WRAL Sports Fan

NASCAR

Sadler glad to have a chance to test Goodyear tires

By SceneDaily.com

Mar 12, 2009

DARLINGTON, S.C. - Richard Petty Motorsports' Elliott Sadler will take any advantage he can get from participating in the two-day Goodyear tire test at Darlington Raceway this week.

"It definitely doesn't hurt you to come and take laps at a race track," said Sadler during Wednesday's second session. "The track is going to be different when we come back and when you add 40 other cars to it. It gives your team a lot of chance to run through some different things on setups. It might give you a half a step forward. You can't take the exact same setup that we used here [today] and be perfect when you come back, but it gets you a little bit closer."

All four manufacturers that compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series were represented at the two-day session, which is being held to help Goodyear choose a tire for the Southern 500 Cup race at Darlington on May 9.

Sadler represented Dodge, while Richard Childress Racing's Kevin Harvick drove a Chevrolet, Hall of Fame Racing's Bobby Labonte drove a Ford and Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin represented Toyota.

An engineer from each manufacturer was also at the tire test, and they will convey information collected, back to the other teams.

"It's a necessary evil," Harvick said about tire testing. "You don't know what tire they're going to bring back, and we haven't changed anything on our car. You don't get to sit here and run on any tire that you think you're going to run on because you don't know."

Hamlin, whose best finish at Darlington was second in 2007, says gaining an advantage at the 1.366-mile egg-shaped track isn't a given just because he and three other drivers participated in a tire test.

"The drivers in the Cup series are so good and it doesn't take these drivers very long to figure out exactly what they need," Hamlin said. "We're not going to gain a huge advantage."

Labonte, meanwhile, who won here in 2000 in a rain-shortened event, said the tire test was good for his team because this is the first time this season the group has been able to work together and it isn't a timed practice session.

"This team came together so late, so this makes me feel better personally," Labonte said.