Goodyear racing engineers used their track expertise to develop ultra-performance Eagle® tires for the 200 + mph Ferrari F-50 and McLaren F1 GT street cars.

The first "tire deal" was cut in 1901 by Goodyear's co-founder and sales manager, Charles Seiberling, when he wrote young Henry Ford regarding Ford's new race car: "I am willing to throw away the profit on this set of tires in order to get you started and give you a chance to test them."

The first notable race tire development was a switch from square-woven fabric to cord fabric when a number of "side flange detachable" tires suffered cord failure in a major race in England in 1902.

Goodyear has won more racing championships than any other tire company in the world.

Some race tires are inflated with air treated by a special dryer to remove excess moisture, which results in better tire pressure control. While Goodyear's "tire busters" fill all tires at the track with air, many teams will deflate their tires and refill them with nitrogen. Pure nitrogen is "dry air" while regular air can have varying levels of moisture. Some teams also believe nitrogen makes for a more consistent product from tire to tire.

Each Goodyear radial race tire built in the Technical Center in Akron, Ohio, is marked with the builder's name and sequence number, allowing for quality control and accountability of all components. Use of bar coding for inventory control and tire tracing in the Winston Cup series began in the 1999 season. In 2001, Goodyear's Akron Technical Center produced more than 150,000 Eagle radial race tires for NASCAR alone.

Almost 85 percent of the many, many hours of testing that goes into a new Goodyear race tire is done on the computers and in the laboratories of the Akron Technical Center. Only 15 percent of the testing is actually done on the track.

Engineers often work a year in advance to come up with tire recommendations for a series. Production schedules are prepared in advance, and Goodyear associates work 24 hours a day producing Eagle racing tires. Yet, there is margin for production flexibility to do quick turn arounds on short lead tire orders.

About 75 percent of race tire development work involves the current season. A portion of development time is focused ahead as Goodyear engineers test new concepts, experimental materials and new technology.

At the top of a run, a Top Fuel driver is subjected to a force equaling 5 Gs. In less than 3 seconds a Top Fuel car will travel 660 feet and reach speeds in excess of 270 mph. The life of a race tire can be as little as 30 seconds on a Top Fuel dragster.

The 2001 season marked the first time that tire spring rate information was included with every NASCAR Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series tire to assist the teams in setting up their cars.

Because NASCAR race tires are smaller and have a narrower tread width, and the cars weigh more than double that of an IRL or Champ car, NASCAR tires require a harder rubber compound than in any other racing series.

The "footprint" of a NASCAR Winston Cup tire, or the amount of rubber that is touching the track surface, is rougly equal to the footprint of a men's size 11, standard width shoe. The "contact patch," or the amount of rubber from all four tires touching the track at any given moment for a Winston Cup car is approximately one square foot.

Dover has traditionally been the toughest track on Goodyear's NASCAR race tires because of the loading, the banking and the track's concrete surface. Talladega also is a challenging track for the engineers because of the high speeds and the banking.

The tubeless inner liner tire is used at all Winston Cup and Busch series races at tracks one mile or more in length. It also is mandatory at Bristol on the right side tire positions.

In an effort to streamline tire production and distribution, Goodyear reduced the number of tire codes used for Winston Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck from 38 in 2000 to about 15 in 2001.

Race tires can use up to 10 types of processing oils that give these tires their grip, longevity, ability to generate and handle heat. Passenger car tires generally rely on half that many oils.