Stewart continues to sound off against Goodyear's tires

HAMPTON, Ga. -- Tony Stewart just couldn't let the second weekend in March go by without another tire tirade.

On the anniversary weekend of his bashing of tire supplier Goodyear last year in Las Vegas, Stewart lashed out on the compound Goodyear brought for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Tony Stewart

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"We've got such a bad right-side tire, compared to what we tested here [in October]," Stewart said. "There isn't anybody, I don't think, who is happy with the tires we've got. After 10 years in the Cup Series, you learn to be highly disappointed with everything that Goodyear does ...

"I hate to say it, but the best thing that Goodyear does is to make that gold trophy at the end of the year [a special award for the Cup champion, which Stewart received in 2002 and 2005]. That is the one thing that they always do right. Everything from that moment on until the end of the year -- it's a crapshoot."

Stewart isn't the only driver who would like to see a softer tire, one that would provide more adhesion to the racing surface.

"Today, as hard as these tires seem, I don't know if you'll be able to wear them out," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Friday night, after qualifying second for Sunday's race. "They did fall off really fast, but we couldn't go out there and go real fast right out of the gate like we used to be able to do. But I don't think wear is going to be an issue. It's just that they slide so much I don't think you'll wear them out, they're so dang hard."

Justin Fantozzi, Goodyear's manager of race tire sales and marketing, said Saturday that the company was "completely satisfied" with the tire it brought to the track. He indicated that Goodyear was still collecting data from the right-front tire failures last week at Las Vegas that crippled the cars of Stewart, Kurt Busch and Robby Gordon.

"For 54 years we've been involved in NASCAR," Fantozzi said. "The process that we go about to make the tire recommendations is sound, and I have complete confidence in that process and the engineers that develop that process.

"As a supplier to the sport, as a partner in this working relationship on a day-to-day basis, the fact is, we'll develop."