Gordon says new tires lead to new track records at Las Vegas
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By Kyle Ocker
Sprint Cup Series beat reporter
A total of 18 drivers broke the track qualifying record at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Friday. Kurt Busch was the one who broke the record of 185.995 mph set by his brother, Kyle, last year.
Jeff Gordon (L), driver of the #24 Dupont/Pepsi Chevrolet, speaks with his crew chief Steve Letarte in the garage during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Shelby American at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on February 26, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Jeff Gordon, who qualified on the outside pole at a speed of 188.646 mph and even held the pole at one point in qualifying, said after his lap that the higher speeds that brought record breaking qualifying times for the second consecutive year were thanks to a new set of Goodyear Tires.
“There’s a new tire Goodyear brought,” Gordon said. “I don’t know all the differences. But it’s definitely the tires. The teams do a great job. We bring a little bit more power this year over the off-season and make a little bit more power. We find ways to make the cars a little bit faster, but the majority of what happened today was tires.”
Third-place qualifier Ryan Newman took a similar stance, as well did many other drivers.
“Well, they’ve (Goodyear) got new tires and we’ve worked on our race cars and the track was cool,” Newman said. “I thought it was pretty good that for whatever reason Mother Nature keeps following us in the form of rain and it seems like it’s been it’s been cool for qualifying for almost every time, including Daytona; but the conditions have stayed the same throughout the entire practice session. It cooled off a little bit, don’t get me wrong, but if it had been sunny it would have been a bigger difference depending on where you drew.”
Busch’s pole-qualifying speed was 188.719 mph, nearly three miles per hour faster than his brother’s record breaking speed last year at LVMS.
