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NASCAR Betting: Tire change shakes up Pocono

Bookmark and Share by Shawn Sillinger

Betting NASCAR Gordon
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Talk about reinventing the wheel.

The folks at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company know their stuff. But their latest decision has left many of the drivers on NASCAR’s Nextel Cup circuit scratching their heads. Goodyear will supply teams with harder tires at this  than the ones that were in use at last month’s Pocono 500. Both events take place at the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Penn.

The decision appears to stem from last year’s running of the Pocono 500, when over 20 drivers came up with flat tires, mostly of the left-front variety. Goodyear took a bit of a beating in the press at the time; however, NASCAR teams routinely do things to maximize speed that also threaten the structural integrity of the tires. Among the tricks of the trade: underinflating the tires to keep them soft, and changing the camber – that is, tilting the wheel off its vertical axis to improve cornering.

Suffice to say that you should not try this at home. Pocono Raceway also featured some especially abrasive rumble strips, which track officials ordered replaced after the tire-shredding debacle.

Goodyear ultimately decided last year that there was, in fact, nothing wrong with their tires at the Pocono 500, and they provided the same compound for the Pennsylvania 500. Which makes their latest decision all the more curious, considering last month’s race went off largely without a hitch. “The tire setup we brought to Pocono performed extremely well this past weekend,” Goodyear marketing manager Phil Holmer said after Denny Hamlin won the event. “The Nextel Cup race went without incident except for a couple tires cut due to debris. This tire recommendation has proven to be very consistent.”

The setup Holmer was talking about looks like this: D-4028 on the left side, D-4030 on the right. That combination was also used at Las Vegas and Bristol, whereas this Sunday, Goodyear is going with the D-4030 on the port side and the D-4032 to starboard. This combo has yet to be used this season. The upshot for handicappers is that less experienced drivers like Hamlin should have more difficulty adjusting to the harder tires – a potentially significant development, considering Hamlin is the runaway favorite at +400 to complete the season series sweep at Pocono.

If Hamlin does indeed find himself not as swift around Pocono’s three corners as he did last month, that opens the door for Tony Stewart (+700) to resume his push toward the Chase for the Cup. Stewart finished 37th at last week’s Lenox Industrial Tools 300 to leave him in 11th place in the drivers standings, just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin.

Stewart has 15 Cup appearances at Pocono under his belt. He won the 2003 Pocono 500 and has nine other Top-10 results to his credit, the most relevant being a third-place finish last month.

Another veteran driver getting some unusual attention for the Pennsylvania 500 is Mark Martin (+1600). He’s never finished better than second at Pocono, but he’s raced there 39 times, coming up with 19 Top-5 results (including second at this event in 2004 and third in 2005). This may be Martin’s best chance to pick up his first win of the season and solidify his place in the Chase – the Arkansas native is currently fifth in the standings.

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