Once a tire specialist has all the wheels mounted up with tires, it is their job to purge the air in the tires with nitrogen and set them at the proper pressure. Credit: Autostock

Industry profile: Tire specialist

A couple of weeks ago, you read here about Goodyear tires and what it costs teams to buy enough rubber to meet the road in a Nextel Cup weekend. What you didn't read is how a team's tire specialist does his job with those tires and the wheels that make them useful.

A tire specialist does more than make sure there's enough air in the tires and that the lug nuts are glued on straight for pit stops. Those two duties are just part of his or her job in today's NASCAR world. They're also responsible for making sure the team has enough of the proper tires, for making sure those tires are where they need to be when needed and for getting them to the next event.

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If you have stayed around after the race and wandered in the pit area -- tougher to do now than it used to be given the Hot Pass criteria for pit passes -- you've seen trucks and trailers on pit road, loading tires and pit boxes and various other equipment for transport. These are private companies contracted by teams to move the equipment from race to race independent of the team's regular transporter.

This equipment is mainly wheels and tires, which are taken to the hauling company's shop to be dismounted, washed and cleaned and prepared for shipping out the next week. It also includes pit boxes and crash carts.

The tire specialist has to keep track of all the wheels and tires, including which of his team's wheels are where, and which tires they have mounted on them. Every Nextel Cup team is issued three sets of tires for practice and qualifying at each event, and so, three sets of wheels need to be on hand when the Goodyear tire techs open for business on Wednesday and Thursday. That means having them on their way to the track well before the transporter arrives on Friday morning. In addition, the remainder of the wheels -- approximately 10-12 additional sets -- need to be there as well for the race.

A tire specialist hard at work. Credit: Autostock

The tire specialist is the key to keeping this never-ending procession of wheels and tires moving. Once he or she has all the wheels mounted up with tires, it is their job to purge the air in the tires with nitrogen and set them at the proper pressure. Then, it's getting the lugs glued to the rims for ease of placement, and making sure the tires are where they need to be in the pit lane.

Once the race is under way, he or she has to keep track of how many sets have been used and what remains. During the race, if a car drops out early, the tires are stacked in the pit area and left for companies like Champion Tire and Wheel to move out once the race is over.

"The teams will have everything they use during the race sitting there on pit lane," Todd Carpenter, general manager of Champion Tire and Wheel, said. "We have carts they set them on. We load the trucks, with the wheels and the mounted assemblies. We take them back to the shop and begin to dismount all the wheels. Then we clean the wheels and we load back up and send them to the next event. Generally the teams have two races worth of wheels. We'll come in Monday and start working on dismounting, and then we'll have another set of wheels that we'll load on Tuesday."

Carpenter said that the wheels must be on site at the next event when the Goodyear techs set up on Wednesday morning. "They'll mount six race sets for the teams on Wednesday," he said. "On Thursday, they'll mount their two practice sets and one for qualifying. The teams are only allowed to take the first three until after qualifying. That allows the teams time to match their race sets."

As you know, some teams can run short of tires during an event. In this case, the tire specialist from that team can raid another team's unused tire stack and take what he needs. This is on the honor system. The tire man who takes a set of tires has the responsibility of letting the tire specialist whose tires he has used know about it. Otherwise, the tire specialist whose car fell out early will go crazy trying to figure out where nearly $2,000 worth of tires and more than $400 in wheels has gotten. Every set of tires and wheels needs to be accounted for after each race, and reimbursement is worked out among the teams.

"The tire specialists tell us that this car and this car and this car borrowed tires," Carpenter said. "If it's another wheel company, we keep track of that and at the end of the week we just swap them out. If a car does go out early and there is a shortage, it gets more difficult."

Most of the teams have two complete sets of wheels in the hands of the transport company at all times. "It's impossible to have 1,000 wheels turned around and back out in one day," Carpenter said.

So there you have it, another transportation solved by small businesses. Champion Tire and Wheel has 23 employees including owners Kevin Mahl and Jamie Rolewicz. They've fulfilled a need for the teams of Nextel Cup, and that's what business is all about.

NASCAR.COM's business feature appears each Wednesday afternoon. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.