December 22, 2008
By Matthew Pizzolato
Matthew Pizzolato
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After the fiasco that was Indianapolis this season, where racing had to be stopped every ten to twelve laps for new tires, many drivers and fans alike were very critical of Goodyear, NASCAR’s current tire supplier.
Tony Stewart has been critical of Goodyear for a long time, particularly after the Atlanta spring race this past season and is not afraid to voice his opinion when he said in a Jim Pedley article for the Kansas City Star, that “Goodyear should be embarrassed and that Firestone and Hoosier could do a better job.”
The last time that a tire war occurred in NASCAR was the 1994 season when Hoosier entered the sport. Hoosier won three races with Geoff Bodine and 12 pole positions with other drivers. Officially, financial considerations led the company to withdraw from the series the next season, but there were concerns about the stability of the tire when Neil Bonnet died during a practice crash at Daytona.
It is unlikely that Hoosier would return to NASCAR but there are other major tire companies that are capable of supplying the sport. Firestone/Bridgestone has long been a supplier of tires in open wheel racing, currently occupied with the Indy Racing Series as well as Formula One.
In March of this year in the Jim Pedley article for the Kansas City Star, Al Speyer, the motor-sports executive director for Firestone seemed not to be interested in a potential deal with NASCAR.
“NASCAR is a very successful form of motor racing. But, we are really, really busy with open-wheel racing,” Speyer said.
However, in a recent article on SpeedTv.com, Robin Miller reports that Scott Pruett tested one of Chip Ganassi’s ARCA cars at Homestead-Miami Speedway with a tire supplied with Firestone rubber.
"It was not a Firestone test and it was not a NASCAR test, it was a technical exercise to try and develop current stock car technology," Al Speyer was quoted as saying in the Miller article.
Firestone has not been involved with stock car racing since 1974. Given the fact that Goodyear’s current contract with NASCAR doesn’t expire after the 2011 season, could Firestone be preparing itself to make a run at America’s most popular form of racing?
"We're currently talking to a lot of sanctioning bodies, ARCA, USAR and NASCAR and, yes, we're interested in developing a stock car tire. But we don't have a specific timetable or contract with anybody,” Speyer said.
When Firestone re-entered Indycar racing in 1995, the company became so dominant that Goodyear left open wheel racing all together after the 1999 season. Could the same scenario be on the horizon for NASCAR?
There are pros and cons to having a tire war in NASCAR. Competition is not necessarily a bad thing but concerns arise that tires would be made that would emphasize performance over safety.
However, as long as safety was not sacrificed, a little competition would be good because it would force Goodyear to build better tires in order to compete. Not having any competition at all leads to complacency, the results of which were evident in several races this past season.
Given Firestone’s history and the success of their racing tire, after most recently driving Michelin out of Formula 1, Goodyear’s days as the supplier of tires for NASCAR could be numbered.
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