■ 01 November 2008 | 5:03 PM
A lot of talk in the garage has been about the possibility of Goodyear introducing a larger, wider tire to better handle the loads this car creates and improve handling.
Well, don't expect it any time soon.
"It's a science project that we're involved in with Goodyear,'' said John Darby, Sprint Cup series director. "Obviously, a change that major would probably never see a race track for five years.''
Five years?
Darby said such a change to the tires would require major changes elsehwere: "You've got tire technology, you've got wheel manufacturers, you've got brake manufacturers. It's just so many components on something like that that it would be as big a change as when we left bias-ply and went to radial tires.''
Also, Darby said that NASCAR is talking to teams about cutting the testing policy for next year. The original plan after talking to teams was 24 days of testing at track with Cup dates next yeary. In an effort to help teams save money, that figure likely will be reduced to about 12 or so, Darby says.
Here's what Darby had to say about testing and tires and such Saturday at Texas:
Q: WHAT KIND OF A RESPONSE ARE YOU GETTING FROM TEAMS ON A TESTING POLICY FOR NEXT YEAR. IT SOUNDS LIKE THE TARGET NUMBER IS 12-16 DAYS NEXT YEAR.
DARBY: “I think you’ve got to look from when we started talking about testing back in June and everything that has happened up to today. The very first meeting in New Hampshire in June, it was guys we can do zero or we can make it wide open. Everybody went Aaargh! And they came back with all the different versions, and a month later we kind of settled in on like 24 days. Now we’re in early July and that’s when Wall Street started going wham. And more importantly the teams within the last couple of weeks have got their planner boards out and started penciling in their 24 days and stood back and said, “Holy Cow, how are we going to do this?’
“First of all, the test policy is probably the most team-controlled policy that NASCAR has. In other words, we’re pretty much just the organizers and managers of it. We’ll give the garage, for the most part, what they want. But this is a year in looking at ’09 where zero isn’t completely off the radar. It may be just to help the industry. I think we’re pretty secure in the fact that 24 days is too much.
Q: IS 12-16 DAYS MORE LIKELY OR IS IT ZERO?
DARBY: “We wanted to be the most effective and help the industry most. It’s really hard to manage. It’s really hard to do all that. Obviously, we’ve got some checks and balances, but I’m not so sure that we’re not closer today than what we were five years ago. With that being said, if you’ve got zero here and our original 24-day plan, the likelihood of landing somewhere in the middle is pretty good.’’
Q: EVEN SO SOME TEAMS WILL TEST ELSEHWERE.
DARBY: “The unfortunate thing is that whenever you put a limit on something like testing, you go test whether you can afford to or not, so that’s where as the managers of the sport or the police or whatever you want to put it as, that’s where we’ve got to kind of sit back and say is this really the right thing to do because if you can afford 24 days and (someone else) can’t and I know I’m going to have to go to 24 days or I feel like I have to be just to be competitive but the result of that is going to put me out of business, that’s where we’ve got to come in and break the tie sometimes and say, “Look, here’s where we’re going.’’
“Testing is a year-by-year deal. Let’s say it was nothing, it maybe for only ’09. Everything starts coming back, looking ahead to ’10, we might get it back. That’s the most fluid policy we have. Something changes on it every year.
Q: AS THE ECONOMY WORSENS DOES NASCAR HAVE TO CONTOL MORE TO REDUCE COSTS FOR TEAMS AND KEEP THE BIG TEAMS AND SMALL TEAMS SOMEWHAT CLOSE?
DARBY: “The great thing is a huge part of it is already behind us. The timing of the new car could never have been more perfect then to have it here now for the economic times. I don’t care what anybody tells you in the garage, the fact of the matter is the economics of running this race car is much, much, much better than what the old car was.
"A lot of teams are scheduling vacations on the offseason, which we’ve never seen in the last five y ears. Part of that is NASCAR staying stable and holding tight on the rules and the changes we make better be so small that it really doesn’t have an affect on anybody or anything for a number of reasons. Cost is part of it. If we can help on cutting back on some of the other components as testing, that’s all part of the equation. What we do realize is that everybody, NASCAR, team owners all throughout the garage we’ve got to be smart.
Q: THERE’S BEEN SOME TALK OF A WIDER AND TALLER TIRE FROM GOODYEAR. WHERE IS THAT?
DARBY: “It’s a science project that we’re involved in with Goodyear. Obviously, a change that major would probably never see a race track for five years. Today’s technology, if you look at the tires on the car that you drive every day, chances are they’re 16 or 17-inch tires vs. the old 14-15 inch stuff that we ran in the ‘60s and ‘70s. There’s many reasons for that. Many times, the same tire technology that makes tires better or safer, more handling characteristics on a street can apply to what we do on the race track. More times than not, it comes out of the race car and goes to the street.
“We are investigating a larger rim, larger circumference, wider tire for all of the reasons that they’ve headed that way in the high-performance cars on the streets.
Q: YOU THINK THAT’S FIVE YEARS DOWN THE ROAD INSTEAD OF 2 OR 3?
DARBY: “If you look at how big that pond is with the ripples going to the shore (on such a change). You’ve got tire technology, you’ve got wheel manufacturers, you’ve got brake manufacturers. It’s just so many components on something like that that it would be as big a change as it was when we left bias-ply and went to radial tires.
“The rumor is true but it’s definitely in the science project category right now.’’
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