a solution not being found that would have allowed the Michelin teams to start the race.

"We have tyre issues off and on all year, but we find a way to comprise and never let our fans down. In Michigan (last week), for example, we had cars coming in with tyres down to the cords every run, but not one driver said, 'I'm not going to run because I don't feel safe,' he explained.

"I promise you I'll never ever let anybody in my family ever have a set of Michelin tyres on their car. It's the dumbest thing I've seen in racing."