A 1994 investigation cleared Hoosier's tyres after two practice deaths and pointed to soft shocks instead. Four racing controversies, and how each one changed the rulebook.
The tire war was a rivalry between Goodyear and Hoosier that ended in 1994. Doping rules reached the FIA in 2010. NASCAR faces criticism over its cars and ownership. The FIA-FOTA dispute of 2009 was a fight over an F1 budget cap, ending with a new Concorde Agreement.
Hoosier Racing Tire came back to NASCAR's top series in 1994 and, before the first race of the year, two drivers on its tyres were dead. The media blamed the company. An independent investigation later found the tyres met every safety rule, and that the real culprit was a habit of running extremely soft shock absorbers at the fastest tracks. Hoosier still never recovered, and it left NASCAR for good the day after the season ended.
That reversal of blame says a lot about the arguments that follow motorsport around. Four of them are worth separating out: the NASCAR tire war, the long fight over doping in auto racing, the criticism of NASCAR itself, and the FIA-FOTA dispute that nearly split Formula One in 2009. Each began with a rules problem and each ended up changing something.
What the tire war was, and why NASCAR had one
A tire war happens whenever more than one manufacturer supplies a series. Competition pushes the makers to develop faster rubber, and that is the upside. The downside is that when every team stretches its tyres to the limit, the whole field can suffer failures at once. The 2005 United States Grand Prix is the textbook example.
NASCAR started in 1948 with Firestone as its only supplier. Goodyear arrived in 1954, and the two shared victories and speed records until Firestone pulled out in 1974. Earlier, the deaths of Jimmy Pardue and Billy Wade in the late 1960s pushed both companies to build the Inner Liner Safety Spare, a second inner envelope that slowed a punctured tyre's deflation so the driver could reach the pits. Not every episode was constructive. At Talladega's first race in 1969 drivers suffered tyre failures in practice, Firestone withdrew, and Richard Petty led a driver walkout. McCreary Tire & Rubber tried NASCAR in 1978, never won and soon left, which made Goodyear the sole supplier until Hoosier arrived in the Busch Grand National Series in 1987.
Hoosier's tyres met every safety rule; the soft shocks that broke their brackets were the real danger.
How the 1988 and 1989 tire war played out
Hoosier came in through a side door. In 1986 Goodyear faced a hostile takeover by Sir James Goldsmith, and NASCAR worried the new owners might drop the racing programme, so it invited Hoosier as a backup. In 1988 Hoosier entered the Winston Cup Series and took an early lead: Neil Bonnett won at Richmond from a Morgan Shepherd pole, then won again at Rockingham.
Teams could use either brand, and they learned the trade-off quickly. Hoosiers were softer and faster. Goodyears lasted longer and were safer. Goodyear set about building a faster tyre, and the race to do so injured people. At the 1988 Coca-Cola 600, early practice suggested Goodyear's compound was too soft for the track, so every driver except Dave Marcis switched to Hoosiers and Goodyear withdrew. Then Hoosier failures caused crashes that hurt Bonnett, Rick Wilson and Harry Gant, and Darrell Waltrip won on Hoosiers.
July brought a second blow to Goodyear when NASCAR disqualified it from Pocono for over-wide treads, the first time it had missed a NASCAR race since the 1956 Southern 500. Hoosier was thrown out of Watkins Glen three weeks later for the same offence. At Dover, Alan Kulwicki complained that tyre failures had been happening all year. By season's end Hoosier had won nine of 29 races.
Goodyear's answer was the radial tyre, but its Daytona 500 launch in 1989 collapsed when Dale Earnhardt and Bill Elliott suffered failures in practice and Elliott broke a wrist. Waltrip took his only Daytona 500 win on Hoosiers, and Hoosier won the first four races of the year. Then the radials debuted at North Wilkesboro. Rusty Wallace had the pole on Hoosiers, but he was a lap down to the leaders by lap 70, and Earnhardt won on Goodyears. Hoosier could not sell enough tyres to stay viable and left after the Winston 500 at Talladega.
The 1994 tire war and what ended it
Three days after the 1993 season ended, Hoosier announced it was coming back to Winston Cup in 1994 with radials. Bonnett and Rodney Orr, the Dash Series champion, died in separate practice crashes before the Daytona 500. Hoosier released the drivers concerned from their contracts, and NASCAR let teams switch brands within the first 40 laps. The Orlando Sentinel then found that Hoosiers met all regulations. At Daytona and Talladega teams ran extremely soft shocks and springs to reduce drag, and the cars bottomed out so hard that mounting brackets failed. A defective right-rear bracket caused Orr's crash. No official cause was announced for Bonnett's, though spectators suspected the same thing. NASCAR eventually moved to supplied specification shocks and springs in 2000.
The year stayed ugly. Ernie Irvan was left with near-fatal injuries to his head, chest and lungs when one of his Goodyears blew in practice at Michigan. Geoff Bodine and Loy Allen Jr. crashed at Atlanta on failing Hoosiers. Mark Martin, who won that race, said: "We need one tire company." He added that he was proud he had lived to talk about the 94 tire war. Hoosier left the next day, giving three reasons: the cost of production, strong competition and a lack of backing from drivers.
