Two-Time Champion Hopes Meeting With Tire Company Will Improve Product Quality

BRISTOL, Tenn. — After making some heated comments about the terrible performance of the Goodyear tires last week at Atlanta Motor Speedway, NASCAR driver Tony Stewart met with Stu Grant, Goodyear’s general manager of worldwide racing, during Friday’s rain delay at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Stewart hammered Goodyear after last week’s race, but was glad to finally get an opportunity to speak to the company’s head of racing operations.
“I’m glad the weather gave us a break in the schedule that allowed us to meet this afternoon, and I appreciate Stu taking the time to meet with me,” Stewart said. “We’re hoping that Goodyear will now work with us a little better on the racing side of things and rely on our input a little more because we are the ones driving the cars.
“It was a good meeting, but at the end of the day, it’s up to Goodyear to make it right. If having this meeting helps to make things better down the road, then this meeting was a success.”
Grant wanted the opportunity to meet with the two-time NASCAR Cup champion so he could give an explanation of the tire situation and help clear up any perceptions about the quality of the product.
“It was an excellent meeting,” Grant said. “It was constructive. It was extremely worthwhile to sit down and have a discussion with him. Tony was able to express his concerns and I listened to his concerns. I was able to explain our process, and we both talked about how, moving forward, we can improve the process of developing tires for NASCAR Sprint Cup racing together.”
Stewart admitted his comments after the Atlanta race were made in frustration, but most importantly, he wanted to get Goodyear’s attention.
“But what I overlooked when I made those comments was that they affected people who had nothing to do with the racing program,” Stewart said. “I want to apologize to the people who work in the factories and the union workers at Goodyear. We realize that they’re working hard just like everybody else, and we realize that Goodyear as a whole works hard, too. But our comments last week were not meant to offend those people, because they’re not the ones making the decisions about the racing tires we use here at the track.”
Stewart also went out of his way to address some of the track personnel that work for Goodyear that may have felt the brunt of his biting criticism and comments.
“A lot of the people that Goodyear brings to the track aren’t necessarily engineers and they don’t make the decisions on what compounds and constructions (of tires) we’ll race on, but they’re the people who are here as early as the teams are and leave as late as the teams do because they’re here mounting and dismounting tires and unloading and loading trucks,” Stewart said. “A lot of those people have become friends over the years, and that’s another group of people we didn’t mean to offend with our comments. Our comments were strong to get somebody’s attention high up in corporate at Goodyear. It wasn’t meant to offend anyone else.”