NASCAR smokin' tire rules
By GODWIN KELLY
MOTORSPORTS EDITOR
Last update: December 04, 2005
DAYTONA BEACH -- "Big Brother" will not only be watching NASCAR competitors, he will be rolling along with them in 2006.
Lost in the season-ending flurry of competition mandates from the sanctioning body and spectacular "Silly Season" moves was NASCAR's new law governing tire use and consumption.
Who cares about next year's tires when car owners Jack Roush, Roger Penske and Chip Ganassi were doing three-way driver deals? Who cares about tires when NASCAR says team owners can only own four cars?
When the 2006 begins, or even when race teams descend on Daytona International Speedway in January for testing, NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton predicts tires will be the season's first hot button topic.
"The new tire deal, early on, I guarantee you will be a hot topic," Pemberton said. "It will stay a hot topic until leasing tires gets to be second nature among competitors."
Beginning next year racing tires from Goodyear will not be purchased. Instead, race teams will lease the tires for an event and return them before loading up for home.
And tires made specifically for a particular track or race will not be available for independent testing at tracks that don't host Nextel Cup, Busch Series or Craftsman Truck races.
For instance, any team that tests at Kentucky Speedway as a prep for races at Chicagoland or Kansas must conduct those tests on tires that won't match the structure or compound of the leased race tires.
Not having the same tire will severely skew test results. Race teams will likely not bother scheduling a test knowing the results will be inconclusive.
How will NASCAR police the new tire policy?
With technology.
Goodyear plans to manufacture its racing tires with an imbedded computer chip to help manage inventory. The technology is called Radio Frequency Identification and is used in commercial transportation.
The RFID technology will assist in the implementation of NASCAR's new controlled testing procedures which were developed by the sanctioning body to reduce private team testing next year in an effort to level the playing field for all teams.
NASCAR, which sees the large, multi-car teams as a threat, rewrote the rule book to give single-car teams a better chance to compete.
A major part of creating parity is not only limiting team size but controlling the use of racing tires.
"With RFID we will have the ability to ensure that every tire that comes to the racetrack with us leaves the track with us," Goodyear's Greg Stucker said. "While we will no longer sell tires to the teams for private testing, we will continue to supply Goodyear tires for NASCAR-scheduled testing in much the same way we do at race events."
NASCAR will hold six sanctioned tests in 2006. The days of race teams testing at their own discretion are apparently over.
Race teams participating in the sanctioned tests will be joined by Goodyear technicians, who will distribute tires, monitor tire use then collect the used tires.
"The program is a major undertaking and investment for us in equipment, personnel and warehousing capabilities," Stucker said. "The effort also reaffirms our continuing commitment to NASCAR."
Race teams such as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racing, which field nine full-time race teams, tested at every Nextel Cup racetrack last year.
Single-car teams, with fewer resources, could test at only a third of Nextel Cup facilities.
"You'd like to learn everything you can, but we'll let NASCAR create the rooms and may the best team win," Ryan Newman, one of three drivers at Penske Racing, said.
"I know the multi-car teams had an advantage with the testing procedures, so maybe that's a way of leveling the field."
What are they going to try to control next??
