Following last year’s debacle at the Brickyard 400, Goodyear went to work assuring that disappointing race would never happen again. Numerous tests conducted by a variety of drivers and a series of different compounds led to the tire NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams are using this weekend.

With two practice sessions in the books this weekend at Indianapolis, drivers seem confident that tires will not be an issue during Sunday’s race and expect a much better show for fans and drivers alike.

“I really don’t believe there is any tire issue at all,” Richard Childress Racing’s Jeff Burton explained. “I’ve been part of two of the tires tests here. The last two I was here and we ran full fuel runs with no tire issues whatsoever.”

“They have created a great tire,” Jeff Gordon said following Friday’s opening practice. “It is absolutely, if anybody has an issue with tires, it is not because they are wearing out. They have done a great job. They have backed it up with testing and they have now proven it here at the race track. What I think is the most crucial is the practice that we had and I think I could have probably run all day long on one set of tires if I wanted to.”

The winner of the inaugural Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway went on to explain that on the first run of the day he began to feel the grip levels go away after only ten laps. With last year’s issues in the back of his mind, Gordon brought the car to the garage and the crew examined the rubber. When the tires came off, they looked “brand new” giving the team the assurance that tire wear will not ruin another event.

“I think it was very important,” Gordon said of that reassurance after the first run. “I think you can do all the testing in the world and say all the positive things you want after those results of the test but until you get here with this group of media and all the competitors on the track and see how everybody’s cars are reacting to it, I think that is when it really counts and matters from what I hear, across the board all the way up and down the garage, that everybody felt good about it.”

While Gordon and his team are confident in the product, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Ryan Newman still feels that tire wear will play a factor in Sunday’s race, but that is a result of teams using aggressive set-ups, not the tire itself.

“There are still potentials for tire failures and part of that is going to be the set-up of the car more so than the tire itself this year,” Newman explained. “Going back to the first time I was here in 2000, this track has always been one of the roughest tracks for tires just because of what we try to put the tire through on the flat race track to make it cut."

The NASCAR Sprint Cup teams will take their qualifying runs Saturday morning, with two practice sessions following later in the day. No one wants to see a repeat of last year’s race and it appears Goodyear has brought the product to prevent that from happening.

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