Why is Goodyear the only tire manufacturer in NASCAR?
When NASCAR is born in 1947, the race tire market was solely dominated by the Firestone Tire Company. NASCAR’s emerging popularity in 1954 gets noticed by Goodyear and they re-enter the competition by using police car tires at the now 4-year old Darlington speedway, and finally defeats Firestone five years later establishing a new speed record with Jim Reed at this same track. 1966 is a milestone year for the racing tire industry when Firestone and Goodyear started manufacturing the “Inner Liner Safety Spare”, called Lifeguard for NASCAR racing. The two tire giants will alternate victories and speed records when Firestone stops producing racing tires in 1974. Goodyear remains the sole supplier until 1987, when a company from Indiana, Hoosier, starts supplying racing tires, first in the NASCAR Busch Grand National series, then in Winston Cup racing, where Hoosier wins several races. It is interesting to notice that all tires manufactured so far are bias-ply type, when in Europe Michelin
