During Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the cars had to come to the pits every 10 laps (or less) because the tires were going down to the cords and exploding like pinatas. The race was paused every few circuits for 'competition yellows' which rendered the event anything but 'competitive.' In short, it was a farce, disaster, joke, etc...
Remember the last time the tires were, er, 'off' in a Cup race and Tony Stewart jumped out of the car screaming about how Goodyear was dumber than Forrest Gump and how he was going to peel his Goodyears off his street tires and replace them with Bridgestones?
Not yesterday.
I guess that little chat with Tony after his last tirade sunk in. Or maybe he wants his cars to get through tech lane now that he's going to be a team owner. Either way, he came on the radio as meek as a church mouse.... 'It's no one's fault what's happening today... everyone did the best they could... we're all working to get through this together... we're all doing our best in a not perfect situation.... yada yada yada...'
And in case you didn't get the point that it was no one's fault that the Brickyard race was a disaster, they went up and down pit road so that all of the team owners could echo Tame Tony's comments. Ray Evernham, Rick Hendrick and a bunch of others, all falling over themselves to avoid pointing fingers and to say that all that mattered was that the race was safe. Tell that to Matt Kenseth who was driving at 200 mph when the back of his car disintegrated when one of his tires 'let go.'
Can you imagine what George Steinbrenner or Mark Cuban would say if they had to change the nature of their sports (baseball / basketball) because the bats or balls were faulty? Of course you can.
I don't know what the deal with the tires was yesterday, but it speaks to the structure of the sport that these rich and usually outspoken men bite down hard on their tongues on a day like yesterday.
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