In two weeks, every Funny Car and Top Fuel team in the NRHA will be running on the recently introduced 2550 Goodyear racing tire. The 2550 replaces the 2420 which has been in use for over two years, but will no longer be available starting in Denver.

Development of tires for the Funny Car and Top Fuel categories is a challenging process. To quote a driver, “even two perfect runs are not the same”.

“It's true,” Stu Grant, General Manger, Global Race Tires, said during the Nationwide Series race at Michigan Int'l Speedway. “Development in Top Fuel/Funny Car, that's a difficult process because a  pass in drag racing is very difficult to duplicate. You have some many things going on, the temperature of the racetrack, the nitro (mix) the humidity; there are so many different factors that effect a pass so it's much harder to compare a to b in Top Fuel/Dragster than it is to get a lap on a NASCAR Sprint Cup car on one set of tires versus another; its a little tougher environment. RELATED ARTICLE - GOODYEAR’S NEW 2550 – AN INSIDE LOOK


In two weeks, every Funny Car and Top Fuel team in the NRHA will be running on the recently introduced 2550 Goodyear racing tire. The 2550 replaces the 2420 which has been in use for over two years, but will no longer be available starting in Denver.

Development of tires for the Funny Car and Top Fuel categories is a challenging process. To quote a driver, “even two perfect runs are not the same”.

“It's true,” Stu Grant, General Manger, Global Race Tires, said during the Nationwide Series race at Michigan Int'l Speedway. “Development in Top Fuel/Funny Car, that's a difficult process because a  pass in drag racing is very difficult to duplicate. You have some many things going on, the temperature of the racetrack, the nitro (mix) the humidity; there are so many different factors that effect a pass so it's much harder to compare a to b in Top Fuel/Dragster than it is to get a lap on a NASCAR Sprint Cup car on one set of tires versus another; its a little tougher environment.

“We do a tremendous amount of simulation. We do a lot of work on our internal lab wheels and things like that and then we've been making passes on Funny Cars and passes on Top Fuel Dragsters just to get a lot of data. We've got a lot of information. We're pretty pleased with that.”

What makes this a better tire, because Goodyear is insistent the tire is not going to be any faster than the 2420 it replaces. One change is a stiffer upper sidewall, but according to Grant, the biggest change is in the construction process.

“The biggest feature is, we've been able to apply the tread, instead of putting the tread on as a slab like you normally would a conventional tire, this is a strip winding process,” explained Grant. “So, we've eliminated the tread splice. That's the beauty of this. You don't have that, on a Top Fuel/Dragster tire the thread is so soft and so thick you get a lot of discontinuity at the tread slice; because it such a big mass of rubber. The strip winding eliminates that so its a lot smoother tire and a lot more uniform package.

“Its not a faster tire. It's going to be easier to drive. Easier for the teams to use. We've taken that uniformity issue out of the tread splice.”

In the world of 300 mile per hour passes on a quarter-mile strip of treated concrete and asphalt, uniformity is welcomed by all.