It was a relatively slow summer weekend for televised motorsports, so, better at procrastination than yard work I turned on the Brickyard 400. The guide description mentioned racing, but all I saw was a seemingly endless pit stop punctuated by an occasional sprint race. Brickyard 40 maybe—and that would be in kilometers, but in no way was this a race near 400 miles.

Apparently Goodyear and NASCAR couldn’t race a right rear tire much longer than 15 laps; I’ve watch guys smoke tires for photos longer than that. I counted 11 “competition yellow” flags, apparently so named because if they don’t wave them the competing drivers might get hurt when tires disintegrate.

You can’t blame the track at Indy; I don’t think it’s been repaved for years. This is down to Goodyear (who probably paid big $$$ to be the sole tire supplier) and NASCAR; their Car of Tomorrow was brought out last year so teams could sort this out. Testing earlier this year indicated issues, but NASCAR and Goodyear couldn’t solve it.

When Formula 1 ran a six-car “race” at Indy because all the Michelin cars parked and only Bridgestone-shod cars raced, fans raged about F1 and Michelin. Indianapolis Speedway wasn’t that happy about it either. You think Goodyear might get the same lambasting?

We’ll have to see if their PR is better than Formula 1’s, but I know they have good PR in the RV industry.

It isn’t actually called PR except by journalism professors, but what Affinity Group RV magazines do amounts to it. Those magazines--Trailer Life, MotorHome and Highways for Good Sam members—are heavyweights in RV rags, at least until Source Interlink’s new RV magazine comes out.

Consider a recent question in Highways (July, 2008; http://www.goodsamclub.com/RVCentral/HighwaysDetails.aspx?pageID=74&issueID=877) wherein a reader asked questions related to a bubble on his “Highway Trooper” tire.

The Highways reply began, “I have no information on Highway Trooper tires, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. With the influx of Asian tires, it’s hard to keep up with the names and brands currently on the market.” Highways went on, “Unfortunately, many of these overseas-brand tires are poorly constructed and provide inadequate service, as you found out.” The answer, in Highways technical expert’s opinion: “I prefer to stick to the major brands, like Goodyear, which specialize in tires designed for trailer service (ST designation)...”

Now here is what isn’t so obvious. First, the tech expert at Highways is also the Publisher of MotorHome and Trailer Life, and Senior VP, Group Publisher of the parent company. His job is to generate revenue, from advertisers, like, well, guess. The parent company also has links to Camping World, which sponsors a NASCAR race. See any pattern here?

Second, I’m no tire expert but I think saying Goodyear specializes in trailer tires is like saying Cummins specializes in BTA5.9M2 engines. There are other tire companies where ST tires account for a larger percentage of their volume. I know Greenball Corporation offers a “Hiway Trooper” LT tire, and this tire is very probably built in Asia and could be standard on heavier RV trailers.

Third, a buddy of mine who does do a lot of work with tires did some poking around and found Goodyear has some tires, including those ST tires they “specialize” in, made in Asia. If that information is good, Highways is merely recommending the American-branded version of two tires made in Asia.

Now I don’t know who needs good PR more—NASCAR, Goodyear or Affinity. As for me, one of German cars came with tires from a French company, my truck and another German car run Japanese tires, and my trailer tires cipher as made in America.

If it’s a good tire I don’t care where it came from.