What happened last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway is still fresh in my mind, and I still can’t believe that it went as far as it did without someone — anyone — stepping in and trying to make it better.
I’m referring, of course, to “Tiregate,” the saga of Goodyear’s choice of tire at Atlanta and Tony Stewart’s response to it.
Stewart, from the moment a camera or tape recorder showed up at his garage stall on Friday, was on Goodyear like white on rice. That was still the case on Sunday evening, when Stewart was finishing up his post-race conference after finishing second.

So why did Stewart play scorched earth with the iconic tire provider? It’s an unwritten NASCAR rule that you don’t criticize Goodyear in public, yet Smoke went there — and stayed.

You’ve all read what was said, and Goodyear’s response, so there’s no need to go into it again. The fallout, now that it’s spread from one man’s voiced opinion to general consensus — the tire was too hard for the CoT at Atlanta, period — has been minimal, at least officially.
So why did Stewart play scorched earth with the iconic tire provider? It’s an unwritten NASCAR rule that you don’t criticize Goodyear in public, yet Smoke went there — and stayed.
Simple: It’s his butt in the race car, and he was uncomfortable with everything about it: the grip, the performance, everything. He very nearly broke his rear end a week prior at Las Vegas, when a Goodyear tire blew and he hit the wall at about 180 miles per hour. So did Kurt Busch and Robby Gordon, for the same reasons.
That tends to blur the line between tact and giving in to the urge to skewer the most sacred of NASCAR’s cows.
Did he go a little past where he needed to make a point? Depends on who you ask, but probably, yes, he did. Does that surprise anyone? Again, depends on who you ask, but it shouldn’t.
Jeff Gordon mentioned that he was “disappointed” at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for not having soft walls on the inside of the backstretch. Hours later, every available engineer in the state of Nevada was at the track trying to solve the difficulty. That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.
That’s how Gordon does things. He brings it up, makes his case and counts on the rest of the sport to respond. He goes to the line and stops.
With Stewart, the methods are a little different, but the intended result is the same, in my opinion. He’s not going to meekly announce that he’s “disappointed” in the tire. That’s not the way he rolls. He’s going to make the issue a topic of conversation until there’s no other choice but to address the issue, and if you don’t address it then, more heat is applied.
Stewart doesn’t often say things just for effect. There’s a reason he gets upset, and when he’s this exercised over something, you might want to listen to what he has to say or face the consequences.
Goodyear representatives stated firmly that they were happy with the tire they brought to Atlanta from a wear standpoint, and that its primary concern was safety of the drivers. All well and good, and that’s what Goodyear should do and has done for many years.
I didn’t hear much about the competition aspect of the tire, though, and that’s what had Stewart ready to take a bite out of one…assuming he could bite that hard. It’s tough enough to race in NASCAR’s top division without adding a degree of tension about what’s holding them to the race track.
Goodyear is, quite honestly, between a rock and a hard place. The pendulum swings back and forth between too hard and too soft, and Goodyear takes it in the chops either way. That said, there has to be a better way of coming up with a “Goldilocks” tire that’s not too hard and not too soft, but just right.
The solution is already being worked out, as Goodyear will not take the Atlanta tire to Texas in a couple weeks. Let’s hope we’re not talking about tires after that race, too.