Let’s Talk About Illegal Tires

By M.L. Morgan

(August 31, 1998) - Well, race fans, I’m not much older than NASCAR but now I think I’ve heard it all. Allow me to remind you these editorials are not sponsored by the #24 team in any fashion.

After the recent race at Loudon (8-30-98) one of Jack Roush’s underlings complained to NASCAR ( as did a couple other teams of little consequence ) that the # 24 team might be tampering with their tires, allowing them to gain an unfair advantage over the last laps of the race. I guess NASCAR believed it because NASCAR confiscated tires from both the #24 team and the #6 team. Allegedly, NASCAR will have an independent testing agency verify the tires were not tampered with.

Most Race Views’ readers know how the tire deal works; NASCAR and Goodyear determine which compound works the best for each race and all teams are required to run the same tires. Their decisions are fairly good and for the most part, tires are not a major factor in determining who wins. Both NASCAR and Goodyear are most concerned with safety. As they should be.

For the newer readers, allow me to explain how a certain team could alter the composition of a tire. There are certain chemicals , in which the tires might be soaked , which make the tire ‘softer’, i.e., stickier, and therefore, faster on some parts of the track. This was a common practice in some of the lower levels of NASCAR competition for some time. Not any more. For a while NASCAR was dependent upon durometers, which test the hardness of the tire compound at the time the tires are tested. Very limited test. Now NASCAR has chemical tests to determine if an illegal chemical has been applied to a tire. Pretty hard to cheat.

Jack Roush has 5 teams in Winston Cup this season. I wonder why. Because he gets 40% more test dates than Hendricks, who only has three. That’s not a trick question. Despite Roush’s undeniable advantage in test dates he can’t do more than run a respectable 2nd place to Gordon.

Now they have the audacity to claim the #24 team must be cheating. I am very disappointed.

Because the #24 car wins so often it is inspected most often by NASCAR. Big-time, post-race inspection. NASCAR listens to the fan reaction and if the #24 was illegal, NASCAR couldn’t ignore it.

I think this is more of the “If we can’t beat him, he must be cheating” litany which accompanied Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt when each of them was so dominant in their particular times. Now it is Jeff Gordon’s time. I really hate to see teams with the stature of Jack Roush cry “Foul” rather than admit to that fact.

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