Tony and Goodyear...

[hdolan]

"Rather intentionally or not, TS may have exceeded "the coach's", goodyear's and nascar's breaking point on this one.

Tony may find out the goodyear is more important to nascar than he is.

Expect major fallout from this one."

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/head...ing/index.html

Evidently Tony is important enough...

[lutesk]

It's an interesting story and one that will be fun to see what develops in the next few races.

The COT in my opinion has made NASCAR much more fun to watch.

[hdolan]

It's an interesting story and one that will be fun to see what develops in the next few races.

The COT in my opinion has made NASCAR much more fun to watch.

I agree...

[Racewriter]

So, let's see.

Tony whines and bitches about going to tire tests, and is generally uncooperative during them. He's no help in developing a better tire.

Then he whines and bitches about the tire that he gets.

Maybe he's just a whiner.

This would be the big disconnect between Tony and Foyt. When Foyt brought Goodyear to the Speedway, he spent uncountable hours running tire tests and working with the engineers, and everyone with Goodyear was effusive about the feedback Foyt gave (including our own dearly passed Dick Ralstin). Tony, on the other hand, behaves like a spoiled brat.

He gets what he deserves. Shut up and drive.

[lotuspoweredbyford]

It's an interesting story and one that will be fun to see what develops in the next few races.

The COT in my opinion has made NASCAR much more fun to watch.

It has made it more interesting at times, unfortunately the car is just so ____ ugly.

I am glad Tony said what he said, hopefully Goodyear and NASCAR listened.

[Vasserfan]

Tony is a bigger whiner and pain than PT. He needs to shut up and drive. His act and his mouth have gotten real old.

[Indy500fanatic]

One car and one truck for the vegas test...oops.

Back when Foyt brought G-year in....

You didnt touch the setup but ran set after set of tires...10 laps ,20,50, 100 etc.
After each run a debrief was done about that set and they listened to that driver.
Before saying Stewie is a whiner, big mouth etc, what would Ol AJ have done if G-year brought back the set of tires which he disliked the most??
Damn straight he would have b****ed to high heaven.

So at what point does the interest wain if you go and test but any input thats offered is disregarded?

[Mack Too]

"Rather intentionally or not, TS may have exceeded "the coach's", goodyear's and nascar's breaking point on this one.

Tony may find out the goodyear is more important to nascar than he is.

Expect major fallout from this one."

http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/head...ing/index.html

Evidently Tony is important enough...

Howard, I have followed this pretty closely on Sirius NASCAR, and you would be surprised where Tony is taking the most heat. From the NASCAR side, I think all he had to do was allow Mike Helton on his Sirius Radio show to state the NASCAR/Goodyear side. Tony really angered both the union workers in the pasenger tire plants and the hard-working tire busters in the garage areas who have no say in what tires they mount, that is a hard, hot and dirty job, first at the track every morning, last to leave. His apology to that crew might not get the job done, Gibbs Racing might find they are last to get tires mounted.

NASCAR really couldn't do much to Tony, at least publicly, a year or so ago Tony refused to talk to the Media after a race and was fined and put on probation. Top-5 finishers are expected to meet with the media after the race, so if they are required to do so, how can you penalize for saying something when they are very angry?

[beej]

So, let's see.

Tony whines and bitches about going to tire tests, and is generally uncooperative during them. He's no help in developing a better tire.

Then he whines and bitches about the tire that he gets.

Maybe he's just a whiner.

This would be the big disconnect between Tony and Foyt. When Foyt brought Goodyear to the Speedway, he spent uncountable hours running tire tests and working with the engineers, and everyone with Goodyear was effusive about the feedback Foyt gave (including our own dearly passed Dick Ralstin). Tony, on the other hand, behaves like a spoiled brat.

He gets what he deserves. Shut up and drive.

RR, I think you found the hammer and the nail on this one....

[hdolan]

Speaking of AJ...was there ever bigger whiner than he and Mario...I don't think so...unless it ws Bobby Unser, or DE Sr, or...

[beej]

So, let's see.

Tony whines and bitches about going to tire tests, and is generally uncooperative during them. He's no help in developing a better tire.

Then he whines and bitches about the tire that he gets.

Maybe he's just a whiner.

