Anyone who knows even a little about NASCAR knows that the driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota, Tony Stewart, has no problem speaking his mind. That’s one of the reasons he’s my favorite driver. He tells it like it is, even when it’s not pretty.

He recently spoke out against Goodyear, who for more than 50 years, has been providing tires to NASCAR. Here is Tony’s statement directly from nascar.com:

“We’ve got such a bad right-side tire, compared to what we tested here [in October],” Stewart said. “There isn’t anybody, I don’t think, who is happy with the tires we’ve got. After 10 years in the Cup Series, you learn to be highly disappointed with everything that Goodyear does ...

“I hate to say it, but the best thing that Goodyear does is to make that gold trophy at the end of the year (a special award for the Cup champion, which Stewart received in 2002 and 2005). That is the one thing that they always do right. Everything from that moment on until the end of the year – it’s a crapshoot.”

I just got through discussing this same issue with a co-worker Friday. I asked him if he noticed the same thing I did – as the 2008 season gets underway, its seems an usually high number of right side tires were blowing out, sending drivers into the wall. He agreed it did seem to be happening more than what’s considered normal.

Tony’s been called a sore loser, a cry baby and more, but hey, if you’re winning race and right side tire failure takes you out and appears to be an ongoing problem, then yeah, something isn’t right.

There’s been three races so far this season and right side tire failure keeps coming up. NASCAR golden boy Dale Earnhardt Jr. had this to say on Goodyear’s tires: “It’s just that they slide so much I don’t think you'll wear them out, they’re so dang hard.”

A spokesman for Goodyear said the company was completely satisfied with the tire and the process they use.

If that’s the case, why did right front tire failure take out Stewart, Robby Gordon and Kurt Busch last week’s during the cup race in Vegas. And others in the previous two races?

For today’s race in Atlanta, it’s much colder than normal which is good for engines, but not so good for tire grip. It will be interesting to see how the tires hold up and how many right side tires blow, but more importantly, who finishes the race, who doesn’t and what Stewart has to say when it’s over.