Does each NASCAR series need its own tire manufacturer?

June 1, 2:42 AMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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Does the Truck series need its own tire? Getty Images/Jason Smith

Nobody wants a tire war, tire wars are how drivers get injured as tire companies look to make not the safest tire but the fastest tire. However it seems to be a lot of NASCAR issues could be solved by signing different tire manufacturers for the three national touring division of NASCAR.

Let’s face it the cars in the top three divisions of NASCAR are extremely different now days. Yet Goodyear constantly brings the same tire for all three series. That doesn’t seem to make nay sense. In fact one could argue the failures of Goodyear to provide quality racing tires for each of these different kinds of cars had really hurt the racing in all three series.

Maybe its time for NASCAR to direct Goodyear to develop a decent racing tire exclusive for the Sprint Cup series and its COT cars. Leaving somebody else to develop a tire for the Nationwide series, and a third company to develop a tire for the Truck series.

Let’s remember that Goodyear isn’t exactly a sponsor. They are not like Sunoco who is giving their products to the race team each and every week. Each race team is getting a bill for the tires they use for each race. Since the nationwide and Truck series have limits on tire use per weekend, Goodyear would still be getting the cream of the crop in its support of the Sprint Cup series.

This would leave Hoosier or Firestone to develop tires for the other two national NASCAR divisions and is a move that could ultimately lead to improved racing in all three series.

It’s easy to understand this as a business decision by the folks that run Goodyear. By suing one tire for all three series it limits that amount of R &D work the company must conduct. While that is great for Goodyear it leaves the fans of NASCAR yearning for better racing in all three series.

While the economic crisis of 2009 has given us a few surprise first time winners in all three of these series, having new tire combinations in the lower two series could significantly reshuffle the NASCAR deck. The last time Hoosier was allowed to build Cup series tires Rick Mast won the pole for the first Brickyard 400. Shuffling up the running order of the Nationwide series could help the other teams catch up to the dominant Joe Gibbs cars.

On top of that a different tire for each series automatically gives that series some of its own identity. Furthermore it would remove the biggest advantage double dipping Cup drivers would achieve by running in the Nationwide series. Since the cars are so different there is not much befit from a setup standpoint, but since all three series are running the same tire the cups drivers get a preview of tire wear driving in the Nationwide series races.

Having a totally different tire company make tires for the Nationwide and Truck series would effectively eliminate any advantage cup driver get from driving in these races.