By Deb Williams | Senior Writer
RacinToday.com

HAMPTON, Ga. – Goodyear Racing Director Greg Stucker said the three right-rear tires that failed during Sunday’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway would be analyzed at the company’s offices in Akron, Ohio. 

All three tire failures occurred on Chevrolets. Ross Chastain was leading when the right-rear tire on his car went flat and sent him into the first-turn wall on lap 95. Tyler Reddick was battling for the lead when his car lost its right-rear tire, triggering a 13-car crash on the frontstretch on lap 145. A flat right-rear tire on Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s Chevrolet caused a five-car wreck in turn four on lap 201. 

Stucker said the tires weren’t worn into the cords nor were they blistered.

“The tires all failed in the same fashion” Stucker said. “They were all overloaded, over deflected.”

During the 325-lap race, Stucker said they tried to understand what was occurring.

“We didn’t see anything at all in practice,” Stucker said. “We had guys that put 50-plus laps on tires in practice. We saw nothing at all, no indication of anyone having any sort of issue. We’ll work with a team to try to understand where they were with suspension, air pressure.”

Even though all three cars that suffered the tire failures were Chevrolets, race winner William Byron didn’t consider it confined to that car make.

“You put a lot of load into the right-side tires a lot of time in the back traffic,” Byron said. “Usually, what you find on a repave is right-front tire issues. 

“I think Goodyear has done a good job of working through and making sure that the right front does last, but the right rear is a little bit of an unpredictable thing because typically you’re not on the right rear that hard on a repave because you can’t be loose. It was unique that, that was an issue, but I’m sure it’s just something new with the track and something we’ll work through.” 

No Comment