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MILLER: Firestone and NASCAR?
SPEEDtv.com has confirmed that Scott Pruett ran an ARCA car on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway with Firestone rubber...
Robin Miller  |  Posted December 19, 2008   Indianapolis, Ind.
SPEED.com reporter Robin Miller. (Photo: SPEED)
Scott Pruett testing a Chip Ganassi ARCA car with Firestone tires earlier this week on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway. (Image: SPEED)

Scott Pruett was testing one of Chip Ganassi's stock cars this week on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway and that's not really newsworthy.

But the fact he was on Firestone tires makes it very interesting.

SPEEDtv.com has confirmed that Pruett ran Ganassi's ARCA car on Wednesday and Thursday with Firestone rubber.

"It was not a Firestone test and it was not a NASCAR test, it was a technical exercise to try and develop current stock car technology," said Al Speyer, executive director of Firestone/Bridgestone motorsports.

"It was a brandless program. There was no name on the tires or the uniforms or even the tire machines. And the car was painted gray. We were just trying to be as low key as possible."

Of course the natural assumption is that Firestone/Bridgestone will be interested in bringing its product to NASCAR's Sprint Cup -- the most popular series in North America.

Goodyear has been the exclusive supplier for NASCAR since 2000 and has a contract through 2011.

"NASCAR did not come to us and ask us to test," said Speyer, whose company got out of stock car racing in 1974. "But we're currently talking to a lot of sanctioning bodies, ARCA, USAR and NASCAR and, yes, we're interested in developing a stock car tire.

"But we don't have a specific timetable or contract with anybody."

Since it returned to Indy-car racing in 1995, Firestone has dominated and Goodyear finally got out of open wheel following 1999.

"We're very pleased with our open wheel program but we've been out of stock cars since 1974 and stock car application is totally different," continued Speyer. "If we don't start some fundamental work, we couldn't be prepared if a sanctioning body decides to make a change.


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