NASCAR Tire test ends at Martinsville

For the second straight day, Martinsville Speedway was turned into a half-mile laboratory. #31-Jeff Burton and four other NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers – #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr., #6-David Ragan, #2-Brad Keselowski and #47-Bobby Labonte – finished up a two-day tire test at Martinsville Speedway on Wednesday. The goal was to help Goodyear come up with a better racing compound for this fall's TUMS Fast Relief 500.

"Goodyear is always trying to make tires better and they work hard at building different compounds, different rubbers, different constructions," said Burton who has 21 victories in 18 years of Sprint Cup racing. "They do a lot of lab testing, but really, this is the best place to test, at the race tracks. We've been picking out the tires we like and then we confirm what we like and don't like on long runs. So we've made a lot of 10 and 20-lap runs and a bunch of 75-lap runs to confirm what we like. That is our main objective to being here."

With only one or two cars on the track at a time, and no real racing, tire testing seems like a monotonous exercise, but Burton says it is vital. Tickets for the TUMS Fast Relief 500 on Sunday, October 30 are on sale and can be purchased by calling 1.877.RACE.TIX. Tickets may also be purchased online at www.martinsvillespeedway.com.

Goodyear Press Release
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company completed a two-day tire test at Martinsville Speedway this week, in preparation for that track's Tums Fast Relief 500 race weekend scheduled for September 28-30. The dates came on the heels of the rain-delayed NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Watkins Glen International, which was run on Monday. The Tuesday-Wednesday tire test featured five Sprint Cup teams — #2 Penske Racing Dodge with Brad Keselowski, #6 Roush-Fenway Racing Ford with David Ragan, #31 Richard Childress Racing Chevy with Jeff Burton, #47 JTG-Daugherty Racing Toyota with Bobby Labonte and #88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"We believe we had a very successful test at Martinsville this week. First of all, thanks to all five of the teams involved for coming prepared to log a lot of laps, particularly with the quick turnaround from the rain-delayed Watkins Glen race," said Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of racing. "Most of the guys ran almost 700 laps each during the test. After our initial short runs on Tuesday, Wednesday was devoted to long runs, and we completed 14 of those among the five drivers. Our goal was to optimize the levels of grip and wear resistance with the right tire combination, and we believe we identified some good candidates to do that. Obviously, we'll have to go through the test data in more detail to finalize our recommendation, but we're confident we'll have a nice new package for the Martinsville race in October."

Next up on Goodyear's test schedule is the freshly repaved surface of Phoenix International Raceway on August 29-30. Teams and drivers scheduled to participate in that test are the #14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy with Tony Stewart, #18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with Kyle Busch, #22 Penske Racing Dodge with Kurt Busch, #48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy with Jimmie Johnson and #99 Roush-Fenway Ford with Carl Edwards. Goodyear PR