This would be the big disconnect between Tony and Foyt. When Foyt brought Goodyear to the Speedway, he spent uncountable hours running tire tests and working with the engineers, and everyone with Goodyear was effusive about the feedback Foyt gave (including our own dearly passed Dick Ralstin). Tony, on the other hand, behaves like a spoiled brat.

He gets what he deserves. Shut up and drive.

Then again, I have a cherhised Dick Ralstin special wood worked peice that has a photo of AJ with the Goodyear tires on his dirt car off the ground with a quote from AJ


https://home.comcast.net/~bjdesind2/...HeardWords.htm

Then along came the photo of his airborne dirt car at DuQuoin and the lights began to flash. I don't remember which race it was but Foyt handed me a note, in a sealed envelope, and the photo and instructed me to give them both to Larry Truesdale, Goodyear's Director of Racing, when I got back to Akron.

I didn't know what to expect when I handed the note and photo to Larry, so I waited to see if Larry was going to send any kind of answer. Truesdale looked at the photo, then read the note and looked at the photo again, for quite a few more seconds. Then Larry handed the note, and photo, back to me and walked back into his office.

So now some 37 years later the photo Foyt sent to Truesdale, and that Larry quietly handed back to me, is mounted on a piece of a California mazanita tree and hangs in a place of honor on my living room wall.

Oh, I almost forgot, you remember Foyt's note to Larry, well I have the words from the note, in big gold letters, on the piece of mazanita with the photo:

"Truesdale.
Any time I'm running
this hard for second
place your tires are
no f---king good!
A.J.Foyt"

Only the words in the note were all spelled out completely, and also on the manzanita.

Oh, one more thing, after the Duquoin race there were seven more races on the USAC Championship schedule, Foyt won three of them

[hdolan]

I remember that on our visit to Dick back in 1998...he had ashtrays with pictures of naked women in them...said it was his ex wife... Gave us a great picture of Petty and Pearson...

[beej]

I remember that on our visit to Dick back in 1998...he had ashtrays with pictures of naked women in them...said it was his ex wife... Gave us a great picture of Petty and Pearson...

Hey Dolan, about those ashtrays, yes it was his ex wife, he always said he paid for "them" and the ashtrays are all he got out of it!


He enjoyed your visit! He and Myriah had quite the little haceinda.

[hdolan]

Hey Dolan, about those ashtrays, yes it was his ex wife, he always said he paid for "them" and the ashtrays are all he got out of it!


He enjoyed your visit! He and Myriah had quite the little haceinda.

That was a great visit...quite a place...

[meirafan]

So, let's see.

Tony whines and bitches about going to tire tests, and is generally uncooperative during them. He's no help in developing a better tire.

Then he whines and bitches about the tire that he gets.

Maybe he's just a whiner.

This would be the big disconnect between Tony and Foyt. When Foyt brought Goodyear to the Speedway, he spent uncountable hours running tire tests and working with the engineers, and everyone with Goodyear was effusive about the feedback Foyt gave (including our own dearly passed Dick Ralstin). Tony, on the other hand, behaves like a spoiled brat.

He gets what he deserves. Shut up and drive.

I don't think your comments are even on par. One difference you are not speaking of is when AJ brought Goodyear to the Speedway, Firestone was the incumbant tire company, and AJ was introducting a new company into the mix. Right now, you have one choice in tires in Nascar. If Tony was bringing in Firestone, I guarantee you he would be doing what Foyt did. Not a real fair comparison in my opinion. All the drivers who have done testing for Goodyear have stated that they don't even listen to their comments. The problem is that in the PC world we live in today, you can't say anything without some group of people getting offended. I could care less about what some union worker thinks, when they strap their butts in a car and drive near 200 mph, they can have an educated opinion in the matter. I will listen to the guy who is putting his life on the line. Goodyear needs to listen to the customer. Bottom Line. Here is another example where competition is good. I liken Goodyear to the automotive industry in the late seventies, not focusing on quality.

A funny AJ story, was at Indy, Firestone spies were watching the testing with Goodyear and AJ knew it, so they had them put on the pit boards a speed much higher than he was actually doing to make the Firestone guys scramble around worrying that their product was already behind the eight ball.