Stewart leads criticism of Goodyear tire choice

"That's the worse tire I've been on in my life in any professional form of racing," said Stewart, who finished second. "Look at when they exited Formula One and the IRL and CART and World of Outlaws, USAC, you name it, because they can't compete, they can't keep up, they don't have the technology and they don't have the people smart enough to build a tire. This was pathetic today."

"Goodyear doesn't like to hear drivers bash them and I don't like to do it," said Dale Earnhardt Jr. "But I am not going to just sit here and take this.

"The tire we used to run here ran into the cords, but you could still run on it. With these tires, I could still see the center mold line on my tire after 30 laps. There has to be several steps between that."

Teams tested for two days last October at Atlanta, but then Goodyear brought a different right-side tire for Sunday's race, making everything learned during the test useless.

"No amount of time would have prepared us for that," Earnhardt Jr. added.

Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon put it in even simpler terms - "This car, this tire, at this racetrack was just terrible."

Even the race winner, who obviously adapted better than anyone else, didn't have anything good to say about the tires.

"It feels like you're driving on ice," Busch said. "That's the worst I've ever felt in a race car. You're on such an edge."

"I am pleading with Goodyear to do something about this," Stewart said. "Take some of the money they give NASCAR and put it into a research and development program. Do something...They have been in the sport a long time. They need to figure it out."