What's the deal with Firestone?

[NickFalzone]

I read something a few months back about how they were reducing or eliminating their sponsorship in IndyCar. Can anyone tell me exactly what happened? Are they still the tire manufacturer for 2012? Did they leave the Lights series? I was surprised when I first read about it, bc they seemed like such a strong partner to the series.

[uncommonsense52]

I read something a few months back about how they were reducing or eliminating their sponsorship in IndyCar. Can anyone tell me exactly what happened? Are they still the tire manufacturer for 2012? Did they leave the Lights series? I was surprised when I first read about it, bc they seemed like such a strong partner to the series.

They were going to drop their supplying to Indy after 2011, but in the 12th hour extended through 2013, basically.

[NickFalzone]

oh, cool.

[DBell]

There is some big differences with the extended deal. Teams will be paying much more for the tires, around 600k is what I remember hearing. Also, Firestone is not going to be spending money on sponsorship, like the Indy Lights series and the Texas race they sponsor. So while they are staying, they are more or less staying as a tire supplier and not as a partner in the series. As I understand it.

[nigelred5]

that was my read as well. The teams were fairly unanimous from what I read in their willingness to buy tires and loose some sponsorship rather than have to hunt for a supplier, which it didn't appear they were too many to choose from. Glad to see Firestone was willing to do it as it kept a lot of folks in Ohio in a job and a proven reliable tire on the track.

[garyshell]

Wasn't there some report of Penske having a hand in this? I wonder what brand of tires are on his commercial fleet? Anyone know?

Gary