Whenever tires and Goodyear are put into the same sentence around NASCAR fans around 16th and Georgetown, a small chill might enter the air.
It's not really fair, considering that its been three years removed and two races have been run incident free.
Yet the tire debacle of 2008 remains a fixure with the Brickyard 400-and for all the fans who endured the black dust and competition yellows.
"It's well in the rearview mirror," said Roush Fenway Racing's Greg Biffle of the tires that shredded only a few laps, causing multiple delays to the race and decreased crowds in 2009 and 2010. "Everyboyd makes mistakes."
They have been few over the last two years of the race, one in which Biffle was on the verge of winning a year ago-and on Tuesday a collection of drivers were trying to make sure that stayed the same.
He along with Juan Pablo Montoya, Kurt Busch, Martin Treux Jr and Paul Menard participated in a number of runs with the Goodyear tires in hopes of finding the right combination for the Brickyard 400 on July 31st.
Nearly wiped out because of heavy rains in the Indianapolis area, the drivers were able to take to the track in the afternoon under sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-50s. It's expected to be much warmer for the race come July, but the work on the tires figures to make a difference.
"We only had the problem for one year," said Montoya-who has raced in the Brickyard 400 since 1997 and had significant leads in the 2009 and 2010 races. "We have good tires here, we've been going through a lot of different tires and making a lot of progress."
Its become more of a difficult process to make that happen since the switch to the heavier Car of Tomorrow back in 2007. The extra weight put extra pressure on the tires going around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and helped cause some of the problems in 2008 and then developing a new tire for races beyond.
"We have a pretty heavy racecar and if we could chop some weight out of these cars, maybe get more weight on the left side-because this is an oval car- that would help with all the tire wear," said Penske racing's Kurt Busch. "But that's not what we can do right now, the short term is to get Goodyear to make a better tire, one that's very durable and one that races well."
If anything, it provides a unique chance for drivers to get on the diamond ground track before July, which is only reserved for a select few. Paul Menard found the opportunity unique and gives him an advantage as he heads towards the Brickyard 400.
"We only come here once a year so anytime you can get on track its a big deal and we're going to try and take advantage of that," said Menard.
