i can usually rely on you to tell me if im right on my information and guess what----again im close enough . thank you
PKL said:
I think it was Richard that asked about this. I can't begin to swear as to where the first racing slick was used in Cup racing, but I do know when the first radial tire made its debut. The following is a small excerpt from an article I wrote back in 2003 about the tire wars. I promise, it was well researched.
"The following year, 1989, saw Goodyear attempt to come out swinging at the bell, with the introduction at Daytona of their new radial-ply tire. They had tested the tire for two months and thousands of miles, and deemed it safe and ready for the track. However, the first practice at Daytona told quite a different story, when both Bill Elliott and Dale Earnhardt hit the wall due to tire failures. Elliott sustained a double fracture of his wrist in his incident. At that point, Goodyear did the only honorable thing. They packed up their tires and withdrew from the Daytona 500.
Undaunted, the manufacturing giant went back to the drawing board and worked hard on their new radial. Goodyears new and improved radial tire debuted at North Wilkesboro that spring. While Hoosier tires were much faster in qualifying, those new Goodyears maintained their speed throughout the race, while the Hoosier bias-plies faded as bias-plies had always done. Dale Earnhardt won the race on Goodyear radial tires. Ironically, he would say in later years that he never really became accustomed to the radials, and preferred the bias-plies, but the radials were in the sport to stay."
~PattyKay
