Goodyear hopes Indy issue resolved

The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard was interrupted by a series of caution periods as extreme tyre wear meant that the officials were unwilling to allow more than 12 consecutive laps of green flag racing.

The tyre company launched a thorough investigation into the problem, which occurred during the Car of Tomorrow's first competitive outing at Indy.

Goodyear first ruled out any form of manufacturing or construction issue amongst its Indianapolis tyres, and then concluded that the high wear rate was essentially caused by the track failing to rubber in due to the small particle sizes coming off the tyres as they wore.

"To make a long story short, what we found out was that the additional load and slip that the right rear tyre saw changed the particle size of the wear debris," explained Goodyear racing boss Stu Grant.

"Instead of seeing the rubbered-in racetrack like we saw in 2006 and '07 on that compound, the particle size was so much smaller. If you were here, you saw it, it was this dry, dusty wear, and consequently the track never did rubber in."

Grant said that Goodyear had tested a softer compound at Indianapolis this week and that the results had been encouraging.

"We've got what we believe to be a good start toward a 2009 race recommendation and just look at the racetrack, you can see there's a groove in the racetrack where the cars are going around, just kind of looking normal," he said.

"We've got rubber debris on the outside of the groove, and we're seeing some significant improvements in wear."

Veteran driver Mark Martin said tyre wear was already significantly better during this week's test.

"We're still early on into the long runs, but we just put 20 laps on a set of tyres in the neighborhood and that didn't happen," he said.

"Actually, the tyre is more drivable than what we had. We certainly didn't have any complaints about the grip level that we had with the other tyre, but what they've got for a controlled test tyre here is faster, great grip and it's lasting at least twice, maybe three times the distance already.

"So kudos to these guys for what they've learned, and they'll use that to anticipate our needs going forward."

Another tyre test has been scheduled at Indianapolis in April next year.