Goodyear Tires were the main talking point of the 2024 Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, with drivers and fans baffled to see the tires wearing down so fast. How much progress did Goodyear Tires make almost a year later? Dale Earnhardt Jr. offered his analysis of Goodyear’s tire performance during the 2025 Ambetter Health 400 in Atlanta.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Talks Goodyear Tires in Latest Podcast
Earnhardt was happy to see how much progress Goodyear Tires have made since the Bristol disaster. Goodyear’s director of racing, Greg Stucker, had to issue a public statement to address the poor performance of Goodyear tires at the 2024 Food City 500. But based on what we’ve seen in recent months, however, it seems apparent that Goodyear has addressed the issue.
“The one thing that I noticed initially right out of the gate for the Cup race (on) Sunday was how the track was getting, how well the Goodyear tire was putting the rubber down,” Earnhardt said in the latest episode of his podcast “The Dale Jr. Download.”
Earnhardt pointed out that Goodyear deserved the praise after suffering significant backlash from the community in recent years.
“We suffer, I think, all of us, from short-term memory, and I think we need to remember and think back to, even just a short period of time inside the last 24 months, where we are begging Goodyear to soften up the tire, to put more rubber on the racetrack.
“We needed a tire that would put rubber down and allow the cars to get on top of that and slide and move around, right? And they’ve done it!”
The 26-time Cup Series winner also highlighted how well Goodyear’s tires have performed on short tracks.
“They’ve created a tire for the short tracks, that’s heading and treading in a very good direction, in terms of fall-off and wear. And, they’ve put a tire at a very high-speed racetrack like Atlanta that actually rubbered the surface really well.
“Tires mattered. If you were running 15th and cost come out and you’re like ‘**** I’m coming down pit road. I’m taking advantage of the new tire, that’s 20 or 30 laps better than everybody else and try to gain that track position. Chase Elliott and a couple other guys made that work.
“So, I’m very happy with the work Goodyear’s been doing across the board. I think for the last five years, we’ve complained a lot about tires. As a fan and driver as well, (we’ve) made a lot of comments about tires. We’d go to Martinsville and have a tire that’d last 5,000 miles if you wanted.
“But they made some really, really aggressive changes that have been great, and I’m proud of that, I’m happy about that. So, kudos to Goodyear!”
