Gordon approves of Goodyear's Indy tire

INDIANAPOLIS (June 16, 2009) – After testing on Monday and Tuesday, Jeff Gordon guarantees improvement in Goodyear’s tires for the July 26 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “I ran this tire as hard as I possibly could, put numerous laps on them,” said Gordon, driver of the No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet and four-time winner of the Brickyard 400. “It's a dead issue. “This is going to be a race here. It might come down to fuel mileage, it might come down to a lot of different factors -- fastest car, not the fastest car, track position, a double-file restart with 10 to go -- but it's not going to come down to a 10-lap shootout on whose tires can last.” Tires were a major issue last year at the Brickyard and prompted officials to order six competition cautions during the event. The measure, taken with the drivers’ safety in mind, reduced the prestigious 160-lap race to a series of heats. “I'm 100-percent confident,” Gordon said. “And I can promise all the fans out there that if they want to come to the Brickyard and see a great race and be confident that the tires are not going to be an issue, you can trust me. I hope that's enough for them. But they've got it resolved for sure.” This year, Goodyear officials have conducted seven tests at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to prepare for next month’s race. Gordon and his No. 24 DuPont team participated in this week’s two-day session, which was shortened due to rain. “Yesterday to me was a real mark of how this tire is going to react and how much progress they've made,” Gordon said on Tuesday. “You always expect when you come to Indianapolis the first couple of runs you're going to see excessive wear until that rubber gets laid down. “We never saw that. It was fantastic.”