Tyres a concern ahead of Indy race

During the two final sessions before the race and following qualifying, teams were unable to make a set of tyres last more than ten laps before the cords started to show up on the inside and outside edges of the right sides, specially the right front tyre.

Some cars wouldn't even manage to complete more than eight laps on one set, while a green-flag fuel run would be around thirty laps. That means in the best of cases, tyres would last less than half of that before their performance would start to drop off massively.

Despite pressure from some teams and drivers to get more sets of tyres available for the race, NASCAR has allocated up to ten sets per car, expecting tyre wear will improve as the track rubbers in during the race.

Thus far there is not a competition caution scheduled, although NASCAR will decide on Sunday whether they do set one during the first twenty laps to allow teams to check the tyre wear early on.

"There's only one NASCAR series that's here this weekend, and you don't get a chance to put enough rubber on the track," said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton.

"If you make a tyre that lasts during practice, when you get into the race then they have issues with handling. It's always a challenge here. It's a 'one-off' tyre that Goodyear builds for this place."

"The track is very abrasive because we don't run on it very often. Goodyear's doing the best they can. It's a situation we do see probably every time that we come here."

Although Goodyear expected more wear than normal on the right-side tyres during practice, they admit the situation to be worse than anticipate.

Greg Stucker, speaking on the tyre supplier's behalf, said they are confident teams can complete the 160 scheduled laps of the race with the current tyre allocation, although they advised teams not to use all their sets allocated for practice.

"The reason we didn't allow more tyres for practice, which is what I know everybody wanted to do, is to protect our quantities for tomorrow," Stucker said. "If the situation arises where more tyres are needed tomorrow, we want to make sure that we have those available and cover that."

Chip Bolin, crew chief for Roush Fenway's Matt Kenseth, said the situation is worrying although they wouldn't go as far as not competing like the Michelin teams did back in the 2005 Formula One US Grand Prix.

He said the different characteristics of the new Cup car, which is being raced at Indy for the first time, are causing the tyres to wear excessively after a handful of laps.

"I think it's taking longer just because you can't run as far because this car is harder on the right-side tyres than last year's car," said Bolin. "But I don't think we want to get into the F1 thing of parking the car. We can't afford to do that.

"We'll just keep taking care of it and at least when [the tyres] start to go away it gives a warning sign to the driver and he knows he's got a problem, so it's not going to be like an instant thing that's going to wreck the car and you're not going to know about it. [The driver] can feel it coming and he can take at least the time to pit.

"You can go about 31 laps on fuel and you can go eight laps on tyres, so I don't think fuel mileage will be an issue."

Goodyear's tyre selection for the weekend features codes D-4170 for the left side and D-4172 for the right side. These codes, which are unique to this track, were selected based on a private test session held back in April with drivers Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Brian Vickers.

The higher temperatures on this race weekend are said to be one of the reasons for the increased tyre wear.