At Darlington tire test, drivers praise Goodyear

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- In a rare show of accord, the NASCAR drivers testing tires at Darlington Raceway this week agreed that Goodyear is making progress on the most thankless task in racing.

All four drivers testing at Darlington -- Kevin Harvick, Bobby Labonte, Elliott Sadler and Denny Hamlin -- felt the tires Goodyear brought to the track had worked well so far. The Sprint Cup Series returns to Darlington on May 9 with the rechristened Southern 500.

If Goodyear brings good, effective rubber to a racetrack, people think the manufacturer is simply doing its job. Bring a tire that doesn't hold up or slips around -- and gentlemen, start your griping.

That's what happened a year ago here when a tire test at Darlington followed the disastrous race at Atlanta where Tony Stewart let loose at Goodyear for what he and others felt was a shoddy product.

This year the scenario is similar. Sunday's race at Atlanta was only marginally better than the event a year earlier. But this time, drivers in the test session -- Stewart is not among them -- expressed sympathy for the difficult task faced by Goodyear's tire engineers.

"I feel like they're in the worst position in the sport," Harvick, a Chevrolet driver, said today during the second and final day of testing at the track.

Harvick, Labonte, Sadler and Hamlin -- one driver from each auto manufacturer -- participated in Goodyear's latest lab session to develop a tire that will grip the track but won't wear out too quickly.

"It's tough to build tires for our series," said Labonte, who drives a Ford and has a victory at Darlington. "I say, overall, in the whole thing, they're definitely the first one somebody's going to point the finger at when something happens."

Drivers slipped around again last week at Atlanta, with winner Kurt Busch saying it felt a bit like being at the 60-year-old Darlington, given how difficult it was to keep from scraping the wall, or worse.

While there were complaints, none came close to Stewart's assessment from a year ago that the Goodyear tire at Atlanta was the "most pathetic racing tire I've ever been on in my professional career."

Needless to say, that kind of stinging rebuke is not the reason a tire manufacturer signs up to provide the rubber for a racing series.

Today at Darlington, testers talked of Goodyear's strong product at the Las Vegas race two Sundays ago, and the tire company's willingness to listen to drivers' ideas.

Hamlin, who grew up in Chesterfield County, said he thought the manufacturer brought a wonderful tire to the Las Vegas race, one that gave racers good grip and total control.

"That was a huge improvement," said Hamlin, who drives a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

This week, Goodyear is hoping to find a good compound to bring back to a slightly less slippery Darlington in the second event since a multimillion-dollar repaving project.

Things didn't start out well yesterday since the track, now down to one event a year, hadn't been driven on much and the teams spent the morning blowing off the dust and sand that had accumulated on the track.

By the afternoon, the surface was ready for testing.

Hamlin said he thought Goodyear had brought an improved group of tires that should help when teams return on Mother's Day weekend.

The Goodyear-run test was a welcome opportunity for the invited teams. In an effort to help teams control costs, NASCAR has banned testing at its tracks -- except for tire tests like this one.

Hamlin was grateful for the extra time on Darlington's egg-shaped 1.366-mile layout. The quirky track is the oldest of the superspeedways in the NASCAR circuit and considered perhaps the trickiest oval in the sport. Nevertheless, Hamlin said he wasn't sure this test session would translate into an advantage come May.

"The drivers in the Cup series are so good, they'll run just as fast as we will on their first lap," he said. "They'll figure out exactly what they need, first corner."

Sadler, from Emporia, said wished teams were allowed to bring a second car to shake out the track and get it ready before testing their competition car. "That's about the only thing I'd change," he said. Sadler drives a Dodge for Richard Petty Motorsports.

Hamlin said he is pleased that Goodyear is doing its best to get driver input and provide the right tire at all NASCAR tracks.

"I think they're listening more to us now than what they have in the past," Hamlin said. "They're trying to get us comfortable because they know the more comfortable we are, the more side-by-side racing they're going to see."

And fewer complaints after the race.