There are days when we don’t even discuss the tire as we focus on the racing. Then there’s days like this past Sunday at Auto Club Speedway when the tire becomes the discussion. Many drivers had a problem with the tires throughout the course of the race.

NASCAR VP of Competition Robin Pemberton said after the race that the tires were caused as a result of teams running too low of an air pressure or too much camber in their tires. Pemberton feels that the issues happened because teams were being aggressive.

“I would think that if you’re in this garage area you’re paid to be aggressive and you’d want to take everything to the limit,” Pemberton said. “We know that winning is going to trump everything this year, and I think guys are more aggressive.”

Pemberton added that the Goodyear reps recommended 22 pounds, and there were teams running as low as 14 pounds of air. Race winning crew chief Dave Rogers says that he saw the data that Goodyear released and noted that it showed the lower the air pressure, the more grip – but you increase the risk of a blowout.

“I think we lacked some speed on the stopwatch and I was pretty confident that I could drop left‑side air pressure and pick some of that speed up. I don’t know if I could have got all of it but I could have got a little bit, but it just wasn’t worth it, it wasn’t worth putting the car in jeopardy, putting Kyle in jeopardy,” Rogers explained. “So we played it conservative and today just worked out for us. But maybe that’s the difference. The TRD folks recommended that we’re a little bit higher left sides, maybe some of the other manufacturers are a little bit softer.

“Speaking of TRD, I see David Wilson, like Joe said, that’s a great partnership. They talked to us about tires. They provide our motors. They do a lot of technical stuff for us, so it feels fantastic to be in victory lane out here in Toyota’s backyard.”

It should be noted that the tire were softer than compounds used before, but Pemberton says that was a result of competitors asking for more aggressive tires – tires that wore out over the course of a run to bring tire management as part of the equation. 

“At this point in time I think Goodyear, it’s the same tire that we’ve run on in the past. Just the car is a little bit different,” Pemberton commented. “But as always, we’ll get back and we’ll look at it, but right now I think Goodyear has done a pretty good job with it.”

To prevent issues like this in the future, Pemberton says that they’ll evaluate everything from their end, but will not consider adding more tire tests.

Some drivers, notably Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski, tweeted after the race that perhaps the issues were caused due to the big huge bumps on the backstretch of Auto Club Speedway. While they wouldn’t recommend re-paving the whole track, they suggested ACS works on grinding down the bumps.

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, THE GREAT GONZO WAS INDEED GREAT.

I must admit I was rather surprised to learn that The Great Gonzo, of Muppets fame, was named to be the Grand Marshall for the Auto Club 400. I found myself asking: “seriously? A Muppet puppet is going to give the command to start engines?

With the Auto Club Speedway being so close to Hollywood, it’s fairly easy for them to line up celebrities to come to Fontana for the opportunity to promote their latest projects. In this case, the promotional prize was addressing the 68,000 in the grandstands as well as the estimated 6.4 million reported to be watching on television.

The Great Gonzo, regarded as being the official dare devil of the Muppets, was at the Auto Club Speedway to promote the new movie “Muppets Most Wanted” which I’m told is a very cute movie, fun for the entire family and well worth the price of the ticket.

Prior to giving the official command to start engines, Gonzo said: “I want to remind the drivers that the legal speed limit in California is 70 MPH. Please obey all traffic and safety laws.” After he finished laughing, Gonzo said: “I’m just kidding, these NASCAR drivers are as crazy as I am.”

It’s very rare for someone, participating in a NASCAR pre race ceremony, to say something that the fans will never forget. The last time we saw this was a few years ago when a Tennessee minister, in the process of delivering the pre race invocation, thanked the Lord for his “smoking hot wife.”

The Great Gonzo’s performance was on that caliber and it turned out that the decision to name him as the Grand Marshall of the race was actually a brilliant idea. Well played Auto Club Speedway.

HERE’S A TECHNICAL TIP FOR FOX SPORTS.

Speaking of pre race ceremonies. During the Auto Club 400’s pre race ceremony a Fox Sports microphone was left on. All through the invocation and the singing of the “National Anthem” we could hear two voices talking over this microphone. Fortunately nothing spectacular, such as the launching of a dreaded F bomb, occurred during this time.

After spending 28 years in commercial radio I can easily testify to the fact that it’s sometimes very easy to accidentally leave a microphone in the hot mode. However, usually it’s discovered in an extremely short amount of time and corrected. The question here is: how did this audio interference continue this long before someone in the Fox Sports control booth discovered it?

OH MAN, THE NASCAR CONSPIRACY THEORISTS ARE AT IT AGAIN.

With two laps remaining in the Auto Club 400, driver Clint Bower suffered a left side flat tire and spun his Toyota through the entrance of turn three. The result was a caution flag that created the need for a green-white-checker finish.

Remembering the fact that Bowyer was accused of intentionally spinning his car last September during the Richmond race, the NASCAR conspiracy theorists again ran amuck and lit up “Twitter” with accusations that claimed Bowyer again spun his car on purpose. The theory said Bowyer wanted a caution flag so he could get fresh tires under yellow instead of losing important track position under the green flag.

Needless to say, there’s not an ounce of truth to this “Twitter” campaign. It also goes without saying that the NASCAR conspiracy theorists are genuine bug eyed crazy people. But that’s okay. I love you guys. Very often you have made me smile and sometimes you even made me write.

Thank you Auto Club Speedway for a very entertaining weekend.