Kobalt Tools 500 Qualifying Update

Atlanta Motor Speedway -- 03/09/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Saturday Mar 8 2008 10:57pm

Dr. Phil has a saying about maintaining harmony within a family: "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

This weekend at Atlanta, we might adapt that saying to the NASCAR family as follows: "If the driver ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."

And indeed, the drivers are not happy.

The problem? Tires.

Numerous drivers have been extremely outspoken about the hard tire that Goodyear brought to the race and the lack of grip on the right side. Drivers and crew chiefs are particularly dismayed because the tire is so much different than the one teams tested with at Atlanta in December. Atlanta has an abrasive racing surface and Goodyear apparently felt that they needed to bring a tire that would wear longer than the one used in the test. "According to the guys that did test, they said it's quite a bit different than the tire they tested, because those tires were wearing too much. So Goodyear came back with a different package here," said Jeff Gordon Friday afternoon. "It's not the best. I think that it's going to be a tire that probably stays on the cars - we're not going to have the wear issues that we had - but we're going to be equally as challenged just trying to keep the car going in a straight line. I went out there today and I felt like I had 25 or 30 laps on the tires on brand new sticker tires. It cooled down this evening and had pretty good grip, but still you saw all the cars were out of control."

Lest you think that only Jeff Gordon was complaining, consider what Mark Martin said on Speed TV yesterday: "I've driven on cords on both right side tires and had more grip than we had today." Or J.J. Yeley: "I spent most of the hour and a half in practice scared out of my wits because the car was just really loose. We were actually just a little bit too tight in the center, but loose everywhere else. The tire that Goodyear brought here is different from what we tested with here, which is confusing because I don’t know how we would test with one thing and then come back with something different."

Or Tony Stewart, who definitely didn't mince words: "Well, thank goodness it's cold today to cover up for Goodyear's incompetence … I mean, we've got these hard tires to slide around on, so it's a shame that we've got the premiere series in NASCAR and Goodyear brings us tires like this to compete on. It's not fair to the teams or the drivers, but I guess when you write a big check to NASCAR and you get the exclusive on it, you don't have to worry about the quality of product you bring to the tracks. I guess we're stuck with what Goodyear brings us, so we're all just trying to suffer through the weekend with what Goodyear brought us."

Along with the super slippery tires, teams are also contending with unusual and variable weather conditions. It actually snowed at the track Saturday morning and was bitterly cold all day, which helped with grip a little bit, though Sunday is expected to be about 20 degrees warmer and that will make things slick again.

Despite the challenges posed by both tires and weather, there was a practice session on Friday and one on Saturday, with qualifying between them on Friday afternoon.

The top 5 cars in Friday's practice session were Dale Earnhardt Jr, (+625), who turned the fastest individual lap at 180.863 miles per hour, followed by Kevin Harvick (+2150), Jimmie Johnson (+535), Clint Bowyer (+2250), and Greg Biffle (+1205) - four Chevy drivers and a Ford.

Bobby Labonte (+3250) was the only Dodge in the top 10 at 6th, while Tony Stewart (+1385) and Kyle Busch (+885) represented Toyota at 8th and 10th.

Several of those names followed up their strong practice runs with top-10 qualifying laps, including Dale Earnhardt Jr,, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Bobby Labonte, and Kyle Busch.

But it was Jeff Gordon (+705), 11th in practice, who scored P1 with a 185.251 mph - over eight miles an hour slower than last spring’s pole run by Ryan Newman (+2250), due in large part to those gripless right sides.

Martin Truex Jr. (+2250) and Mark Martin (+4150) in Chevy's also qualified in the top 10, along with Carl Edwards (+565) in a Ford, and Kasey Kahne (+1485) in a Dodge.

Overall, six Chevy's will start in the top 10, though much of the buzz this weekend has been about the resurgence of the Roush-Fenway Ford team, with Biffle, Edwards, and Kenseth all looking stout so far.

Drivers failing to qualify were Ken Schrader, Bill Elliott, Johnny Benson, John Andretti, and Burney Lamar.

Roush-Fenway's Greg Biffle, who was fast in Friday practice and qualified 13th, paced Happy Hour Saturday with a 184.229 mph lap. Most of the Top 10 in Happy Hour were names that had popped up in either the first practice, qualifying, or both, including Carl Edwards, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Newman (qualified 12th), Kasey Kahne, Martin Truex Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson (qualified 11th), and Kevin Harvick.

Matt Kenseth (+1085) qualified 38th, but he won Saturday's Nationwide Series race, while Tony Stewart, the most outspoken critic of the hard right-side tires, qualified 32nd and was 15th in Happy Hour.

Kyle Busch now has the points lead on the Cup side after NASCAR levied a 100-point penalty against the No. 99 team and driver Carl Edwards for last week's oil tank lid infraction, dropping him from 1st to 7th in the standings. Busch won Friday's Craftsman Truck series race and was the class of the field in the Nationwide race, leading 153 of 195 laps until he blew a tire and slammed the wall, ending his day. Busch will start Sunday's race from the outside of row three.