Firestone vs Goodyear: The 20-year Tire War
Two proud organizations ready to make names for themselves. A cutthroat competition with everything on the line. Names that go down in the hall of fame as being responsible for monumental victories. This combative imagery is no doubt familiar for anyone who has followed professional motorsport. Over the past century, rivalries have been the propellant behind many of the world’s greatest races, amplifying tensions and adding stakes to championship bouts that were stressful enough beforehand. However, it may surprise you that on more than one occasion, these conflicts have broken out due to competition between tire companies. That’s right; in order to make their rubber more popular with spectators and make their brand name synonymous with cup wins, tire manufacturers will invest incredible amounts of energy in making their brand the default for a racing organization. There have been “tire wars” in multiple different motor-competition disciplines over the years, but one of the most infamous clashes was the Firestone vs Goodyear battle for tire supremacy in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s.
Brand competition is nothing new in organized sports, but this tire war was particularly cutthroat because one company disrupted the other’s monopoly. Since the foundation of the Indianapolis 500, the race that kicked off large-scale open-wheel car racing in the United States, Firestone was the tire of choice and the winningest tire in the sport’s history. On top of that, when NASCAR became an official racing league in 1948, every team that competed sourced tires exclusively from Firestone. By the early ‘50s, Firestone was a decades-spanning tire dynasty that was a cornerstone of American motorsport; it may not have seemed the best time to enter into competition with such an organization, but that’s exactly what Goodyear decided to do.?
In 1954, Goodyear entered NASCAR, supplying a handful of teams with tires in sponsorship deals. Their arrival was by no means enough to make all of the drivers up and leave Firestone (despite Goodyear being the bigger company in terms of consumer sales), but their dependability was on par with Firestone and a few teams were interested in the potential advantages that a switch-up could provide. Despite their arrival, Firestone remained confident in their ability to remain the industry standard for the rest of the decade, almost able to forget the competitor in the rear-view mirror.?
This lapse in memory would come back to bite Firestone in the early 1960s during a conflict that arose after some interesting business decisions on the company’s part. At that time, the formulation for softer tires with better grip was becoming an open secret in the tire industry. Firestone, who cracked the recipe before any of its competitors, was keen to test their new tires’ track prowess without spilling the secret of their existence to the entire racing world. The supply of this new batch was limited to just the Lotus-Ford team in the 1963 Indy 500, but their astounding lap times and visibly smaller tires–15 inches compared to the normal 18-inch diameter–meant that every other team knew something was different. The Lotus team ended up finishing 2nd overall, but when they deposed A.J. Foyt, another favorite to win, their new tires became a simultaneously coveted and hated resource by all of their competitors. Even Parnelli Jones, the winner of that Indy 500 and a perennial test driver for Firestone during concepting phases, was shocked to see the new rubber in competition. Soon, everybody was clamoring for the tires, but Firestone knew they would be unable to keep up demand with their limited stock and outright denied their existence. This was to be the first nail in the coffin for the tire powerhouse’s dominance.?
A.J. Foyt turned out to be the second nail, or perhaps more accurately, a thorn in Firestone’s side. Spurned by Firestone’s refusal to source him or any other drivers the new 15-inch tires, Foyt called up the Goodyear management team and ordered some new rubber. Foyt wasn’t actually looking for a superior tire here–in fact, the Goodyear tires were still made out of the heavier rubber composite and were significantly worse for IndyCar than the default Firestones–but his move inspired other drivers to do the same. Firestone realized quickly that they were either going to have to supply more drivers with the new tires or lose their customer base entirely. As a result, Foyt and his cohorts were quickly offered the 15-inch tires, and Foyt drove to victory during the 1964 season multiple times–including at the Indy 500–after dropping his Goodyear set. However, he still kept and wore his Goodyear hat he had received from his earlier transaction, demonstrating to Firestone that they were one mistake away from being permanently off of his team.?
That mistake came soon enough when, in 1965, a Firestone blowout during a tire test cost NASCAR driver Billy Wade his life. Goodyear’s reputation wasn’t faring any better during this time, as a similar scenario had resulted in driver Jimmy Pardue’s fatal crash only months prior in late 1964. Both teams were forced to overhaul the safety of the rubber they produced, resulting in the invention of the Inner Liner Safety Spare. This was a failsafe liner built into the tire’s interior that reduced the amount of air lost during a puncture, allowing NASCARs to reach the pit at a decreased risk of a blowout. Even though both companies had scandals resulting in this change, Firestone took the brunt of the blame from the sport’s drivers. Its reputation for unreliable tires and team favoritism had spread too wide for the company to control, and Goodyear took this opportunity to make a name for themselves as racing’s favorite tire.?
Goodyear’s development of their own thinner, slicker tires was a much more public affair, and the company’s larger size compared to Firestone meant that accessibility wasn’t an issue. 1965’s Le Mans overall victory and 1966’s F1 World Championship were both won on Goodyears, immediately adding credibility back to the brand’s name in the aftermath of the blowout scandal. On top of these wins, none other than A.J. Foyt won the 1967 Indy 500 in a set of Goodyears, dealing Firestone a near-lethal blow as an IndyCar supplier. Over the next couple of years, the position of the two tire titans began to flip, with Goodyear becoming the most widely-trusted brand and Firestone becoming a more fringe pick. Then, in 1969, Firestone’s bad reputation took a turn for the worse. That year’s inaugural race, the Talladega 500, had been riddled with tire failures during practice and qualifying, especially from Firestone. When dozens of drivers conducted a walkout over tire safety, led by none other than Richard Petty, Firestone admitted defeat and pulled all of their tires from the race. This left Goodyear with a clear majority in the NASCAR population, and pitifully few drivers returned to Firestone afterwards. Within five years after this race, a combination of this bad press and high manufacturing costs caused Firestone to withdraw from NASCAR entirely. The battle was over. Goodyear, once the underdog, had emerged victorious.?
As entertaining as the story about this tire war may be, it’s important to remember that these industries did much more than compete to be the supplier for racing teams. Every cut corner, rushed product, and thousand-lap stress test that resulted in or made use of a poor-quality tire put the lives of the drivers that used them at risk. The war is less important as an examination of marketing strategies and is far more valuable as a cautionary tale for today’s tire manufacturers; the engineering that goes into their products needs to be conducted as thoroughly and safely as possible, or the men and women of the motorsport world will have their already significant risks significantly increased. Admittedly, tire technology has improved vastly since the war’s conclusion in the late ‘70s and will likely only get better as time goes on. But it only takes one slip up, lapse in judgement, or prideful under-the-table move to cause an accident, a walk-out, or a war.
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