NEWS: Tire Troubles Loom; Kyle Busch Fails Pre-Qual Tech

By Ron Lemasters Jr.

FONTANA, Calif. – The surface at Auto Club Speedway is older, and that means rougher than the pave at other tracks.

It also means the tires the teams use are being put to the test.

Martin Truex Jr. and AJ Allmendinger, among others, suffered blisters on the left-side tires during practice on Saturday. For Truex, the left rear gave up entering a corner and he ended up hitting the wall. He had to go to a backup and will start at the rear of the field tomorrow despite earning the 12th starting spot.

“I had no warning at all,” Truex said. “I was wide open into Turn 1 and turned it down and the left rear came apart. We saw a little sidewall issue yesterday (Friday) and put some more air in it. I had no intention of running more than 10 laps, and it came apart on the eighth lap.”

This is the same tire they’ve run here for the last few years, without much trouble, but some in the garage are saying that the increased load put on by the additional downforce is at the root of the problem.

Truex has had a rough start to his season, with mechanical troubles at Daytona and a crash at Bristol.

“Good news is, hopefully the bad luck is out of the way for this weekend,” Truex said. “ I hate it for the team, because we had a good fast race car there.”

On another issue, Kyle Busch’s No. 54 Monster Toyota did not pass pre-qualifying technical inspection. While details are scarce, it appeared to be a problem with the rear axle. No starting lineup has been issued yet, but Busch is in the field by virtue of being a past series champion and his point standing.