Goodyear to bring Softer Tire

Goodyear likely will bring a softer tire for the October race at Lowe's Motor Speedway and is looking at even softer left-side compounds for when the car of tomorrow COT hits that track next May. The track, resurfaced in 2006, has posed problems for Goodyear, which has had to bring a hard tire to keep from having tire failures. "We ran the softer left-side in October, and then with the larger fuel cell, we went a little tougher again in May," said Goodyear engineer Mark Keto. "We're going to go back to last fall's left sides, at least that's what it looks like." Four teams tested at the track last week for next season with the car of tomorrow. "We were trying to see how they react – we were looking to see if we could get them more grip," Keto said. "We tested some left sides but mostly rights. It was just kind of a first look at what the car was going to do. They ran comparable speeds to what the current car ran in May. We're trying to get a better understanding. We haven't seen a lot of track time on the intermediate speedways." Keto said that the next intermediate track COT tire test will be Aug. 21-22 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Tentatively scheduled for that test are #29-Kevin Harvick, #9-Kasey Kahne, #36-Jeremy Mayfield and #7-Robby Gordon, Keto said. SceneDaily.com