Aggressive setups cause consternation in Sunday’s race at Fontana
Mar. 23, 2014
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
FONTANA,
Calif.— Drivers who fared well in Sunday’s Auto Club 400, including
race winner Kyle Busch, were happy with the tires Goodyear provided for
the fifth NASCAR Sprint
Cup Series event of the season.
Drivers whose fortunes soured because of tire problems at Auto Club Speedway were more than ready to play the blame game.
For the
record, tire maker Goodyear recommended a minimum 22 pounds of air
pressure in the left front tires and 20 in the left rears.
Teams
routinely run tire pressures below the recommended minimums in an effort
to increase grip and speed, but many of those who did so Sunday paid
the price.
Jeff
Gordon, who inherited the lead in the final five laps when teammate
Jimmie Johnson blew a left front tire, was particularly chagrined, after
Clint Bowyer’s spin because
of a flat left rear tire caused the final caution that cost Gordon a
chance to win the race.
Shuffled back on the ensuing restart, Gordon dropped to 13th at the finish.
“They
gave me the most incredible race car today, and it’s just so
disappointing for it to end like that,” Gordon said. “I hate the caution
came out. I hate Goodyear was not
prepared today for what happened. They are so good at what they do and
that is just uncalled for.
“We
were having a tire issue there on that last long run and I just backed
off. When I saw the No. 48 (Johnson) had issues, I was just hoping we
would make it to the end, and
I was just going as slow as I possibly could, trying to maintain the
lead, and cars were just blowing tires left and right all around me.”
Race winner Kyle Busch and crew chief Dave Rogers, however, opted for a more conservative approach and avoided tire issues.
“It’s
like playing with fire,” Busch said. “If you pour too much gas on
it--you let too much air out of it--it’s going to go ‘Boom.’”
Added
Rogers: “You put 12 pounds in left sides and you're going 200 miles an
hour in California, you might have a left side tire problem. That's
awful low.”
NASCAR has given teams more latitude with camber this season, giving teams the latitude to push the limits with their setups.
“Over
the past few years, we’ve been on a path to add mechanical grip, give
more options to the teams,” NASCAR vice president of competition Robin
Pemberton said. “We’ve opened
up camber rules for grip in both the front and rear of the car.
“They have a lot of tools to use if they choose to do so.”
Third-place
finisher Kurt Busch had his tire problem in Saturday’s practice, and
his team altered its approach to Sunday’s race accordingly.
“We
were lucky,” Busch said. “We had our tire problem with two minutes to go
in practice, and that allowed us to go into a conservative approach
overnight. Goodyear is doing
a good job. It’s the same type of tire, but here’s what we have: we
have faster cars, more downforce, and NASCAR is allowing us to put
whatever cambers we want into the cars, and therefore, it’s up to the
team’s discretion if you’re going to have a problem
or not.”
ANOTHER TOP FIVE
Stewart-Haas
Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch battled for the lead after
a restart with two laps left in Sunday’s race before Kyle Busch—on four
fresh tires to
two each for Stewart and Busch—stormed to the race win.
Nevertheless, it was a gratifying day for Stewart, who finished fifth.
“(Crew
chief) Chad (Johnston) did an awesome job all weekend, and our team did,
too,” said the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, who
finished fourth last week at
Bristol. “We had some bad pit stops at the beginning, but at the end,
when we needed it, the guys did a great job on pit road.
“We had
problem early in the day (Stewart spun on Lap 57) and then just kept
battling back. About the last 50 laps we finally got the car pretty
decent there. We just didn’t
have the track position to go with it. It was sketchy not knowing what
was going to happen with two versus four (tires), but I was glad Chad
made the right call again two weeks in a row.”
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