INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indianapolis 500 is called "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."

Sunday's 15th running of the Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will forever be known as "The Greatest Tire Test in Racing."

The fellows at Goodyear might have some explaining to do after this one. (AP)

Inexplicably, Goodyear and NASCAR were both taken by surprise by the excessive tire wear teams encountered this weekend at Indianapolis, a track that has always presented challenges for the tire manufacturer.

"It's one of the more abrasive surfaces we run on," said Greg Stucker, Goodyear tire director of race sales. "There is no question about that. The nature of the surface is very heavy on wear early on. Then when it does take rubber, it takes a lot of rubber."

The combination of the track's surface and the new Sprint Cup car, which made its debut at Indy this year, added up to a potentially dangerous situation, with tires wearing to their core after a mere handful of laps.

NASCAR's only option was to monitor the tires throughout the race and bring the field in periodically to check the wear.

Although that was a good response in the name of safety, it turned what is considered the second most prestigious event of the season behind the Daytona 500 into basically a tire test instead of an actual race.

"We have been through this before, but one of the things that has changed is we've got a new car," said Robin Pemberton, NASCAR vice president of competition. "And as everybody understands, the car loads right-side tires different than what we've run over the last 15 or 20 years. We had a chance to tire test here. And when you come to a tire test and you only have two or three or four cars, it's difficult to rubber in the racetrack."

The fiasco begs the question of why didn't NASCAR and Goodyear schedule a more comprehensive test at Indianapolis rather than the regular session held earlier in the year?

"This is a game of inches, but Goodyear didn't give us a chance to test here," said car owner Jack Roush. "They brought other manufacturers here and didn't give us a chance to test. We didn't know what to expect from the track, so we were one change behind all the time during practice."

"A race this big, everyone should be here to test," said winning team owner Rick Hendrick.

Despite the steps to scrutinize the rubber with the multiple caution-flag checks, several drivers were victims of blown tires, trips into the wall and severely damaged cars.

"It's a really, really, really disappointing situation," said Matt Kenseth, who was an early victim of a blowout. "This is one of the two biggest races of the year and to never have this tire here before and not come and do an open test and to work on these things and work on the tires, it's pretty darn disappointing."

Even drivers who didn't experience tire issues realized the gravity of the situation and the black eye NASCAR suffered Sunday.

"I've got to stop and apologize to the fans," said Brian Vickers, who was sidelined by an engine failure. "We got some awesome, awesome fans that come out here and watch these races. I don't want to point the finger at anybody; it's a culmination of a lot of things that took place today that caused the problem we're seeing with the tires. We as a sport should have done better. I'm embarrassed; I'm sure a lot of people are."

But some felt Sunday's problems were bigger than a simple case of tires.

"It's not the tire," said race winner Jimmie Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus. "It's the same tire we used last year. The problem is the lack of down force on this car. If the car had more down force, we wouldn't be sliding all over the track. So it's not solely Goodyear's fault."

Knaus' comments were a veiled shot at NASCAR's insistence not to make any changes to the new Sprint Cup car, which has been under fire by the majority of drivers and teams most of the season after it was rolled out to the entire schedule.

Unfortunately the car, the tire and the track surface all came together in a perfect storm of trouble Sunday on one of the sport's biggest stages.

Given what was thrown their way, NASCAR did an admirable job managing the situation and putting safety at the forefront.

But rather than look back and use hindsight to view the circumstances as a learning point to "do better next time" as Pemberton put it, rather NASCAR owes it to its fans to have foresight in order to avoid situations like Sunday's.

On the day of the Brickyard 400, NASCAR laid a giant brick.