NASCAR Blame Game Inconclusive

Was it the track, the cars or the tyres that did it? The Indianapolis Brickyard on Sunday saw a bizarre NASCAR event unfold, as drivers were unable to keep their tyres fit for more than ten laps at a time.

The catastrophically low durability of the Goodyear tyres harks back to the US Grand Prix of 2005, where the Michelin-shod teams did not race because the tyres could not last the pace. This year, the NASCAR debacle has been played out on Goodyear rubbers, which appears initially to have let the French manufacturer off the hook for the previous flop.

The question now is: whose fault was the bizarre mixture of pit-stops, caution flags and excessive wear? Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tony George, the CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has been quick to point the finger at NASCAR, a local news source reports, stating: “The problem is solely theirs, and by that I mean it’s theirs to figure out… Figuring it out will only come with getting the car and tyre combination right, and that requires actually spending the time and effort to do something about it.”

These barbed comments suggest NASCAR and Goodyear have a lot to think about in the coming weeks.