It was a chorus that deserves the attention of the tire supplier and the sanctioning body.
Let's make one thing clear. NASCAR is under no obligation to give drivers a comfortable racecar, and Goodyear is under no obligation to produce a comfortable tire. But the car and the tire have to be comfortable enough to allow hard, side-by-side racing.
It's true that extreme conditions can help identify the best drivers in the sport. Thirteen drivers finished on the lead lap Sunday, and the list reads like a litany of the best wheel men in the business: Kyle Busch, Stewart, Earnhardt, Biffle, Gordon, Bowyer, Harvick, Kenseth, Vickers, Burton, Kurt Busch, Labonte and Johnson.
The fact that those drivers were able to maintain speed and keep their cars between the walls, however, doesn't necessarily equate to exciting racing.
Goodyear's choice of tires for a particular racetrack is a safety issue, but as both Stewart and Earnhardt pointed out, it's also a public-relations issue. The sport's exclusive tire supplier through 2012, Goodyear doesn't want to see the top stars blowing right fronts willy-nilly and knocking down the walls.
To think, however, that a consumer will think twice about buying an Eagle radial after watching his favorite driver blow a tire in a Cup race borders on paranoia. Race fans are astute enough to know that a variety of factors -- being too aggressive with air pressure or camber, for instance -- can contribute to tire failure.
"Everybody knows that watches the race that there's a reason for a tire blowing," Earnhardt said. "It's not 'cause it's a bad tire. We've never had a tire blow because it was defective. They wear out, and you wear them down to the air. But you just need to slow down if you're wearing tires out that bad."
Though Goodyear and NASCAR expressed satisfaction with the choice of tire for Atlanta, it's clear that, from the drivers' standpoint, the tire was conservative in the extreme, to the point that Earnhardt felt he couldn't race side-by-side on a track with multiple grooves.
Earnhardt has tested tires before but says he rarely has been asked for feedback.
"The times that I've done it, I didn't feel like my input was observed or looked over too well," he said.
In a follow-up statement released Monday, Goodyear said: "Even though both Goodyear and NASCAR were satisfied with the tire's performance in Atlanta, if the drivers are not happy, then Goodyear's not happy."
Let's hope that's the case, because -- as Stewart and Earnhardt insist -- there has to be a workable middle ground between the hard tire supplied for Atlanta and a soft tire that compromises the safety of the drivers.
After all, when choosing tires for racetracks, wouldn't it be a good idea to listen to the guys who have to ride on them?
ABOUT CSD
