On Monday, Goodyear was peddling a feel-good story: "Goodyear tops Fortune magazine's most-admired list."

But 24 hours earlier, NASCAR driver Tony Stewart was peddling his own story.

Allen Sullivan/AJC (ENLARGE)

Goodyear mechanics balance wheels at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga. on Thursday, March 6, 2008. This weekend will include NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series races.

Rusty Jarrett/Special (ENLARGE)

Tony Stewart

"Goodyear can't build a tire worth a crap," said the mouthy fireplug of a man known for saying exactly what's going on inside his racing helmet. A frustrated Stewart was speaking after a race Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway about newly designed tires that forced drivers to drive like grandmas.

But he was just getting started.

"I'm going home and taking everything that has Goodyears off and put Firestones on and feel a lot safer," Stewart said in another interview.

"It's a shame these teams that work so hard are being dictated by a company incapable of building tires fit for a street car."

Georgia State University marketing professor Ken Bernhardt chuckled after watching a tape of Stewart's comments circulating on the Internet on YouTube.com and other media outlets.

"Oh boy," he said. "I don't know what Goodyear pays. But the worst nightmare a sponsor has is to have an opinion leader in the sport criticize your product like Tony Stewart did. The buzz is out there."

Loyal fans

That's not quite the buzz Goodyear was seeking when it paid millions to be the exclusive tire provider for NASCAR.

William Pate, president of marketing at Career Sports & Entertainment in Atlanta, said NASCAR fans are a loyal lot. He said studies show 70 percent buy products associated with the sport and there's "a huge gap between second place."

Pate used to run marketing at BellSouth, which sponsored a NASCAR team. "When you do a sponsorship, you're looking for brand enhancement and aspirational: If the NASCAR guys are using the Goodyear line, maybe I should use it."

And the reverse can be true. Jeff Hampton of Alpha Tire & Auto in McDonough said "word-of-mouth hurts. Anytime you talk bad, that hurts. It's more perception than reality."

Race cars recently have been redesigned for safety, and a new tire was created specifically for Sunday's race. The tires were made with a harder material so they would not wear down, but that made handling difficult, said Ed Clark, president of Atlanta Motor Speedway. Issues with the handling made drivers more cautious and the race less exciting, he said, and that disappointed fans.

Goodyear is standing by its tires. Ed Markey, Goodyear's VP of communication, said Tuesday, "First and foremost, keep in mind that the tires in Atlanta performed as intended. There were no tire failures, no heat issues and no wear issues.

"We have 100-plus years of brand equity built up. ... We feel good about

our brand, our momentum and our credibility as a company.

"The benefits we derive from our 54-year association with NASCAR are certainly brand awareness, but also product development," he continued. "Many of the innovations that are developed for our racing tires are subsequently applied to passenger tires. We also believe that our long relationship with NASCAR and several generations of drivers will not be impacted in the minds of consumers simply because of the comments of one driver."

Jo Ann Hlavac, a hard-core NASCAR fan from South Carolina who runs the Web site laidbackracing.com and who traveled to Sunday's race, said fans were — and are — furious.

"I've been to Atlanta a lot of times and have never seen a bad race — until Sunday," she said. "I think it hurts Goodyear tremendously. People are saying, 'I spent a lot of money to go to Atlanta with 13 of my friends and they ruined the race. Why should I go out there and buy Goodyear?' Longtime fans are smart."

After the firestorm

Will the bad buzz hurt Goodyear? And how should they counter it?

Pate thinks the bad word of mouth is "episodic" and will die down unless Goodyear tires keep having bad Sundays.

Veteran Atlanta PR man Bob Hope said the comments are a "marketing nightmare" but said it's nothing like what Firestone encountered in 2000, when its tires were cited in SUV rollovers.

Firestone weathered that storm and has regained credibility.

He said Goodyear must isolate the comments to Stewart, which the company is already trying to do. Other drivers complained, but not as vociferously, or colorfully, as Stewart.

"It's mostly an ability to calm the storm," Hope said. "You don't want to sound defensive. Be matter-of-fact, comfortable and quick."

Chris Smith, who works at Strictly Tires in Stockbridge, said NASCAR fans are smart enough to know the difference between tires specifically built for a road race in Atlanta and those to keep the family minivan rolling.

"You've got to realize we're not taking turns at 180 miles an hour," he said.