Nascar Race Today

FORT WORTH, Texas - Kyle Busch obviously had no problem with tires in winning at Auto Club Speedway two weeks ago.

So he's not worried that NASCAR will continue to not mandate left-side tire pressures even at tracks where Sprint Cup teams could be in danger of abusing their tires with low air pressures.

MORE: Drivers fear more tire problems; picks | 12 teams get practice penalty | Weird Texas schedule | Parity rules

NASCAR mandates air pressure for the right front tires (51 psi for this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway) but not the left front, where the recommended air pressure is 23 psi. "It's been more exciting, the racing we've had, with the rules being loosened up this year. So why do we need to add more rules to tighten it back up again?" Busch said. "I am against it. It was an exciting race. "In California, there were people that abused the left-side air pressure. You saw them take off and have way more speed than others. Guys like myself that didn't abuse that left-side air pressure were able to still salvage on and didn't have problems with tires whatsoever. Ultimately we won the race."

MORE: Best NASCAR trophies

Goodyear is bringing the same left-side tire compound the teams have used at Texas since 2011. But the right-side compound is new with the multi-zone technology, where the outside 10 inches of tread is designed for more grip but the inside two inches is designed for more durability. "I don't think anybody wants (mandated pressures), but they mandate the right front - it's already being done," said Stewart-Haas Racing competition director Greg Zipadelli, whose team had a few problems earlier this year at Las Vegas. "Left sides could potentially be an issue here. "Our conversation with Goodyear (is) it's hard to go up in air and give up that grip if other people aren't. There's speed there. But if everybody has to be 16, 18, 22 pounds, whatever it is, then everybody is giving up the same thing, they're kind of working in the same boat." That's not going to happen, and teams will have to decide just how low on air pressure they want to go. Texas is different than California in that the track is less bumpy and teams won't use the apron as much as they did two weeks ago. Without the abuse on a tire going from the transition of the apron to the banking, that should help keep the sidewalls of the tires from buckling as they did at California. "I'm up for leaving it in the team's hands," said Richard Petty Motorsports competition director Sammy Johns, whose organization also had problems at California. "We have enough engineers and stuff like that, if you get yourself in a danger zone, that's your own fault." Goodyear and NASCAR officials met with the media Friday, saying they wanted to talk about the zone-tread technology and not necessarily to get in front of a story of potential tire problems. The Cup teams are allotted five sets of tires for practice and qualifying and then 11 sets for the race. Goodyear and NASCAR could allot additional sets if there are problems, but they didn't do so two weeks ago at California. "I'm proud of (the teams) to push the limits like that," NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton said. "But they also know they have to finish races. They know better than we do. "We're just the governing body. They're the competitors. They've got a lot on the line. They're the best at pushing it to the limit. They'll adjust accordingly." Goodyear officials didn't express concern for this weekend. "We feel very good about going into this weekend," Goodyear's NASCAR manager Greg Stucker said. "Very similar to Atlanta (last year), they're known quantities. In fact, the harder compound of this tire is the same as we raced in Atlanta last year. "The outboard compound is the same that we raced in both races here at Texas. ... Based on the results we saw yesterday, two Nationwide practices, we feel very good. We have a lot of confidence going into this weekend."

Joey Logano is concerned just based on California and his struggles there, along with the struggles of teammate Brad Keselowski.

"This is the first faster race track we've gone to since then and you're gonna have a concern," Logano said. "It would be kind of dumb if you didn't have a concern coming into this. We'll see how this practice goes here in a few hours and see what it looks like.

"There are different ways we can dial it back, whether it's behind the wheel or in the garage here when we're setting them up."

The California tires were fairly known quantities, too, having been the same as they were in 2013. "If we see there's a problem and it's something that we're doing, whether it's speed or not, you still have to finish the race to be able to win it," Matt Kenseth said. "So you have to be able to adjust to that if there is something you can do to control that. "So it seemed like there was some problems there that maybe could have been avoided." Even if drivers have problems, at least some of the competitors see that as part of racing. "I think you need more tortoise-and-the-hare stories in racing," Busch said. "That is where the excitement is going to come from. "It's not just going to come from everybody being the same speed all the time running around in a train. It's going to come from guys that are faster in different opportunities, different stages of the race, comers and goers."