There have been many controversies, episodes and unforeseen events that have been part of NASCAR lore over the past 75 years, but perhaps none has delivered more of an impact than the Tire Wars of 1988.
The fight for NASCAR Cup Series supremacy between the established Goodyear and the much smaller but determined Hoosier (with occasional forays by McCreary), often led to higher costs for teams and potentially dangerous competition.
It all began at the 1988 Daytona 500. Hoosier Tire, founded by former dirt-track racer Bob Newton of Lakeville, Ind., had established itself as a top supplier of tires for short-track racing throughout the Midwest.
By 1987, Hoosier had entered the NASCAR ranks by providing tires for its Sportsman [now known as the NASCAR Xfinity Series] circuit.
At the end of the year, Newton announced that it would enter the Cup Series and provide tires for superspeedway races for the first time in its existence.
No one thought the small company, dwarfed by Goodyear’s size and production numbers, would last more than a few races.
But something happened at Daytona International Speedway. Hoosier had managed to recruit 10 teams. None of them won the race but two drivers, Neil Bonnett and Buddy Baker, were in the hunt and finished fourth and ninth, respectively.
It wasn’t necessarily their finishes that sparked attention. Rather, it was Hoosier’s durability. Bonnett ran the entire 500 miles on just nine tires. And as the race progressed, they seemed to pick up more power than the Goodyears.
But what really instigated the season-long war happened a week later at Richmond Raceway.
Morgan Shepherd, a NASCAR veteran who was 46 years old but would race full time for another 11 years, had joined the virtually unknown – and decidedly low-regarded – Tom Winkle team, which had never earned even a single top-10 finish.
Remarkably, Shepherd won the pole position on Hoosiers. It broke the string of 247 consecutive poles earned by Goodyear.
It gets better.
Bonnett, driving for Butch Mock and Bob Rahilly, fell two laps down early in the 400-lap race, but he came on to win in a Pontiac armed with Hoosiers.
That ended the streak of 526 consecutive victories for Goodyear.
“We were on Hoosiers, and they were the quickest tire,” Bonnett said. “I might have overextended on them, but it worked out. So far this season, I have no complaints about the tires.”
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