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Firestone and NASCAR?
Written by: Robin Miller

Scott Pruett was testing one of Chip Ganassi’s stock cars this week on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway and that’s not really newsworthy.

But the fact he was on Firestone tires makes it very interesting.

SPEEDtv.com has confirmed that Pruett ran Ganassi’s ARCA car on Wednesday and Thursday 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,” said Al Speyer, executive director of Firestone/Bridgestone motorsports.

“It was a brandless program. There was no name on the tires or the uniforms or even the tire machines. And the car was painted gray. We were just trying to be as low key as possible.”

Of course the natural assumption is that Firestone/Bridgestone will be interested in bringing its product to NASCAR’s Sprint Cup—the most popular series in North America.

Goodyear has been the exclusive supplier for NASCAR since 2000 and has a contract through 2011.

“NASCAR did not come to us and ask us to test,” said Speyer, whose company got out of stock car racing in 1974. “But 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.”

Since it returned to Indy-car racing in 1995, Firestone has dominated and Goodyear finally got out of open wheel following 1999.

“We’re very pleased with our open wheel program but we’ve been out of stock cars since 1974 and stock car application is totally different,” continued Speyer. “If we don’t start some fundamental work, we couldn’t be prepared if a sanctioning body decides to make a change.

“We’ve been working for a long time indoors in a laboratory but we couldn’t learn anymore so it was time to go out to a track.”

Pruett was Firestone’s test driver back in 1994 for its re-entry into Championship Auto Racing Teams and the Indianapolis 500 and Speyer was pleased with the veteran’s feedback.

“We were quite encouraged,” he said. “We ran a lot of different constructions and compounds and we learned a ton. Like I said, this environment is so much different than Indy cars.

“We used the road course because the natural progression is to start out with an easier application and work our way up to a superspeedway. We’ve got things started, we’ll gather our results and we’ll continue testing in 2009.”

Goodyear has been under verbal attack the past couple years because of its rash of blown tires. Two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have been outspoken about the unreliability of the tires from race-to-race.

This past Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis was Goodyear’s darkest day as tires only lasted 10-12 laps and the race was a fiasco of mandatory yellows and pit stops to try and avoid accidents.

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Read closely.....

NASCAR didn't ask them to test, but Brian France did, PERSONALLY. The Car of Tomorrow is a P.O.S. that keeps exploding tires.

So, now they've got a car that's 'so safe' they need a bulletproof tire.

If they start another tire war, what's going to happen, DMAC?