Goodyear's plan for bigger tire won't impact introduction of new Nationwide car
FONTANA, Calif. – Goodyear’s plan for a bigger tire won’t necessarily alter NASCAR’s phase-in plan for a new model car for the Nationwide Series, series Director Joe Balash says.
NASCAR already has delayed the introduction of the car from sometime this year to at least 2010 or beyond. Now that Goodyear has said it hopes to have a bigger tire ready to race sometime in 2010, that could throw another curve into the introduction of NASCAR’s new Nationwide car since a change in the size of the tire would require teams to change the chassis.
Goodyear says the new tire might be an inch or two taller and wider in order to handle the high right-side loads of the new car, but Balash says the series may move ahead with the new model anyway.
“2010 is too aggressive for anybody to talk about that tire – it will be a much longer process, so I don’t think the introduction of that car and the tire [will match],” Balash said. “We’re well aware of all the processes and the dimensions and those things. We’ve seen a prototype.”
So will the Nationwide Series have a new car in 2010? That introduction remains to be seen.
“We’re going to do our due diligence like we did last year,” Balash said. “We’re going to take the next few weeks and spend a lot of time with the owners and get a good feel on how they feel for the car, and then we’ll go back to senior management and make a recommendation on our comfort level with 2010 and the launch.
“Either way, the project is going to get done.”
