This Is Joe's Tire
Jim Mackinnon
Akron Beacon Journal
On a cool March morning amid complex, hissing machinery and music blaring from a portable radio, Joe Nutter prepares to make a NASCAR race tire inside Goodyear's Akron Technical Center.
A right-side Charlotte tire, to be exact.
That means the tire, should it pass myriad inspections, will find its way onto the right side of a roaring fast Nextel Cup Series race car at the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend just outside Charlotte, N.C.
This is the story of one made-in-Akron tire: Joe's tire. Its birth climaxes in a short, spectacular ride with a NASCAR champion driver, and is followed by sudden death.
There literally is a lot riding on this tire and thousands of others coming off the Akron factory floor and being shipped south to Lowe's Motor Speedway.
For one, Joe's tire needs to carry a driver safely around the track in a field of 43 cars at speeds in excess of 200 mph. The top finishers in Charlotte will divide a record purse of more than $6.5 million. A lot of things can go wrong in a 400-lap, 600-mile race -- among them tire blowouts -- and that can cut into a driver's winnings.
Nutter, a 40-year-old race-tire builder who lives in the Akron area, wastes little time.
He previously got ready with two beads -- basically rubber-coated steel cables that mount to the wheel rim -- on the specialized machine in front of him.
Keep in mind, Joe's tire looks nothing like a finished product at this point.
Anyone who thinks tires are simple round objects made by pouring molten rubber into a mold and letting it harden would get a real education watching Nutter and his fellow veteran tire builders at work. Tires are carefully engineered, layered complexities, and science follows them out to the track. They're not your average Joe's product.
Formless, shapeless
At this point in the morning, the tire is basically nothing more than uncut layers of fabric, specialized rubber compound and the beads. Nutter will soon give them shape and form.
Watching Joe are a reporter, a photographer and assorted Goodyear employees describing tire building as best they can while trying to ensure proprietary secrets don't leave the building. Plus, Joe needs to concentrate on the task before him and can't stop to talk about each step in the process.
``It's very much a choreography, if you ask me,'' said Peg Anop, manager of occupation development and training for Tech Center manufacturing, who explains the process. It is both
Joe
Tire must be cured,inspected,monitoredhands-on and high-tech as Joe moves to and fro.
Joe wields a hot knife that easily slices into rubberized material. A laser light guides Nutter's knife as he cuts a pattern.
``Precision, precision, precision,'' Anop said. These pieces will go out along the sidewall -- the beads will set into it -- and reinforce the tire, giving it lateral stiffness and support.
Joe now directs the machine to ``stitch out,'' although no needles or thread are used.
``If you notice, the tire isn't being put together with any glue,'' Anop said. Instead, it's the tack designed into the material that holds it together at this point.
As Nutter operates a foot pedal, the machinery continues working and pressing materials together.
``It still doesn't look like a tire,'' Anop said.
Among other things, air bubbles are being worked out. Joe directs his machine to another step: The drum inflates. And what looked nothing like a tire just seconds before begins to assume recognizable shape.
``That's pretty cool,'' Anop said.
Joe marries other pieces to the still-raw product.
``It's still not smooth around the edges, is it?'' Anop notes. ``So the stitchers still have to work their magic.''
Then, less than 10 minutes after starting, Joe Nutter is all but done.
Built with pride
As a final step, he shows off a small sticker on his finger -- it reads ``PROUDLY BUILT BY NUTTER'' -- and puts it inside the tire. All the Goodyear tire builders, members of United Steelworkers Local 2, glue their names in each tire they build.
A bar-code sticker also goes on the sidewall, allowing Goodyear to track it through the factory. The code ``D4022'' prominently embossed on the rubber sidewall tells the racing world that Joe's tire goes only on the right side of a Charlotte car. Left-side tires are smaller and less hefty since they don't face the same high-speed stresses.
Joe's tire, just one of probably 35 or more NASCAR tires Nutter will make this day, is lifted onto a cart and placed alongside other identical right-side Charlotte tires.
Joe finally has a couple of minutes to talk before getting back to work.
``I've been with Goodyear since 1994 and building tires since 1998,'' he said.
When he switched jobs to building race tires, he underwent a nine-month training process.
``It takes a while to learn it,'' Nutter said.
His work area is adorned with NASCAR pictures.
``I was a NASCAR fan before I started here,'' Joe said. His favorite driver is Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The conversation comes to an end. Joe needs to make preparations for another tire as part of his typical 12-hour workday.
Process not over
While Joe's tire is built, it is far from finished. Others elsewhere in the technical center will put their hands on it during the next 24 to 36 hours.
Right now, it's called a ``green tire,'' one that hasn't been placed
Joe
On race day, specialistdecideshow to use tire
in a mold and subjected to vulcanization. The curing under high heat and pressure holds it together at racetrack speeds and at temperatures hotter than boiling water.
