Sometimes lost in the cacophony of roaring stock car engines and the loud frenzy of pit stops is the fact that most motorsports success can be found, quite literally, where the rubber meets the road. Tires aren't the most exotic, technically exciting or attractive pieces of race cars, but how they perform under difficult conditions and how teams adjust to their sometimes aggravating whims often make the difference between first place and every other place. Crew chiefs spend much of their race preparation trying to determine how tire performance and tire wear will impact their cars' attitudes during a long afternoon of asphalt-pounding competition.
Teams tinker with tires, changing air pressures and camber angles to boost performance.
It's a game that will move in new directions this season. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., the only tire supplier in the Winston Cup series, announced late last year that its tire construction procedures for 2001 will change significantly. Instead of trying to build tires to match the intricacies of virtually every track on the circuit, Goodyear's engineers will use fewer compounds, picking one tire construction to place at similar tracks. For example, a single tire compound might be used at Darlington, Bristol, Rockingham and Las Vegas. The down side for teams is that many of the chassis setups they have used at tracks for years probably will have to be adjusted.