I'm surprised the tires last as long as they do in a race. Look at a Cup car head on and the tires are going in four different directions. And with four different casters and toe -ins/outs. I wish nascar would allow Hoosier in for some tire competition. Cup has a lot more cars at a single race than all the Indy cars put together, so there is room for more than one tire supplier.
But to be fair, the Cup teams do push past the limits imposed by Nascar and Goodyear. And say "Who? Me?" :smile:
Yeah, one thing you can count on in racing, be it NASCAR, IndyCar or Formula 1, is that the teams will abuse the crap out of the tires and blame the tire manufacturer when it goes wrong. I don't follow NASCAR close enough to understand the tire drama there, but I do follow Formula 1 where tire drama is intense.
A few years ago, Pirelli became the sole tire supplier for F1 when Michelin and Bridgestone decided they didn't want to do it anymore. In Pirelli's first year the big complaint was that the tires were TOO GOOD. Two compounds are supplied for each race, one a bit softer than the other, and teams are required to use BOTH compounds during the race thereby guaranteeing at least one pit stop. Refueling is not allowed. That year many teams would start on the softer of the two compounds (better grip, quicker cornering) and run that tire almost the whole race, only stopping late because they were required to change tires at least once. Fans were outraged. "It's not interesting!!"
So FIA instructed Pirelli to make a tire that would degrade faster, forcing at least 2 pit stops per race. Pirelli followed orders like good soldiers and the following the tires were like toilet paper. In some cases, the soft compound would only last 8 or 9 laps before they had to be yanked. Fans were outraged. "Pirelli sucks! They can't make a good tire!!"
Fact is, Pirelli can make as good a tire as you want them to. There were a few years when Michelin and Bridgestone were supplying that the FIA rules required that one set of tires last the whole race. Both B and M managed quite nicely other than the occasional puncture. Biggest challenger was for the drivers - take care of the tires and DO NOT flat spot. Really the only penalty for changing tires was the time lost by the extra pit stop which in F1 is a death sentence. If reuired, I'm confident Pirelli could make a tire that would last for 3 races. It wouldn't be fast, but...
Point is, I don't know what Goodyear has been tasked with by NASCAR. As GA points out, you see cars out there with the darn tires pointing all over the place with weird staggers, casters, toe-ins, etc. They run pressures all over the place and blame Goodyear if their strategy doesn't work out. My guess is Goodyear could build a tire that would stand anything the boys threw at it, but you would be seeing ~170 mph laps at Daytona. AND THE FANS WOULD BE OUTRAGED!