Also in the hours ahead, a specialized high-tech device called a ``Radio Frequency Identification,'' or ``RFID'' computer chip will be placed inside that will let Goodyear and NASCAR officials make sure the tire is used as intended. Each Goodyear NASCAR tire has an RFID chip.
That chip, about the size of a grain of sand, will allow Goodyear employees to find Joe's tire among the thousands of others that will make their way to North Carolina.
If it first makes it through the upcoming inspections.
Sole supplier
Goodyear is the sole supplier of tires to NASCAR's top three racing series: Nextel, Busch and Craftsman Truck. The two big businesses signed a contract earlier this year renewing the relationship for another five years.
For Goodyear, NASCAR means high visibility. There are millions of fans in the United States, many of whom want to buy NASCAR-affiliated products such as Goodyear tires.
Goodyear gets $416 for each of the race tires it builds for the Coca-Cola 600. Each of the 43 race teams leases -- not buys -- up to 14 sets of four tires for use on race day. That's a maximum of 2,408 tires at a cost of more than $1 million -- not counting the additional practice tires the teams also use.
And the only place Goodyear makes NASCAR tires is in Akron.
Inspection time
The company doesn't want anything to interfere with success.
As a result, Joe's tire and its rubber brethren must pass a vigorous inspection process before getting the green light.
An initial visual inspection is done to the green tire to find any defects visible to the naked eye.
Joe's tire passes this preliminary test.
Before too long, it will be heated to an unspecified temperature at an unspecified pressure and for an unspecified time. Goodyear won't say.
After Joe's tire comes out and cools, Goodyear employees take certain measurements. While the Charlotte-bound tires look like they were cloned, each has slightly different spring rates. The findings are coded onto a sticker and affixed to the tire where race team members will be able to easily read the data.
Teams can use that information to decide such things as whether to put the tire on the right front or right back and in which specific set for the upcoming lengthy race.
``It's just another tool we provide to let the teams, to let the chassis guys, tune their chassis set to set to set,'' said Greg Stucker, director of race tire sales and marketing. ``We've been doing that for about three years now.''
Joe's tire undergoes more inspections, including X-rays and a holographic process, the same as each of the tires that went before it and those that will follow.
No problems are found.
Goodyear's trademark yellow Eagle decaling is secured to the sidewall.
Joe's tire is ready to race.
But that's still two months
away.
Historic speedway
Lowe's Motor Speedway, designed and built in 1959, is one of the meccas of stock car racing. The 1.5-mile oval track on 2,000 acres of land hosted its first NASCAR race in 1960 when it was known as the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
During the years, the facility has been improved and upgraded. Among the innovations: Condominiums were added above what is called Turn 1 in 1984, with 12 more added in 1991. About $1.7 million in specialized lights were added to the track in 1992, allowing the speedway to host night races.
Between the seats in the stadium and room in the infield, the speedway for major races hosts upward of 200,000 fans, many of whom camp on the infield or on land surrounding the massive track. Nearby hotels and motels are booked months in advance of the Coca-Cola 600.
Memorial Day weekend also includes Saturday night's 200-lap Carquest Auto Parts 300 Busch Series race. These are basically somewhat lesser-powered cars driven primarily, though not exclusively, by not-yet-marquee race names. The main event, of course, is the Coca-Cola 600, scheduled to start late Sunday afternoon after the conclusion of the Indianapolis 500 race. The transition from hot day to cooler night affects track surface temperatures and can make it tricky for tires to keep the proper grip.
Testing and practice
As Coca-Cola 600 preparations get under way in earnest on Thursday, Goodyear's temporary tire warehouse operations begin to buzz in the middle of the infield, strategically situated between the Busch Series and Nextel Cup garages.
The ultra-high performance Eagle race slicks (automobile tires made without a tread for maximum traction) fill multiple tractor trailers. Somewhere in there sits Joe's tire.
Unloading, mounting and balancing the tires are employees of Huggins Tire Sales Inc. from High Point, N.C. Goodyear contracts with Huggins to do the work at the track.
Tires thud as they are dropped out of the trailers. Huggins workers with hand-held computers scan the RFID chips inside each one, with the information sent to servers in a nearby special Goodyear trailer set up to monitor the inventory.
NASCAR official Rodney Wise keeps an eye on the process as air hoses hiss around the mounting machines. Race cars roar around the track as the teams practice and make adjustments for the weekend's Busch and Nextel races.
Finally, at 11:13 a.m., the scanner reveals Joe's tire. It's among the first batch of race tires making it out of storage.
Like all of the other race slicks, an inner liner is placed inside Joe's tire. The liner is a safety device to keep part of the tire inflated if there is a high-speed blowout.
