NASCAR alters tire rule

NASCAR officials announced today that teams in the Cup, Nationwide and Truck series will receive an allotment of tires to use for non-NASCAR sanctioned tests.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams will have access to 200 tires over the course of the year; NASCAR Nationwide teams will get 160 tires, and NASCAR Craftsman Truck teams will get 120 tires.

"We think for safety's sake and for the teams to do proper development it was time to re-evaluate our test policy and re-evaluate what teams were able to use as far as tires go," said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton on Monday during a media visit to the NASCAR Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C.. "It will be whatever what they want to use. They'll be able to pick and choose the types of tires that they want, when they're available from Goodyear to concentrate on the places they need to go test.. …. We will not specify the codes that they need to get. They will do that, so teams will be able to concentrate on the places they think they need the most help at."