Goodyear officials say tires performed as expected

While several drivers complained about the hard tire that Goodyear brought to Lowe's Motor Speedway for the Coca-Cola 600, the manufacturer said that the performance of the tire in the race was in line with expectations. Sunday night's race showcased an unusual number of cut tires, an official said, as well as a heat problem causing #16-Greg Biffle's tire to fail. Several drivers complained about various aspects of the tire, raising concerns varying from inconsistency from set to set with the tires to complaining about the hard compound that made it tough to get any grip on the track. Goodyear brought a harder left-side tire than drivers saw at the track in the fall to make sure that the tires held up on the track that was repaved prior to the 2006 season. While drivers understood the safety concession, that didn't stop the comments. Goodyear officials, though, maintained that the race played out as expected. "Tire performance was exactly what we expected from a wear and temperature perspective," Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales said. "In fact, Kurt Busch ran the first 140 laps of the race on a single set of tires. There were an unusually high number of cut tires during the Cup race — we counted seven. In addition, several tires were damaged by contact and we had one melted bead as a result of excessive brake heat on the #16."SceneDaily.com