Tire ‘check’ by Goodyear at Dover

Bobby Labonte and Mark Martin were the drivers who were drafted by Goodyear to perform what they both called "a tire check" for the company at Dover International Speedway on Wednesday [9/3]. Labonte and Martin each took to Dover's high-banked, one-mile oval throughout the day in single-car runs, trying to ensure that Goodyear chooses the best tire compound for the Camping World RV 400 presented by AAA that will be held at the "Monster Mile" on Sept. 21. "It's just about tires. Goodyear's brought two different compounds of tires for us to test," said Labonte. "The tire test sometimes consists of trying different compounds and constructions, but this is more of a 'tire check' just to make sure everything's OK with the tire." It is standard operating procedure for Goodyear to conduct a tire test at virtually every race track in preparation for a Sprint Cup race. "Goodyear does the picking [of drivers] and they do a lot of testing, so obviously they don't have me and Mark [Martin] do all of the testing," Labonte said. "They kind of pick and choose with these guys here and these guys there." And since Dover is one of the races involved in the Chase, it was no coincidence that none of the championship contenders were asked to participate. "They've spread [testing] around a lot this year," Martin said. "I think when you're getting right on top of the Chase that they try not to choose Chase guys because that might give them an advantage or something." Delaware News Journal