Just saw this post on Cambertire's facebook page:
Goodyear is running Camber built into the tire for this
weekends race.
Has CamberTire struck a deal with Goodyear on licensing the Patent?
http://www.speedwaymedia.com/?p=67122
BRAD KESELOWSKI CONTINUED – CAN YOU EXPAND ON WHY YOU THINK THE TIRE THIS WEEKEND IS SO IMPORTANT TO THE FUTURE OF THIS SPORT? “This is Goodyear’s first race for the zone-treading, zone-compound tire that has two different compounds in it, whether it’s a hard compound-soft compound kind of laced inside the tire. The technical explanation of that is basically a tire runs with camber, so it’s an angle, and when a tire runs at that angle the inside edge sees a lot of heat, a lot of wear, a lot of stress that has all been amplified by this new car because of the increased speeds. To compensate for that, it requires Goodyear to come out with an even harder compound for the tires to utilize, so that we don’t blow them out and knock the wall down. As we run harder compounds there is less falloff over the course of the run. With less falloff over the course of a run, it kind of takes away from the significance of a driver’s ability to manage his car, along with a crew chief’s ability to put in a setup that uses different management skills. When you take those two abilities away from those within the sport, you remove variables. When you remove variables, you remove side-by-side racing because that’s what creates side-by-side racing – variables. It’s know that I’m watching this guy drive out the gate pushing his car way too hard as a driver and 10 laps from now he’s gonna come right back to me. With that variable removed, as a driver you’re losing techniques and tactics to be able to beat another driver or to just get to him to run side-by-side. When you combine that we the aero dependencies of these cars at these speeds, you keep taking away tactics and as you remove tactics from drivers, you get the single-file parade races that I think we’ve all talked about and has been a point of discussion. This tire, what it’s doing is giving tactics back to the drivers and back to the teams because although it still has the hard shell inside or hard zone you would say inside, the softer, outer compound should create those same techniques and tactics where the tires will still fall off and that’s very, very important to our racing. But it’s also very important to Goodyear to have a safe tire that we don’t have to read headlines about blowing out, so I think it’s a very commendable step. We hear drivers all time talk about how significant the tires are to the quality of racing and I would be one of the first to raise my hand when I think we have not done the best job possible. I think everybody here knows that from experience and I want to be one of the first to raise my hand when I think we’re going down the right path. What’s very important to this sport, specifically with this tire and this weekend for this conversation, is that this weekend doesn’t become the sole judge of whether it’s been successful. The tire essentially got, I don’t want to say rushed into production, but brought in by necessity because last year’s tire with this year’s car, this year’s speeds, this year’s cambers, this year’s increased under-the-hood temperatures, was completely incompatible to the track. We were looking at 5 to 10 lap runs and the scenario that was probably worse than what we had at Indianapolis. This tire came in and, knock on wood, saved the day at the test session. Hopefully, that will be the same scenario when we race, but the real key for our sport is that this tire builds the momentum internally, whether it’s through the drivers, the teams, the media, etc., to be able to be utilized at further tracks, specifically the tracks that have zero falloff as it stands right now, in order to give us back that tool chest or give us back those tactics. Those tracks such as Kansas, Pocono, Michigan – these repaved tracks, where that is a real issue. Phoenix comes to mind. If this tire is successful and plays out, it could make a major dent in improving the quality of our racing, which is inherently good for all of us.”