NASCAR Racing: Indianapolis Tire Debacle, brickyard 400, worn tires

Question
On a whim this Saturday I bought tickets to today's Brickyard 400.  I have been a big racing fan my whole life and like to think i know a bit about the sport.  However, I am struggling to understand all that took place during today's race.  Indianapolis and Pocono are very similar racetrack both in their layout and the setup the drivers use.  However we didn't have any issues with tires in the first race there this season.  Today, tires were running bald after 6 and 7 laps.  My questions is what happened to the tires?  Are they not designed to take the weight of the COT at the speeds hit entering turn 1?  Was their a fault in the quality of the rubber brought to the track?  Can you please explain what exactly happened to cause such a caution filled event?

Answer
I'll try to explain as briefly as possible. Indy is an old track with a VERY rough surface. The abrasive surface wears away the rubberrom the tires. Goodyear thought they had a tire that would stand up to the wear as in the past after a 100 or 2 miles rubber from the worn tires would build up in the racing groove and decrease the wear factor, therefore preserving the tires longer. This year they are using the COT (Car Of Tomorrow/Today) car. This car has less downforce then previous years. Instead of pushing down hard enough to leave rubber in the rough surface and making it less rough, there was only enough downforce to wear off the rubber without melting it into the track.
Unfortunately, this all added up to a rather poor race and egg on the face of Goodyear and NASCAR. As for Pocono....a less abrasive surface. Trust me, Goodyear and NASCAR won't let this happen again. Expect extensive testing before the next race at Indy.