While Goodyear rubber can be traced all the way back to 1901 when it was put on Henry Ford’s car, that was only the beginning of many years of fighting for the right to be in the sport of racing. By 1919 Goodyear had tires on every winning car in every major race, including the Indy 500. Well then, I guess they’ve just been a shoe in for years and year’s right? Nah…
As if they were just out to prove they could do it, they achieved their goals of dominating the racing venue and promptly pulled out of any active racing by 1922. Weird huh? I thought so too.
But by 1954, Goodyear was at Darlington, testing tires they had designed for police cars, figuring I suppose that of the tires they currently had, those would be a pretty tough tire, so they gave it a good test on the track. In 1957, they approached Lee Petty to do some testing for them down in West Palm Beach, FL. And so they were slowly coming back…
In 1959, they were back on the track at Darlington, only this time in a race against Firestone, and the winner won on Goodyear’s…imagine that.
For those of you that are anti-Goodyear, blame it on A.J. Foyt…well, not really, but in 1963, he persuaded Goodyear to authorize a development program for the Indianapolis 500 -- after a 44-year absence. And as a result, from 1972 on, every NASCAR champion of the premier Sprint Cup Series has been on Goodyear tires. For the next 24 years, every winner of the Indy 500 was on Goodyear tires. Quite a record I must say.
In 1974, Firestone withdrew from all forms of racing, but barely four years later, the tire wars started between Goodyear and Michelin in Formula 1. In 1989,Hoosier, a Lakeville, Ind., racing tire company, began competing with Goodyear in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series, now known of course as the Nationwide Series.
While we hear of no other tires when our fellows roll out on the track, it doesn’t mean they haven’t fought to prove they deserve to be there. Of all the companies that have been involved in NASCAR, Goodyear has been the one to prove over and over that their tires are the best ones for what our fellows use them for.
Of course the question still floats around about why our fellows get out there and their tires blow out. We want to know how these tires have been perfected after years and years of racing and yet they still get out there and pop a gut in the middle of a very touchy turn.
Well, it’s pretty complicated…tires are tested on green tracks, not in the midst of a heated race, or in the midst of 43 drivers. They’re tested in 90 degree weather and then the race is run on a 60 degree damp, cloud covered day. There are so very many variables. And if you listen close, the driver and the teams usually have the reason for tire issues figured out before they even get back to the garage. But most of us don’t listen that close…fussing’s more fun I suppose.
At any rate, Goodyear has proved that they have the tire that will win races…what more can you ask of a hunk of rubber…except maybe a good burnout and the wind to be blowing right so you get a face full of that great racing smell. Heck, I personally couldn’t care a whole lot less about the tires, that’s somebody else’s worry. I’ll just stand back and admire them, smell them, watch them smoke, and on occasion shake my head as they blow up prematurely. Yeah, sometimes those tires throw our boys into the wall pretty darn hard, but have you got a better plan? Would you rather take a risk on tires that haven’t been tried and tested year after year in our series? Getting fine tuned after every test, measured and retested, measured again and finally given the real test at the actual race…it’s not just a hop skip and jump from the factory to the wheel.
It’s a hard call, sometimes it looks like Goodyear has the monopoly on racing, but on the other hand, it seems like they might have earned it.
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