Mike Mulhern

Jimmie Johnson and Michael Waltrip on Daytona 500 Front Row, But Tire Problems Surface Again

By Mike Mulhern

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.
Baby, in NASCAR when you’re hot, you’re really hot, and car owner Rick Hendrick is really, really hot.
Just hours after Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s thrilling Shootout victory over Tony Stewart, Hendrick found himself getting yet another trophy Sunday when Chevy’s Jimmie Johnson took the pole for next weekend’s Daytona 500…the season-opener for what could be his third straight championship campaign. “I’m riding this wave as long as I can,” Johnson said.
And that post-race question Saturday night about Casey Mears’ Chevy not passing inspection – NASCAR announced late Sunday that Hendrick car had finally cleared the height sticks.
However, that didn’t quell grumbling technical questions among rivals about some of Saturday’s fastest cars.
While it’s no surprise that Johnson (187.075 mph) is fast here, for Toyota’s Michael Waltrip – taking the outside of the front row for the 500 – Sunday’s run was sweet redemption, after last February’s embarrassment here and his woeful 2007 season, his first as a team owner. Eight of the 20 fastest Sunday ran Toyotas.
“I am thankful, so thankful,” Waltrip said. “I’m still emotional – but for drastically different reasons. Last year here I finally had to realize we had done something illegal, that someone had tampered with our fuel. Now I’m happy…but I still want to cry. It’s so great to get through 2007, when if you were my banker, you were wondering if we’d survive.”
So Johnson and Joe Nemechek will be on the front row for Thursday’s first 150-mile qualifier, and Waltrip and teammate David Reutimann will be on the second row for the second 150. The top-35 are guaranteed spots, with the rest of the 500 field set by fastest qualifiers and best finishers, plus possibly a past champion.
But the story behind the scenes may be more tire problems revealed in Saturday night’s Shootout: Goodyear’s Rick Heinrich says speeds here are higher than expected, creating tires issues for some teams.  Several crew chiefs say they are worried.
One top technical director, Steve Hmiel, of the Chip Ganassi Dodge team, says Goodyear wants NASCAR to slow the cars before the 500 but that NASCAR has so far said no.
NASCAR’s Robin Pemberton, the sport’s competition boss, says Goodyear should be able to resolve the situation itself: “Goodyear is working with the teams. There are always issues, and with some teams it takes longer to figure out the right (chassis) geometry. Some teams have it figured out; some don’t have a handle on it yet.
“It’s Goodyear’s responsibility to work with the teams and provide the best tire they can. The speeds are well within reason, in the low 190s. That was what we expected to run here, and that shouldn’t surprise anybody.”
However, Goodyear seems worried that not all teams will find the right solutions – and blown tires on national TV aren’t a good marketing angle.
NASCAR would have three main options to slow these cars: by raising the rear-wing spoiler to create more drag; by putting a smaller restrictor plate on the engines; or by switching to rock-hard Talladega tires.
“I do know that Goodyear is concerned because they have floated a rumor that they want us to slow the cars down, but NASCAR says they won’t have anything to do with that,” Hmiel says.
“The easiest way to slow these cars right now, here, is to put more wing in them. More drag. (However that could exacerbate right-front tire issues.)
“I know they (NASCAR) don’t want to throw a (smaller) plate on us because these teams have done so much development work on these (new design) engines.
“And the gear-rule (to slow the cars) doesn’t really apply because we’re already turning more RPM than we want to run. So you can’t slow anybody with a gear – if you take gear away, they’ll run even faster, and if you put more gear in, you’ll be 1500 RPM over what you want to run and the valve trains won’t take it.”
It appears NASCAR officials will wait until Wednesday evening before making any decision.
What is clear is that Goodyear is concerned.
What is clear is some teams are concerned.
What also is clear is that NASCAR officials are not enthusiastic about making – or allowing—any changes with this winged car-of-tomorrow.

Jimmie Johnson
(Photo Credit: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

The tire problems were first seen a month ago, during testing here.  But some insisted the problems would disappear after enough race cars, including the 24 Hours cars, put more rubber on the track.
However the problems haven’t gone away.
“Everybody is having tire problems here, and what aggravates me,” one top crew chief says, “is that they probably won’t change anything and I’ll wind up tearing up another race car, without my doing anything wrong.
“I’m really worried that the story in Thursday’s 150s and in the 500 will be the durability of the tires.”
“NASCAR will take a look at the situation Wednesday and make a decision before the 150-milers,” Hmiel says. “I don’t think Goodyear is going to tell them what to do; I think the race track is going to tell them what to do.”
Greg Zipadelli, Stewart’s crew chief, said he and team crew chief Mike Ford had no tire issues in the Shootout and wasn’t a bit worried: “We haven’t seen any problems. I feel very comfortable. Let’s take the plates off these things and separate the men from the boys.
“Do I think there’s an issue? No. We all had an opportunity to test here.”
Robbie Loomis, general manager at Petty Enterprises, says drafting speeds will only increase between now and next Sunday.
“When we got a good string of green flag laps, 26 or 27, we saw some signs up and down pit road of excessive heat on right-fronts and right-rears,” Heinrich said. “Some blistering.
“It’s something we have seen examples of in January testing.
“But some of the fastest cars – Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson – were very clean and good.”
NASCAR’s Brett Bodine, who has helped run the car-of-tomorrow project, says that shows any problems are solvable.
“Since we tested here in September, speeds have picked up quite a bit, more than a second a lap,” Heinrich says. “Teams are still trying to figure out the setups for the higher speeds, and to get the package back in line with the margin of the tire.
“The front-end, with the spring package, is pinned down pretty hard on the right front. And the rear-end is up, so the rear-end does a lot of dancing around.
“Our engineers are working the garage, talking to each individual and make whatever recommendations we can for that particular team.”
Is this another indication of problems inherent in the car-of-tomorrow and NASCAR’s intransigence about letting crews make any changes? Has NASCAR given the problem to Goodyear to solve?
“But it is correctable,” Heinrich replies. “Some of the fastest cars out there, their tires are beautiful, and no problem going a fuel stop.
“People just need time to adjust to get back to within the margin of the tire.
“We don’t share team information from team to team, but we can advise them what our observations are.
“We will definitely come back (for a tire test before the July 400), to work with these new speeds, and maybe create more margin in the tire package, to be more accommodating.”
So why couldn’t NASCAR simply slow these cars?
“I wouldn’t necessarily expect that’s going to happen,” Heinrich said. “We’ll just go back to work and figure out how to deal with the speed.”
Hmiel said the technical issues teams are now facing with this new car are somewhat surprising:  “We definitely have some rear camber issues; we’re hurting the outside of the right rears because we don’t have enough camber. But then in past years we haven’t had to worry about that.”
Camber is the angle at which the tire is canted to the track, to improve cornering.
“The only hope is that the track will get more rubber down and things will get better,” Hmiel said. “But we thought the track would have more rubber by now than it has.”

Michael Waltrip and Jimmie Johnson are the two fastest at Daytona
(Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett / Getty Images for NASCAR)