Tire failures were a common sight during the Cup race at Phoenix. Another common sight was the blame for the tire failures directed at Goodyear following the race. However, Brad Keselowski was one of the few who didn’t think the blame towards NASCAR’s tire manufacturer was justified. In fact, he praised their efforts.

Brad Keselowski stands behind Goodyear amid Phoenix tire controversy

Keselowski recently shared his views on the Goodyear-NASCAR relationship in light of Sunday’s tire controversy. The RFK Racing driver and co-owner, who has been racing in the Cup Series since 2008, looked back on his journey in the sport, stating that some of the relationships didn’t make sense to him at the start. One of those relationships was NASCAR-Goodyear.

“We ask a lot of Goodyear for our support they are a key stakeholder from just the ability for us to race by providing the tires to the quality of racing we put on,” he claimed.

The #6 driver lauded Goodyear for helping NASCAR through the tough period of COVID. “I guess digging deeper into the comments I was making I think a lot of the drivers and teams have felt very strongly that in order to get the NASCAR Next Gen car to put on the quality of racing we’d like for our fans, that we needed Goodyear to kind of take one for the team,” he described.

Keselowski claimed that in this case, Goodyear had to build a tire that was close to the failure point despite knowing that teams would overstep it. However, that also led to a type of racing that was endearing to fans and partners. He stated that Goodyear was reluctant to do it.

But despite that, the tire manufacturer went ahead with it and gave it a shot.

In fact, not just him, but Joey Logano was also all praise for the tire drama at Phoenix from Goodyear.

“Hard to say what’s affecting it the most, and there’s no doubt that Goodyear’s done an incredible job at bringing a tire that actually falls off.”

Who’s to blame, according to Denny Hamlin

Following the race, Denny Hamlin took the mic on his podcast, Actions Detrimental, to voice his thoughts on the Goodyear controversy at Phoenix. Hamlin claimed that instead of the tire manufacturer, it should be the teams who should take accountability for the tire issues.

“We’re just pushing it. We certainly know that the more that you lower the air pressure the faster you’re going to be on the long run. And these teams just keep pushing it,” Hamlin said.

The JGR veteran stated how teams get comfortable in practice, run the race’s first run to get a feel of things. But after that, they often take a couple of tenths out of the tire, which pushes it to the limit. JGR crew chief Adam Stevens also remarked that fans don’t understand the combination of load, air pressure, and camber, which can cause tire problems at times. Stevens added that tires get blown up because of being overloaded for a sustained period of time.

But do you think Goodyear was solely responsible for the tire issues at Phoenix, or was it the teams? Let us know in the comments below.