Teammates collide, criticize Goodyear

Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Neither Tony Stewart nor Ryan Newman was happy with Goodyear after they crashed with each other in Saturday morning's final Daytona 500 practice.

"Same thing everybody has been talking about all week, same stuff we talk about every year - the failures that Goodyear has," Stewart said after a right-rear tire on Newman's car blew, sending the No. 39 Chevrolet around right in front of Stewart.

Both of their Stewart-Haas Racing cars were damaged badly enough that they were forced to backup cars. It's the second backup car Newman has needed this week.

"I think that's part of their marketing campaign," Stewart said of NASCAR's tire supplier. "The more we talk about it the more press they get. I think they forget that it's supposed to be in a good way, not a bad way."

Stu Grant, the general manager of worldwide racing for Goodyear, said the company's people examined what was left of the tire and saw "no evidence of high wear or any kind of blistering or abuse."

He said there was a hole in the tread and belts indicating "a clear case of a punctured right-rear."

Newman scoffed at that explanation.

"I'm sure he would have said that," Newman said. "It came apart. I felt it coming apart before it blew up. ...A puncture in a tire doesn't lead to it doing what it did."

Grant contended there were no similarities between what happened to Newman's tire and issues with several tires in Thursday's second 150-mile qualifying race.

Grant said Goodyear had traced that issue to a date in its manufacturing process and found 12 more tires in the garage with similar dates. Those tires were taken back from the teams that had them.

Stewart switched to the car he used to finish third in last week's Shootout. A car originally lined up as Stewart's backup for the Shootout will be rewrapped in Newman's No. 39 colors and used by Newman, who had lost his original primary car in a wreck on Thursday.

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