“Bill France says, ‘They’re going to pull out’”: Kenny Wallace’s guest reveals how Hoosier seized the Daytona 500 shot over Goodyear

Kenny Wallace's special guest, Irish Saunders, who ran Hoosier's racing division for over four decades, revealed how their tires claimed an advantage over the new radial tires that Goodyear introduced for the 1989 season at the Daytona 500. It was at a time when both brands were in a tire war in the sport.

A tire war in motorsports can be quite compromising as teams have to choose between manufacturers, which can sometimes come at the cost of safety. For example, the 1980s NASCAR tire war between Hoosier and Goodyear. There were many races, such as the 1988 Coca-Cola 600, that featured drivers using Hoosier for safety but ended up with major crashes.

However, there lies an interesting story that happened right at the start of the 1989 season.

Goodyear introduced their new radial tires, which were supposed to end competition with a much superior performance over the Hoosier tire. But there were issues with the tire, which led to the brand's withdrawal from the race. In the interview with Kenny Wallace on his YouTube series 'Kenny Conversation', Irish Saunders reminisced:

"They [Goodyear] introduced their radials in 1989 at Daytona. Well, they had some problems and I remember Bill Elliot crashed on the backstretch and broke his leg and Goodyear said, 'I think we're gonna withdraw from the Daytona 500,'" he told Kenny Wallace (at 22:28).

Shortly after Goodyear withdrew from the race, Bill France, NASCAR's founder, called up Saunders' associates, asking Hoosier to cover for the race.

"I'll never forget we were at the hotel and the phone rang and it was Bill France and Bill's like, 'Bob,' he says, 'Goodyear's telling me that they're going to pull out and I just want to make sure that you've got enough tires that you can supply all the cars for Daytona,'" Saunders added.

This was the golden opportunity that Hoosier tires had in 1989 to claim a major advantage over Goodyear tires in the tire war, which was supposedly subsiding in the latter's advantage.

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Saunders tells Kenny Wallace how Hoosier managed to keep up with the challenge of supplying tires at Daytona

A Hoosier racing tire station set up in the garage at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, 1988 - Source: Getty

The 1989 Daytona 500 was all in the hands of Hoosier tires. They were supposed to manufacture and ship new tires for all the teams running in the grand season-opener.

Irish Saunders told Kenny Wallace that they were down every single day manufacturing and shipping tires down to the Daytona International Speedway for the drivers, and they managed to pull it off well.

"We had tires every day. Building them, shipping them down to Daytona every single day back and forth in '89 and that's when our buddy Schrader on the pole for the Daytona 500 1989 and that was the one and only race at Daytona was on Hoosier tires," he told Kenny Wallace (23:22 onwards).

This was a major achievement for Hoosier. Darrell Waltrip won the race for Hendrick Motorsports, followed by his teammate Ken Schrader to mark the top two positions.

The tire, however, faced stiff competition when Goodyear introduced the radials once again at North Wilkesboro Speedway, which proved to be much better than Hoosier. The latter withdrew from NASCAR before the race at Talladega that season.