Tires, Tires, Tires: Auto Club Repeat This Weekend at TMS?

Hope you liked the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway a couple weeks ago.

The Duck Commander 500 at Texas might be very similar...and not in a good way.

Tire troubles plagued more than a dozen drivers, including Jimmie Johnson, who had the race all but won when his left front came out from under him with a handful of laps left.

Texas is similar to Auto Club in that the surface is older and more abrasive. It has bumps--though probably not as big as the mogul section down the back straight at ACS.

Bigger loads and more speed from the cars will play a role as well.

“I expect it to create a few more challenges," said Kevin Harvick, rather diplomatically. "As we’ve seen the first part of the year, the cars are very fast with the new ride-height rule, the new spoiler height and everything that comes with it. 

"I believe the tire we’ll be using this weekend comes from the same family as what we had at Fontana a few weeks back. I think we’ll see a lot of the same characteristics we saw there with the bumps on the racetrack and the tire wear."

Goodyear is bringing its Multizone tread tires this weekend, and they have worked well in the past at tracks like TMS and ACS.

But still...

"We’re going to be taking the bumps at a much higher rate of speed with a lot more load on the left-side tires than we’ve had there before," Harvick said. "So, I think we’re going to see some new challenges pop up. As we’ve gone through these first five or six weeks, we’ve been to racetracks that we’ve been to before, but we have different things to work on the cars with a lot of new things to understand. We’re still trying to get our arms around everything because there are so many new things to understand. 

"Texas is the first racetrack that’s similar to a track we’ve raced at already, so it’ll be an interesting race.”

Throw in the still-bubbling ill feelings between Martinsville winner Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski and you have all the makings of a hot time in the Southwest this weekend.