Tony Stewart wrecks, unloads on Goodyear once again

I have to say that one of the things that makes Tony Stewart one of my favorite drivers is the fact that he is never afraid to speak his mind. Especially when it comes to goodyear and their racing tires. He once again had to let goodyear know what he thought of their tire after both of his cars were wrecked in saturday's final practice at Daytona.


The fun just keeps rolling on for Stewart-Haas ... and Tony Stewart's feud with Goodyear has a brand new chapter.
Saturday morning, new teammates Ryan Newman and Stewart ended up wrecking into each other, causing all kinds of headaches for Stewart-Haas before the season even begins. And anybody who had Day minus-1 in their "When will Tony Stewart's first blowup of 2009 come?" -- winner, winner!
The deal: In practice, Newman's right-rear tire blew, sending him spinning lengthwise up the track. Stewart, drafting behind him, hit him broadside. Newman's car -- his second this week, after the Duel wreck with David Reutimann -- was, by his estimation, "junk," and looking at it, it's hard to disagree. Stewart will have to go to a backup car for the Daytona 500. What that means for Tony is that he'll drop from fifth down to the back of the back to start the race Sunday. Smoke will be driving the car he finished third with in the Bud Shootout earlier this week, while Newman will be driving the car that had been designated the 14's secondary backup, a dedicated superspeedway car with a history of runs at Talladega and Daytona.
In an interview afterward, Smoke hammered Goodyear, saying "apparently this is their marketing strategy, to get press. I'm tired of talking about them, tired of it being an issue. Talking about them now isn't going to change anything; it falls on deaf ears."
Some unfortunate reporter decided to ask Tony the standard mindless media question -- "How's this going to affect your chances of winning the 500?" -- and Smoke shot back, "I don't know, rocket scientist. I'm sitting here with a backup car. What do you think?"
He continued on: "We've got a lot of work to do. I'm pissed. I'm not happy, I'm not cordial. If two guys wrecked, that's one thing, but the manufacturer has the sole deal, they don't have any competition, and they can't give us a tire to keep us from having wrecks."
Stewart said Newman will be going to his California backup car, the backup to his backup. And he finished off with some advice for Goodyear executives:
"Don't bring 'em anywhere near me."
UPDATE 1: When asked about the "deaf ears" comment, Stu Grant, Goodyear GM of Worldwide Racing, replied, "Tony is a passionate race driver and extremely frustrated right now with the condition of the race car and unfortunate circumstances...That's what you hear in his comments." However, he didn't exactly do anything to defuse Stewart's criticism. Grant added that "at this point in time, evidence points to a classic case of a punctured right rear [tire]."
UPDATE 2: An hour later, when told that Goodyear claimed the tire failure was a result of a puncture, Newman responded, "I'm sure they would." He added that "a punctured tire doesn't lead to [the damage] it did."