Goodyear Racing Director Gives A Statement After ‘Tire Issue’ Ends The Day for Denny Hamlin

After a tire puncture ended the day for race leader Denny Hamlin, many people are questioning Goodyear for the failure. After a lot of chatter on social media, Goodyear’s racing director Greg Stucker gave a statement. In the statement, he clarifying the issues that might have caused the failure.

Notably, Denny Hamil was leading the race and faced a tire issue with just 8 laps to go. Hamlin’s car lost control and drifted into Turn 1 and made contact with the wall. The incident ended his run and denied him the victory at the Brickyard 400. After that, Kevin Harvick inherited the lead and took home the win.

Goodyear Racing Director’s statement on Denny Hamlin Crash

Bob Pockrass of Fox NASCAR posts Greg’s statement on Twitter. In the statement, he claims that teams were made aware of the possible issues if they don’t maintain the prescribed tire pressures. Greg says, “The importance of air pressure, and getting it right is something that we cautioned about before the race. With the high amount of downforce on the Cup cars down the straightaway, we asked teams to respect our recommended pressures so as not to hurt the tire. Early in the race, without having the benefit of any practice, teams obviously had to be very mindful of that.”

After that, he adds that high temperature was not the reason for the failure. He said, “Most of the race run in the heat and teams were obviously searching for grip, while several issues happened later in the event when the temperature cooled off a bit and speeds picked up.”

Additionally, he stated the company engineers work extensively with the teams to ensure all prescribed rules are followed. He said, “We had our engineers on the ground all race, working with teams as we do every week, trying to emphasize the importance of right front pressure”

WATCH: Denny Hamlin Hits the Wall Hard After a Tire Failure at Indianapolis