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Daytona Beach, Fla.
(February 5, 2005) -- After his Champion Forum interview yesterday, Matt
Kenseth, driver for the #49 Multimatic Motorsports team car commented, "I
really liked the Hoosier Tires. The cars have a lot of down force; the tires
fall off about the same as the Nextel Cup drivers are use to. You have to
appreciate the tires; you can't abuse them the whole run. And that puts some
racing into it. Compared to the tires we are use to, they are a little less
forgiving when they are cold, but I believe any tire is going to be like that.
Hoosier Tires seem to have great grip, and our team has not seen any issues the
whole run."
After
his stint driving today in the Rolex At Daytona 24 Tony Stewart with the number
20 car, teamed with Wallace and Lammers, in the CITGO – Howard Pontiac
Crawford car, had this to say about Hoosier Tires, "I'm really comfortable
with the tires.
I've been friends with Bob and Joyce Newton for a long time, since my
days of Midget and Sprint car driving.
Those guys saying their tires are falling off, are driving them off.
Our team is within one second of each other.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with these tires."
Jeff Speer, a Hoosier
Racing Tire Product Manager, has this to say, "After three hours of racing
the DP car drivers that I have talked to ran on one set of tires with no wear
issues. It has been mentioned that the track was very greasy, which could make
handling difficult. "
Mark Brown, a Hoosier
Racing Tire Engineer, has this to say, "After three hours of racing, I'm
predominantly in a pit section of the track that has GT cars. The GT cars that
I've seen range from an hour and a half, to two hours of use; the tires are
losing about twenty percent of the tread depth, still with tire life on them.
The comments that I have heard from the track, is that the track is greasy.
There has been a fair amount of pick up. The tires are performing well, and
I've not heard of any tire related issues, and performance is great."
Steve Partridge, a
Hoosier Racing Tire Engineer, "After three hours the main things I've seen
is that wear has been exceptional. We have seen no more than 2/32nds of wear
off any single tire, at any point. Our biggest problem has been rubber pick up,
where we really can't measure everything because the tire is coated with
rubber. Not so bad that it causes any problems, just makes it difficult to
measure. I've heard the tires hold up well. They have fallen off more for some
drivers than others. Over all we have had very positive feedback."
Gary Freymiller, a
Hoosier Racing Tire Engineer says, "The tire wear today is very good to
excellent. I've not seen anything that looked like premature or accelerated
wear, so that's not an issue." Gary also goes on to say, "After
talking to Andy Wallace of the number 20 car, Andy complained that the tires
lost grip after about ten laps. Maybe the track is losing dirt, but tire wear
is excellent."
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