Sunday's race at Indianapolis was disappointing as tires wore out and series officials called caution after caution to keep teams from crashing. Just consider what drivers said about it:

Kyle Busch called it "stupid.'' Ryan Newman said it was "ridiculous.'' Jeff Gordon said it was "embarrassing.''

Tires wore out after about eight laps instead of the 30 or so for full fuel run. The problem was the tire did not match the new car and the abrasive track. Such tire problems have been common at Indy since they redid the track in 2005 but the tire wear improved during the race so it wasn't a concern. The new car, though, puts more stress on the right-side tires and was the x-factor in the formula that messed everything up.

(Podcast is up. Drivers, NASCAR and Goodyear talk about the race. Go to this link, scroll down and on the right side click on "Tire fiiasco: What next.)

The problem is that after a Goodyear tire test in April _ Dale Earnhardt Jr. said tires wore out within eight laps or so then _ no more tests were done. Everybody seemed to figure that tire wear would be an issue early in the week and early the race and then improve like it has even though this was a different car that reacted differently.

"When that's happening at the test, you can't say, "Well, it will get better,'' Earnhardt told me after the race. "That can't happen any time.''

Jeff Burton said the same thing: ”We’ve got to work real hard and find a tire that doesn’t lead us down the road of having faith that it’s going to be OK. We got to have a tire that is definitely going to be OK and we know is going to be OK.’’

Here's some of what Goodyear and NASCAR said about the issue:

Goodyear's Greg Stucker:

Q: What was the problem:

Stucker: "We've got to really sit back and see. Obviously, the treadwear didn't improve as we thought it would over the course of the afternoon. We don't have an answer as to why that didn't happen, so we've got to go back and look at that and try to figure out how to make it better.''

Q: Was the compound too soft?

Stucker: This is the same compound we raced last year and the wear improved over the course of the day last year to the point where we could run full stops.''

Q: What about future testing?

Stucker: We'll probably test here before the end of this year, so we can get a leg up for next year.''

Here's what Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's VP of competition, said:

Q: What do you say to fans

Pemberton: "If they're good fans,they know that occassionally something like this will go on and not all -- you'd like to think that all of our races have something for somebody, right? Not everybody's driver wins. Not everybody's pit crew has the best stops. And not every race is a barn burner.

"But the fact of the matter is we've got 43 teams that are competing at the same time. It's OK. If you're a good fan, you don't get what you want, its OK to be disappointed. You know we can be disappointed right along with you. You know, we're here to put on the best races we can and we do a (darn) good job of it most of the time.''

Q: Would you do more testing or something to prevent this?

Pemberton: It's fair to say we won't do the same thing next year we did this year. And it would be fair to say everybody will put their best foot forward and try to do a better job. But we've also been here 15 years times. And in 15 times the only other problems that we've had is having to really regulate low tire pressures and make sure teams didn't beat the tire up. We're 1-15 in the loss column (meaning one bad thing in 15 years). That coupled with having a new car, that coupled with people didn't think we were going to need to test here.

"We've got one time we didn't do the right thing. We tried to put our best foot forward and make the best judgment calls that we could getting prepared for this race. For sure, it didn't come off the way we wanted it to.''

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So, what to do?

At least one or two more Goodyear tire tests will be needed before next year. Again, the problem is with only three cars or so at a tire test, it's hard to get a lot of rubber on the track. While some will call for an open test, if NASCAR is going to do this next year, it might be wise to come a day early. That way, teams would be running on the track Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the race. With no other series racing at this track during a Cup weekend, NASCAR will have to consider other options to get rubber on the track. Of course, rain would wash away those efforts. Still, the fact is NASCAR can't have a show like it did Sunday. It's hard to imagine fans putting up with that.

That's one idea, what should be done? What did you think of Sunday's race?

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