Associated Press

Many of the right-rear tires used in Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard had excessive and unusual tire wear after just a handful of laps, which neither NASCAR or tire maker Goodyear had expected.

INDIANAPOLIS -- It could take some time before a solution to the tire problems at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is found.

Right now, too many people are playing the blame game.

Officials from NASCAR, Goodyear and Indianapolis Motor Speedway will need to work together or those patches of empty seats during Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard will grow next year.

NASCAR and Goodyear also must understand how to prevent similar tire problems, because they could be looking at issues with at least three tracks in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Problems in those races could taint the title race.

First, everyone must play nice.

Monday, Indianapolis Motor Speedway CEO Tony George fired a salvo at NASCAR and Goodyear.

"The problem is solely theirs, and by that I mean it's theirs to figure out," he told The Indianapolis Star.

"[A solution] is not going to come with anything we do to the track. Figuring it out will only come with getting the car and tire combination right, and that requires actually spending the time and effort to do something about it."

Such comments can be divisive. The three groups must work together to solve the problem. NASCAR and Goodyear need the track's help in securing dates for additional testing -- some as early as this season.

Goodyear did a tire test in April at Indy with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch and Brian Vickers. Earnhardt said he saw the excessive tire wear similar to what happened Sunday during that test. Goodyear, though, did not do any more on-track testing.

Goodyear and NASCAR officials assumed tire wear would improve as the weekend and the race progressed. Problem is, their logic worked with the former car and not the new car, which puts greater stress on the right-side tires, and that's what caused Sunday's problem.

"When they do a tire test they've got to actually learn something from it instead of bringing us back on something that you can't race on," Kasey Kahne said.

Winning car owner Rick Hendrick favors an open test session even though it will cost him more money.

"We may have to test at the tracks with all the cars to find out what we really need, because you can't come and just do it with two or three cars and a tire test," Hendrick said. "A race this big, we should have everybody here and test, I think especially with this car because it is a different animal."

Robin Pemberton, NASCAR's vice president of competition, questioned the value of an open test.

"I don't think an open test here would have done enough for what we all as competitors would want to have achieved," he said.

Almost immediately, Pemberton seemed to contradict himself.

"You may have had enough issues that you may have gone back and redesigned the tire," he said. "I don't know if we could have done that in time. I think we'll just learn from this experience here this weekend and try to do a little better job next year."

And learn quickly.

The car also has not run at Kansas and Homestead, both races in the Chase. NASCAR can't afford any problems at Homestead where the season ends and the championship is determined.

Another question mark is Atlanta. Drivers complained about the tires after the spring race.

Goodyear tested there last week with Kyle Busch, Scott Riggs and Travis Kvapil. Busch said the tire he tested made it more comfortable to drive.

Now, Goodyear and NASCAR must find something like that for Indianapolis.