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Firestone Racing - History of Winning
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Firestone tires made their first official racing appearance in 1909 when company founder Harvey Firestone put a set on a car driven by Barney Oldfield in the Indianapolis 300. During a test run for that competition, Oldfield told the assembled onlookers “my only life insurance is Firestone tires.” He and Firestone later had the phrase painted on the side of his racecar, and he toured the country “performing amazing feats of speed.”
The Indianapolis 300 was a precursor to the more famous Indianapolis 500, and no tire brand has enjoyed more success there than Firestone. Ray Harroun won the inaugural event in 1911 on Firestone tires, and so did Dario Franchitti when he won in 2010. All told, 61 Indianapolis 500-Mile Races have been won by Firestone-equipped drivers -- a record of wins greater than all other tire companies competing at Indy combined.
During those early competitions at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, there were no race tires as we know them today. To demonstrate product quality and durability, the first Firestone race tires were actually the same tires sold for everyday use on roads or streets. The public saw how well the Firestone tires performed on the track and wanted them for their own vehicles. The old adage, “Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday,” was a fact of business for Firestone.
Between 1920 and 1966, there were 43 Indianapolis 500-Mile Races (no events were conducted during the World War II years), all won by drivers on Firestone tires. The Indianapolis 500 was a stop for the FIA World Driver’s Championship from 1950 through 1960; all 11 of those events were won by Firestone-equipped drivers. Formula One champions who rode on Firestone tires include Graham Hill in 1968, Jochen Rindt in 1970 and Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972.
Firestone also has 568 early NASCAR Sprint Cup victories, starting with Christian D. “Jim” Roper’s win at the first event in 1949. Roper drove a new Lincoln Cosmopolitan owned by Milliard Clothier, with number 34 painted on the side. Over the decades, Firestone swept the series several years, and contributed to many drivers’ success and championships.
At the end of the 2010 season, Firestone has 187 documented IZOD IndyCar Series wins -- 92 percent of the races contested since the IZOD IndyCar Series first raced in 1996. At the start of the 2009 season, Firestone has a record of 819 documented Indy car wins -- an impressive number considering the Firestone Racing program began a 20-year hiatus from the top forms of motorsports at the end of the 1974 season.
Just as Harvey Firestone had loved racing and recognized its marketing and research values, Bridgestone Corporation founder Shojiro Ishibashi’s tire manufacturing and marketing innovations in Japan led to Bridgestone’s entry into racing in the early 1960s. With this combined impetus, the next step was logical, perhaps inevitable. In 1988, Bridgestone Corporation acquired the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., and consolidated the United States operations in 1990 as Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc. The change brought an infusion of new energy and new ideas, with renewed interest in motorsports.
In May of 1993, just outside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Firestone return to major racing was announced. The following year was devoted to testing at more than a dozen tracks with drivers logging more than 12,000 miles. The Firestone brand returned to the top forms of open-wheel racing in 1995, and made its first IZOD IndyCar Series appearance on January 27, 1996, at Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Florida.
That race, won by Buzz Calkins, set the stage for Firestone as it won all three IndyCar Series contests in the league’s inaugural season. After enjoying much success in direct competition with another tire manufacturer from 1996 through 1999, Firestone started the 2000 IZOD IndyCar Series season as the sole tire supplier for the league. In the fall of 2001, at Texas Motor Speedway, the IZOD IndyCar Series named Firestone the Official Tire of the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500. By that time, the Firestone Racing program was operating under the direction of Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC.
Firestone is the only tire brand to have appeared in every Indy Racing League contest, and has provided tires to 14 IZOD IndyCar Series champions. The IZOD IndyCar Series and the Firestone Indy Lights provide Firestone, known as “America’s Tire Since 1900,” excellent showcases to demonstrate technology, along with the world’s largest laboratory for testing and evaluating new materials and construction processes for street and highway tires. They also allow the brand to create more wins and more championships, contributing to the growing success of Firestone Racing.
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