Kahne Takes Vegas Pole, Stewart Tired Of Tires
By David Newton
ESPN.com
LAS VEGAS -- From the Neon Garage where fans can watch crewmen work on the cars of their favorite Nextel Cup drivers on a raised walkway to the new banked surface, there's a lot to like at renovated Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
There's one thing not to like -- if you're a driver.
The new left front tire, which Goodyear mandated to help slow speeds that are soaring because of the new track surface and banking, got more criticism than a fixed poker game.
From pole-sitter Kasey Kahne to two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, nobody knows exactly what to expect in Sunday's race.
"The cars have so much downforce it's going to be hard to run side-by-side on a tire as stiff as a rock," said Kahne, who shattered his qualifying record by 10 mph with a lap of 184.856. "I mean, it's just solid."
Nobody was tougher on the new tire than Stewart, who will start 25th after a lap of 180.596 mph that was well above the record (174.904 mph) Kahne set in 2004.
"It [stinks]," he said. "You think a company like Goodyear can do a lot better job than what they're doing. Especially for a company that's been in this business for so long.
"They don't care about the competition. They don't care about the drivers. They don't care about the teams. All they care about is not having bad publicity and not blowing tires and getting bad publicity because of that."
Stewart said he'd give half of his $5 million-plus salary to have the Hoosier Tire Company make tires "instead of the crap we're running on now."
Half a dozen cars crashed during qualifying and several did during practice. None was more spectacular than Paul Menard, whose car went airborne sideways through the infield.
more from Las Vegas Motor Speedway
ESPN.com
LAS VEGAS -- From the Neon Garage where fans can watch crewmen work on the cars of their favorite Nextel Cup drivers on a raised walkway to the new banked surface, there's a lot to like at renovated Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
There's one thing not to like -- if you're a driver.
The new left front tire, which Goodyear mandated to help slow speeds that are soaring because of the new track surface and banking, got more criticism than a fixed poker game.
From pole-sitter Kasey Kahne to two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, nobody knows exactly what to expect in Sunday's race.
"The cars have so much downforce it's going to be hard to run side-by-side on a tire as stiff as a rock," said Kahne, who shattered his qualifying record by 10 mph with a lap of 184.856. "I mean, it's just solid."
Nobody was tougher on the new tire than Stewart, who will start 25th after a lap of 180.596 mph that was well above the record (174.904 mph) Kahne set in 2004.
"It [stinks]," he said. "You think a company like Goodyear can do a lot better job than what they're doing. Especially for a company that's been in this business for so long.
"They don't care about the competition. They don't care about the drivers. They don't care about the teams. All they care about is not having bad publicity and not blowing tires and getting bad publicity because of that."
Stewart said he'd give half of his $5 million-plus salary to have the Hoosier Tire Company make tires "instead of the crap we're running on now."
Half a dozen cars crashed during qualifying and several did during practice. None was more spectacular than Paul Menard, whose car went airborne sideways through the infield.
more from Las Vegas Motor Speedway
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