Behind closed doors at Goodyear

The Cup series heads to Indy this weekend and with it are memories of last year's event, which was plauged by tire problems. NASCAR had to call several cautions as tires wore and blew at an alarming rate. Many drivers were critical of the situation and it could still have a lingering affect this year with questions about attendance even with Goodyear saying this year's tire will be fine.

I visited the Goodyear facility in Akron, Ohio, today for a story you'll see later this week about Goodyear's work in the last year to fix the problems from the 2008 Brickyard race.

While on the trip, I also got a tour of the multi-building facility, including how tires are made. The NASCAR racing tires are made at the Akron facility. There was a batch of Bristol tires being made for next month's race while I was there.

While, in essecence, there is an assembly line, it's not like what you might imagine seeing in Detroit at a auto manufacturer. The tire is built among three floors, working its way down a brick building that's more than 80 years old. The compound is made in another building and brought over to be constructed where it is pulled, stretched, heated, cooled, cut and wrapped in pieces. While machines do a good bit of the work, there's still a human element to it.

One of the more fascinating aspects of seeing the process of how a racing tire is made is the checks done to the tire before it leaves the plant. There's a visual inspection by a worker, then the tire is X-rayed and then it's put into a machine that is akin to an MRI machine where it can take an even closer look at the tire. Pass all three and the tire is loaded on to a truck to be sent to the Goodyear warehouse just north of Charlotte (for the NASCAR teams).

Another interesting aspect was what Goodyear does afterward. I saw a test on a tire that was made for the Coca-Cola 600 in May go through what they call an audit. It's a machine that moves the tire like it's on a particular track. When the tire goes through the corners (and pressures build), the tire flattens signifcanlty on the bottom (or at least more than I expected). You can also see the sidewall almost like inhale and exhale slighly as the tire goes through the corner -- showing what the tire goes through when its on the track. And Goodyear even had a strobe light -- hey they're hip -- and although the wheel is going up to 175 mph on the machine, the strobe light captures the tire and makes it look as if the tire isn't rotating so employees can better inspect it visually as the tire is being tested.

Tony Stewart, who has been vocal about Goodyear's tires in the past, took a similar trip through the plant earlier this year. This is what he told me about his experience: "A lot of times you don't realize what all goes into what they do and then when you go up there and get a chance to see it, it gives you a better understanding and a better picture or fuller picture of what goes into making a tire. I felt like that was a good, positive trip for us.''

Also, to give you a little background on some of the work Goodyear did in preparing for this year's Brickyard 400, consider that just over 14,000 miles were run among seven tire tests Goodyear had at Indy with 29 different drivers since September.

Here's a list of the test sessions and who drove in those sessions:

Sept. 22-23, 2008

    Kyle Petty

Oct. 6-7

    Martin Truex Jr., Mark Martin, Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth, Reed Sorenson, Chad McCumbee, Scott Speed, Joey Logano, Jamie McMurray, Clint Bowyer, David Gilliland, Daivd Reutimann, Brad Keselowski

Oct. 13

      AJ Allmendinger

April 20-22

      Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Reed Sorenson, Brian Vickers

April 29

      Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne, Brian Vickers

June 1-2

     Tony Stewart, Juan Pablo Montoya, Bill Elliott, Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle, David Stremme, Jeff Burton, Patrick Carpentier

June 15-16

     Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, Bobby Labonte, Brian Vickers, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, David Reutimann, Reed Sorenson, Kasey Kahne, Robby Gordon.

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