Tires stamped for Pocono sent to Indy, on stand-by

NASCAR and Goodyear, anticipating possible tire issues in Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, had 400 sets of tires intended for use next weekend at Pocono Raceway brought to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

NASCAR will begin evaluating the need for a tire switch when a "competition caution" is thrown at Lap 10 of the 160-lap race. NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said on Sunday morning he anticipated additional planned cautions.

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We're going to monitor the wear and the laps that we can run, and early on we'll be able to make a call on how far we will be able to go with Indy tires if the wear statistics do not improve enough.
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ROBIN PEMBERTONThe 43 Sprint Cup teams on-site for the 20th race of the season were given their Indy allotment of Pocono tires in an impound area and began to prep them at noon ET.

"Everybody gets the same opportunity to prep them at the same time," NASCAR vice president for corporate communications Jim Hunter said. "The backup tires will remain in the impound area in the unlikely event that we need them, then all teams will be able to switch over at the same time."

"We will evaluate how the tire wear comes," Pemberton said. "We'll make a call on if it's 10 more laps or 15 or however many of green-flag laps. We'll make a call from there and see what we have to do. It looks like it will be multiple competition cautions -- at least two right now.

"We're going to monitor the wear and the laps that we can run, and early on we'll be able to make a call on how far we will be able to go with Indy tires if the wear statistics do not improve enough.

"It's not unlike everything we deal with at this particular place getting the track rubbered in. We started with about five or six laps in the first [Saturday] practice and got to about 10 in [Happy Hour]. We anticipate that it will fix itself, and we'll make that call early on. We'll have a good plan."

Goodyear's director of race-tire sales, Greg Stucker, said Goodyear formerly employed the same tires at both Pocono and Indianapolis, and that the left- and right-side tires intended for next weekend's Pocono race were actually softer than the tires in use so far at Indy.

That would enable more rubber to transfer to the racetrack and ease tire wear. Pemberton said if a change was necessary, the teams would execute it en masse.

"If it gets to that point, it will be a caution, and the teams will already have their tires up in their pit area," Pemberton said. "It will be similar to if we had [to make a switch between] rain tires or dry tires.

"We will make the call. All of the Indy tires will come out of the pit area, and we will issue the Pocono tires [from the impound area]. Everyone will be on the same tire at the same time."

Stucker said the last time a different tire than what was intended for a track was used was at Dover International Speedway in 1994.

"The reason we chose to bring the Pocono tire here is that it's the closest thing we have to our Indy tire," Stucker said. "The surfaces are enough different now that we run a slightly different tire. We felt like it was the easiest transition for the teams if that [switch] would be required.

"We have a backup plan for every racetrack in case anything happens like this. We've just chosen to take this to the next step. Pocono was the natural step because it's closest to the Indy tire. You always have a backup in hand.

"The last time we had to execute something like that was back in 1994. It's not common, but it's not unprecedented. [At Dover] we actually brought in a completely different tire for race day. You have to be ready any contingency."