Riggs says drivers have found a tire for Atlanta race at test session
By SceneDaily Staff
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
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The drivers testing for Goodyear at Atlanta Motor Speedway have found a tire they think will work for the race in October, Haas CNC Racing’s Scott Riggs said Tuesday.
Riggs, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch and Yates Racing’s Travis Kvapil spent Monday and Tuesday testing for Goodyear on the 1.54-mile oval, the site of heavy criticism of the tire choice in March. The tires in March were chosen to make sure they would last a fuel run, and drivers complained they were so hard and durable that they had no grip.
“I think we all pretty much favored one of the tires that wasn’t that fast but it was really consistent,” Riggs said Tuesday afternoon at the track. “It didn’t blister from being so hard that it just held so much heat that it would blister. It actually would wear down and wear away some of the rubber, which is what they said that we need to do to keep from blistering the tire.
“It was really manageable. … It was predictable. It was really consistent over a long run. It still had fall-off time-wise so new tires are going to mean something, but at the same time it was something that you could actually drive and manipulate to make the car get around the race track where some of the tires out here you’re basically hanging on for dear life.”
The drivers started with tires that have been used for trucks and Nationwide cars at the track.
“That tire was OK when it was cool in the morning but as soon as the track temperatures started to come up just the least little bit, it was absolutely horrible,” Riggs said. “Myself, Kyle and Travis all complained about how bad the tire was. They brought a lot of different tires. They brought different construction tires, they brought different compounds with different traction in the tire with the different resins they use.”
During a tire test, drivers typically take a few hours to get the car set up for the track and then don’t change anything but the tires.
“The softer compounds that Goodyear’s been trying to put on us [are designed] to try to get us a little bit more grip and get a better feel out of the car,” said Busch, the Sprint Cup Series points leader. “These cars just don’t adhere to this track very well. So we’re working on trying to find the best combination.”
Kvapil said there will be a big difference in the fall race than in the spring, where drivers were tentative to pass.
“When we were here in March, these cars were really, really loose in the corner,” Kvapil said. “We felt like we were just sliding around and didn’t have a really good feel for what the race car was doing. We didn’t really race very hard – we kind of just rode around and tried to survive and not wreck.
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