Goodyear, NASCAR tires evolve with technology, R&D mindsets

AKRON—Sundays aren't all that quiet for Greg Stucker. Haven't been for about 45 years.

Because Sundays are race days. And as Goodyear's director of racing tires, sales and marketing, Sunday shifts are just part of the deal.

The heart-pounding, engine-roaring deal.

And really, there's little he would trade that for. Because there is a great amount of pride that comes with engineering, manufacturing and testing some of the company's biggest innovations against some of the auto industry's harshest demands.

Pride, yes, and responsibility, too. Because those Goodyear Eagles fitted to NASCAR race cars are, in a lot of ways, the face of the company.

"When you mention Goodyear to people, they think of a couple things: They think about racing and they think about our airships," Stucker said. " … I think we have done a pretty good job over the years of making sure that we are putting the right product on the racetrack at the right time."

Time has changed those tires—the look, performance and feel. And the tires carrying cars through NASCAR's 75th season are the most advanced the sport has ever seen.

There's a number of reasons for that—advances in materials, technology and manufacturing. But a lot of that also has to do with just how much Goodyear's changed, too. It's grown, advanced and engineered its way forward over 125 years.

What hasn't changed, though, is the company's commitment to the sport and dedication to overall performance of its tires—racing tires and beyond.

"To a degree, the principles of the relationship (with NASCAR) really haven't changed," Stucker told Rubber News. "… The goal is to demonstrate, through our expertise and our technology, that we make some of the best race tires in the world and we put some of the best race tires on the racetrack. Tires designed and manufactured right here in Akron."

When Goodyear first took its expertise to NASCAR, it did so with street smarts.

Because those first few years—starting with the 1954 season—were all about learning.

So the Akron-based tire maker took all of its know-how for designing road-ready, high-performance tires and, essentially, tested its mettle in some of the harshest conditions racing had to offer.

"The first tires for NASCAR were really modified versions of our Blue Streak consumer tires at the time, probably what you would consider more of a high-performance tire, but it was really a road car tire," Stucker said. "So we started with that and then quickly started to highly modify it, and it became purpose-built for racing. Obviously racing, along with the speed of the cars, had different requirements."

Ultimately, it was those requirements that pushed Goodyear to adapt.

And adapt it has.

Today's tires, Stucker said, look and perform nothing at all like the first tires that hit the NASCAR circuit nearly 70 years ago. Because just as the sport has evolved, so too has its tire maker, its tires and the technology behind them.

It started with a transition away from tire treads in the 1960s, perfecting slicks for the racetracks—technology, of course, that would come to dominate elite forms of motorsports globally.

"Then we evolved from bias tires to radial tires," Stucker added. "That started in the late '80s for NASCAR and into the early '90s. We have been on radial tires ever since."

Yes, Goodyear racing tires have evolved at the speed of innovation. It's an evolution that continues to showcase the depth of Goodyear's engineering, science and design.

And, it turns out, Goodyear's innovation hasn't slowed, even after it earned exclusive rights as NASCAR's sole supplier in 1997. In fact, the tire maker has no plans to slow down, Stucker said.

Because, honestly, the race cars Goodyear serves haven't slowed either.

In 2022, NASCAR introduced Next Gen, a car that would continue to push the sport further with its symmetrical aerodynamic design and composite body that would be able to withstand a certain degree of contact with walls and other vehicles.

Next Gen cars also were designed with an independent rear suspension, rack and pinion steering, larger brakes and, of course, larger tires.

Namely, 18-inch-rim-diameter tires fitted to aluminum wheels featuring a single lug nut. The result was lighter-weight tire/wheel combinations (about 18 pounds, give or take) with bigger, wider tires—about two-inches wider.

For Goodyear—and NASCAR—those tires were game-changers.

"We went from a 15-inch tire to an 18-inch wheel, and that is the first time that anyone has run an 18-inch wheel diameter in this kind of environment," Stucker said.

And for that shift, Goodyear was ready. It rolled out a larger-sized Eagle that could handle NASCAR's greatest demands.

"NASCAR is a very heavy car, so it has a very high load. Oval tracks tend to be banked, so a lot of (unequal load) and sustained speeds. It's not like a road course where you slowdown, turn left, accelerate, slow down and turn right," Stucker said. "It is a very steady high-load, high-speed environment, and we were the first to develop an 18-inch tire to handle those kind of conditions."

Moreover, those tires truly demonstrate the best of what Goodyear has to offer. Because they have the full of weight of Goodyear's engineering, material science and R&D resources behind them.

"We race to demonstrate Goodyear's tire technology and that could be technology that was developed in racing, it could be developed in consumer tires or aircraft or whatever," Stucker said. "It is definitely a demonstration of companywide technology."

And as with any great OE fitment, the development of those tires were not solely the result of Goodyear innovation.

Pushing the envelope and pulling peak performance from its racing tires required industrywide collaboration, Stucker said. It took input and perspectives from NASCAR, wheel manufacturers and auto makers.

Input, yes. And the latest industry technology, too.

"We are always developing new materials, new manufacturing processes, different ways to design the tire structure," Stucker said. "Even as sole suppliers, we don't sit back and let things continue to move.

"The car evolves because the teams are always trying to move the needle in regards to car performance, so we are always making sure that we are staying one step ahead of them with regard to tire development."

The advantage of supplying race tires was always summed up with that age-old adage: Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.

Today, though, it's also a little bit about selling on Monday and then winning on Sunday.

In recent years, Stucker said, the mentality around designing and developing racing tires has changed a bit. And that's not to downplay the value of marketing when it comes to the NASCAR collaboration—or any racing affiliation for that matter. Those are valuable partnerships.

But the mentality around race tire development and design has shifted just a bit, with consumer tire R&D really influencing racing in ways it hadn't for decades.

"The way we design tires and the way the development process that takes place, that has evolved tremendously over the years," Stucker said.

For race tire development, the Goodyear team is leaning a whole lot more into simulation and modeling, practices that dominate consumer tire engineering and R&D. Simulation was just emerging in race tire development around 15 years ago, Stucker said.

Now it's the expectation. And that is expertise that consumer tire R&D has.

So it makes sense, Stucker said, that the race tire team would collaborate with other design teams across Goodyear. Because simulation technology is evolving at a rapid pace and is shaping how the Akron-based tire maker—and the industry overall—is designing all of its tires, especially OE fitments.

And those Eagles running over racetracks every Sunday, they are just among the highest profile OEs that Goodyear has to offer.

"You are developing a tire to be part of the vehicle system and the Next Gen tires (developed) very much that way," Stucker said. "All of the tools that we have at our disposal—the tools that NASCAR has and that all the other suppliers and OEMs have with all of their car simulation and modeling tools—it allowed that to happen in a very effective way."

And that across-the-company collaboration, Stucker said, makes race tire development more of two-way street.

"I won't say we race solely for the technology to transfer to street," Stucker said, noting that racing is about showcasing the best of Goodyear technology.

So it's not just about adapting and testing new technology on the racetrack in and effort to transfer it to consumer tires. Sometimes, you're adapting technology intended for the the street and bringing it to the track.

"We can put things on the racetrack and evaluate them, whether it is material, a manufacturing concept, a construction, a different mold shape—whatever. We can do that pretty quickly in a very harsh environment and really push things to the edge," Stucker said. " … All of those tools I talk about, a lot of those tools were developed in the broad market, in the consumer end. So, we have brought them into our fold and we have learned from them on how to model tires and how to do simulation work. It is very much a two-way street now."

A two-way street that, in small ways, is reminiscent of those early racing days in the 1950s when Goodyear took its best road car tires to the NASCAR tracks.