Quick to defend their reputation, Stu Grant, General Manager of Worldwide Racing for Goodyear, explained Ryan Newman's right rear tire was a, "classic case of a punctured right rear tire." After a number of tire issues over the past week and drivers voicing concern heading into Sunday's Daytona 500, Goodyear defended their position and attempted to assure the media their tires are functioning properly.

According to Grant, the tire that came apart on Newman's No. 39 U.S. Army Chevrolet had twelve laps on it and showed no evidence of, "high wear, blistering or abuse."

"What we did see was a clear hole through the tread and both belts on the piece we had back off the 39 car," Grant explained.

"It's obviously something that was on the racetrack," Grant went on to say. "It could be something that had fallen off one of the cars ahead of him. It could be something that laid on the pavement for a while and as the cars went by moved to a configuration that allowed it to puncture the tire, we see a lot of those cases. It's a foreign object that came off of one of the cars that caused that puncture."

"The right rear tire exploded in the middle of one and two there," a disappointed and frustrated Newman explained. "It gave me a 100 yards of sign that it might. It started the very, very slightest vibration. I was getting ready to come in and it was too late. It was just unfortunate. We took out my teammate. I don't even know who else was caught up in it. Just disappointed in the situation Goodyear has put us in."

Goodyear recalled a number of tires Friday after seeing high wear in the center line on the right sides. Grant explained twelve tires had been recalled, four came back the next day after teams returned them, Goodyear officials went out and collected the remaining eight, but three had already been run.

Grant went on to explain there was no connection - after looking at the tire - of the tire issues seen during Thursday's second Gatorade Duel with the tires on Thursday and the problem experienced by Ryan Newman during Saturday's final practice.

"Apparently not enough," Stewart said of Thursday's recall. "Apparently this is their marketing strategy to get press. I'm just tired of talking about them; tired of them being an issue. And us talking about them right now isn't going to change anything because it falls on deaf ears and that won't change."

"Tony is a passionate race driver and he is extremely frustrated right now with the conditions of the race car right now and circumstances you see," Grant said of Stewart's comments. "Certainly he is frustrated and I think that is what you see in his comments.?

Stewart made it clear he had no intentions of addressing the issue with Goodyear officials. "Don't get them anywhere near me," Stewart said. "Don't bring them anywhere close; don't let them come close. I don't want anything to do with them."

Learning of this, Grant argued he planned on speaking with Stewart to resolve the issues. "I do want to talk to Tony and I do plan on talking to Tony."