Jack Roush said, "There is no 17-inch tire coming….and you can quote me on that,” so here the quote is. Goodyear’s open test announced for Daytona in November—with the existing 15-inch configuration—supports Roush’s comment.

Roush’s comments raised the question from hardcore race fans: “What is the testing going to accomplish?” Discussions both among competitors and fans ranged from new compounds and size standards, with some team members and experts sticking to the claim that the current tire simply is not large enough to provide the grip the current car needs.

Keep in mind the current car has not had any of the “tweaks” that NASCAR stated to expect in the early implementation of the vehicle. The suspension and chassis was based on lessons learned from the prior car, which still used suspension movement to improve handling—bumpstop configurations were the exception until NASCAR rules prevented their use, now they are the rule.

The designers of the current car had to accommodate many different approaches and had every reason to expect that the final solution would involve suspension movement. In fact the chassis configuration and suspension pickup points are such that, in order to pass inspection, any current vehicle will experience a dramatic caster increase as downforce pushes the front end onto the bumpstops. This is in addition to the customary camber changes throughout the travel of the suspension. Without engaging in an engineering class, the point to be made is that some unexpected conditions are being addressed.

Of course with the familiar finger-pointing and “It’s not my fault” reactions there had to be some testing in order to determine the actual, proper solution to implement. Testing the 17-inch rim and larger tire configuration had to be examined no matter what the final solution is. A 17-inch rim seems more desirable, since no production vehicles come with 15-inch rims anymore and ideally competition cars represent the best the manufacturers have to offer.

That’s not a good enough reason for any change, however. For safety concerns, the solution has to actually address the problem. The quantity of opinions as I’ve heard blaming the tire, are matched by the quantity expressing dissatisfaction with the current competition speeds, track configurations or conditions, or lengths of chassis components.

The latter seems supported by a statement from Jeff Gordon, one small part of which claims, “…they’re just trying to figure out a way of getting the compounds to where we have a little more grip in the car mechanically and it doesn’t abuse the shoulder of the tire as much.” This still means a change to the compounds, to facilitate the mechanical change.

Roush has found out in the past that he is not always right—we may still see a 17-inch rim and tire combination as part of the solution. Still, the first “tweaks” to the current car seem likely as a result of the testing.

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