Joe's tire is whisked to a mounting machine, placed around the wheel and quickly inflated.
But it won't hold air.
After coming this far, there's an initial fear Joe's tire might not make it into Sunday's main event.
A quick inspection shows the problem is the inner liner, which is replaced. The tire is pumped up again. All is good. Joe's tire moves on to the next step, balancing.
And Goodyear knows where Joe's tire is going.
The ``48'' car.
That's the Lowe's-sponsored Chevrolet driven by Jimmie Johnson, the 2006 Nextel Cup champion. Johnson, 31, is a favorite to win the Coca-Cola 600 -- something he has done three times before: in 2005, 2004 and 2003. He finished second last year.
Race team tires are mounted and placed in a line based on the team's point standings. The reigning Nextel Cup champion is always first in line, though the thousands of Eagle tires Goodyear has brought are considered identical in looks as well as performance.
For the rest of Thursday and all of Friday, Joe's tire just sits exposed on the infield asphalt, part of a stack of five mounted tires. Per NASCAR rules, race teams won't be able to take their tires until 1 p.m. Saturday.
Crew gets possession
Shortly after 1 on Saturday, Joe's tire gets picked up and is quickly carted away by Jimmie Johnson's crew.
Looking over the tires is mechanic Sean Kerlin, the Lowe's team tire specialist.
``NASCAR just released our race set,'' Kerlin said. ``As soon as they're released, we'll start prepping them for the race, and that includes swapping the air out for nitrogen. That's one of the steps all the teams will do.''
Nitrogen contains less moisture than air. As a race tire heats up, the water vaporizes and increases the internal tire pressure, which can hurt a car's performance. So the less moisture, the better.
Kerlin walks among the tires, recording the spring rate measurements Goodyear coded onto tire stickers months ago in Akron. That guides him in determining which tires will be used during different parts of the race.
``We have our own formula for putting them into sets here on the 48 car,'' Kerlin said. ``I'm just getting them lined up for sets in the race. Once the race starts, we'll have a game plan.''
That plan might change during the course of the race, Kerlin adds.
Joe's tire, Kerlin decides after a while, will be in the 10th set and placed on the right front -- the position that gets the most stress.
The tire is marked with blue paint, ``RF-10.''
``It looks like it will get in the race,'' Kerlin said.
Race time
Johnson is having a good race, despite a major scare when one of the 48 car's tires is cut on Lap 53, and he nearly crashes.
When the Coca-Cola 600 got under way shortly before 6 p.m., Johnson started in the 21st position.
Now, as Lap 132 comes around in the 400-lap race, he's in first place. His team has already changed tires multiple times. Racer Kurt Busch, by comparison, has yet to switch tires.
At 7:05 p.m., Kerlin moves Joe's tire from behind the pit area to up front. Next stop, it goes on.
Kerlin measures the wear and tear across the width of just-removed racing slicks, trying to figure out how the changing track conditions are affecting tire pressure and how well the 48 car handles.
At 7:33 p.m., on Lap 141, a caution flag goes up because of debris on the backstretch.
Time for another pit stop.
Johnson roars down pit road and brakes to a halt. The Lowe's pit crew sprints into action.
In about 14 seconds the car gets fueled, the old tires are removed and Joe's tire is put on.
Johnson peels out onto the track.
He drops down several places but begins clawing his way back up.
A caution flag goes up at Lap 170: More debris in the backstretch.
At 7:53 p.m., Johnson pits again.
After just 28 laps around Lowe's Motor Speedway, Joe's tire comes off.
It and others are carted off to the nearby Busch garage, where Huggins Tire employees wait.
Just five minutes after coming off of Johnson's car and still too hot to hold with a bare hand, Joe's tire gets two holes drilled into it by Huggins employee Trent Carpenter at 7:57 p.m.
More than half of the Coca-Cola 600 remains.
But Joe's tire, just two months old, has run its first and last race of just 42 miles.
Postscript: Johnson continued to race well. After 300 laps, he was in the lead and it was looking like he could win another Coca-Cola 600.
But a bad pit stop caused by a misplaced lug nut during a tire change on Lap 338 cost him dearly. Once back onto the speedway, he found himself far back, though he made it as high up as fourth place with 10 laps to go. Johnson finished 10th.
Johnson's driver teammate Casey Mears took first place, his first career victory.
Joe's tire, meanwhile, did not end up at a recycling center, but instead was shipped by Goodyear back to Akron.
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The Akron Beacon Journal also did several side stories to compliment this...
Racing Fan Takes Job Seriously
ID Tag is Tiny but Tough
Lengthy Process Creates Tires Ready for Short Life in Fast Lane
Tire Facts
And as a note, they have some pretty cool pics on the site, so check 'em out
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