At several tracks this season, teams have experienced issues with tire failures – and [Jimmie Johnson] certainly hasn’t been immune to those issues. At New Hampshire two weeks ago, the # 48 had two left-rear tires failures in the first 11 laps, the second of which put him out of the race.
Although Johnson protested, “I can promise you one thing, it wasn’t due to low left rear tire pressure,” Goodyear had a different diagnosis after examining the tires. As was the case with #22-Joey Logano and #43-Aric Almirola earlier in the weekend, Goodyear believed the tire failures were due to low air pressure.
Each week Goodyear makes minimum air pressure recommendations. But teams don’t always adhere to the numbers.
So if the teams don’t follow the suggested minimum air pressures, how does Goodyear protect itself against the negative publicity when a driver has a blowout? How about a tire sensor to discourage teams from fudging on their numbers?
“We’ve talked to NASCAR about different things like that,” Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales for Goodyear, told Motorsport.com.
“We worked on those on and off for several years, but it’s come more to the forefront in our discussions with how they’re looking at their new officiating. But no decisions have been made whether or not we’re moving forward on that. We’re doing research and trying to figure out what our options might be in a situation like that, but nothing for sure.”
Stucker says a tire pressure monitor on a race car would use the same technology to report psi “no different than what you see on your street car these days.”
(Motorsport)
