"I thought it was good," Stewart said after Friday's rain-shortened practice.
It was the first positive remark Stewart has had about tires since his blistering rant against Goodyear following Sunday's race in Atlanta. The two-time series champion hasn't softened his stance, continuing to rail against the tire choice every day since his second-place finish.
But he's happy with the tire compound at Bristol, where he had no issues navigating the 0.533-mile bullring.
"Anytime that you can take your car and go from the top to the bottom of the track and back, you obviously have the grip you need to go where you want to go," he said. "Having that flexibility is what we're all looking for."
That Stewart had something kind to say about the company he assailed surprised Goodyear officials, who would have liked to have heard it directly from the driver.
"It would have been nice if he could have come over here and told us that," said Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales.
Tensions were still high Friday between Stewart and Goodyear, but the driver eventually met with Goodyear general manager Stu Grant for an amicable discussion.
"It was a good meeting, but at the end of the day, it's up to Goodyear to make it right," Stewart said. "If having this meeting helps to make things better down the road, then this meeting was a success."
Grant was also pleased with the meeting.
"It was constructive. It was extremely worthwhile to sit down and have a discussion with him," Grant said. "Tony was able to express his concerns and I listened to his concerns. I was able to explain our process, and we both talked about how moving forward, we can improve the process of developing tires."
The flap started when Stewart - like many drivers in Sunday's race - was unhappy that the hard compound Goodyear selected for Atlanta lacked the grip needed to race around the abrasive surface.
But that shouldn't be an issue at Bristol, where the concrete surface is more forgiving and the speeds are much slower than most of the tracks NASCAR races on. And with 30-degree banking, the lateral loads that Goodyear has apparently struggled with this season are not as severe.
Stucker is hopeful a successful race Sunday can give Goodyear a respite from the scrutiny it has been under all week.
"We like it when nobody talks about tires at all," he said. "Typically, if tires aren't an issue, nobody mentions it. And when somebody does have an issue and brings it up, it becomes a big story."
And it still was a story in Bristol, where even though drivers are comfortable with the current tire, they still want Goodyear to take a hard look at the problems that plagued Atlanta.
"It wasn't Goodyear's finest outing. There's no question," Jeff Burton said.
But drivers stopped short of calling for competition for Goodyear, which as the exclusive tire provider in NASCAR, can't be challenged by another company during the life of its contract that runs through 2012.