In April 1997 Goodyear became the exclusive supplier, a deal later extended to 2022. When Goodyear workers struck in late 2006, NASCAR asked Hoosier to stand by for 2007, but the strike ended and the plan lapsed. Goodyear now supplies Cup, O'Reilly and Truck; Continental, which bought Hoosier in 2016, supplies the regional series under the General Tire and Hoosier names; and Pirelli supplies NASCAR Brasil Sprint Race, a sanctioned series since 2023.
Tire wars beyond NASCAR
Formula One's history is longer and messier. Between the 1950s and early 1990s, Dunlop, Firestone, Continental, Goodyear, Avon, Englebert, Pirelli and Michelin often fought each other. Dunlop was the sole supplier from 1961 to 1963 and Goodyear in 1987 and 1988 while Pirelli took a break. Bridgestone entered in 1997, Goodyear left after 1998, and Michelin's arrival in 2001 sparked a war that lasted until 2006. Those years of rivalry are one explanation given for why only six cars started the 2005 United States Grand Prix. Pirelli has been the sole supplier since 2010 and still was as of 2026.
MotoGP had its own fierce war between 2002 and 2008 involving Bridgestone, Dunlop and Michelin; Pons Racing in 2004 and Yamaha in 2008 ran different brands on each rider's bike. Pirelli is set to take over as sole supplier in 2027. Japan's Super GT will move to one maker per class in 2027, Bridgestone in GT500 and Dunlop in GT300.
Doping in auto racing: the rules
Doping rules arrived late. The FIA added Appendix A to its International Sporting Code on 1 December 2010 after consulting the World Anti-Doping Agency. It covers all FIA and nationally sanctioned events, uses the WADA banned list and adds alcohol and beta blockers. The FIA tests at random from a set pool of drivers, and national bodies test during their own events.
| Body | Trigger for testing | Penalty for a positive |
|---|---|---|
| FIA | Random, from a pool of drivers | Disqualification, results forfeited, winnings returned; a second violation means six months out; fine up to 15,000 euros |
| IndyCar | Random or reasonable suspicion | Performance-enhancing drug: one year and $5,000; other substances: at least sixty days and $2,500 |
| World Racing Group | Random, on the day of the event, by urinalysis | Fine and ban; three penalties mean two negative tests before a return |
| IMCA | Rule on alcohol and illegal drugs | Fine of no less than $250, possible indefinite suspension |
Doping cases in racing
NASCAR has had a substance abuse policy since the late 1980s. Aaron Fike, a Truck Series driver, was arrested in 2007 over heroin and admitted using it on race weekends; he was suspended until 2012, when he finished NASCAR's Road to Recovery programme. In 2009 Jeremy Mayfield failed a test for methamphetamine and later questioned the laboratory's credibility; NASCAR changed labs in 2017. The policy was overhauled after those cases. A. J. Allmendinger was suspended in 2012 following an Adderall positive, which he said he had taken unwittingly; the ban was lifted that September. Spencer Gallagher won his first Xfinity race on 28 April 2018, was suspended indefinitely on 1 May and missed seven races.
The route back is the same in every case: complete Road to Recovery and have a plan approved covering treatment, rehabilitation and counselling. Crew members can be tested too. Matt Borland, crew chief for Ty Dillon, tested positive for methylhexanamine, which he blamed on diet coffee, and Germain Racing kept him.
Outside NASCAR, Tomas Enge tested positive after the 2002 Hungaroring round of International Formula 3000, raced on, won the title, and was then disqualified from that round, which made Sebastien Bourdais champion. Franck Montagny tested positive for a cocaine derivative after the 2014 Putrajaya ePrix and was banned for two years once a second test confirmed it; the ban ended on 23 December 2016. Anthony Kumpen, a two-time NASCAR Whelen Euro Series Elite 1 champion, was barred after an amphetamine positive at the 2018 24 Hours of Zolder; he said an ADHD medicine was responsible.
Dirt racing tightened up after Kevin Ward Jr. was killed on a New York track and toxicology reports found marijuana. World Racing Group began regular testing in 2017. Justin Ratliff was first to be penalised, for refusing a test, and received 90 days. Scott Bloomquist missed a test in 2018 after a fall at the Dirt Late Model Dream left him in hospital, then refused a later one and got 90 days. Justin Peck and Chris Martin each tested positive for a marijuana metabolite and each received 90 days.
Other bodies have their own stories. Stock Car Brasil stripped Paulo Salustiano of a win in 2008 for finasteride, which he said was in a hair product, and Tarso Marques received a two-year suspension after testing positive for anabolic steroids. Argentina's national automobile club has run anti-doping rules since 1998, and a marijuana positive in the TC2000 series led to a suspension that an appeal cut to six months.
Criticism of NASCAR
NASCAR has attracted criticism on several fronts, and much of it grew out of the sport's own peak. Since 2005 it has seen a gradual decline, with television viewership hitting record lows in 2018. Critics point to the move to bigger markets in 1997, when California and Texas Motor Speedway arrived and traditional venues such as North Wilkesboro and Rockingham were dropped. North Wilkesboro hosted the Cup All Star Race from 2023 to 2025 and was scheduled to stage a Cup points race in 2026, its first since 1996.
The car has been the biggest lightning rod. The Car of Tomorrow was tested in December 2005, revealed in 2006 and debuted at the 2007 Food City 500. Fans disliked its boxy shape and detached wing. Kyle Busch won that first race and then said the car "sucks". NASCAR made it standard in 2008 and credits it with big safety gains and lower maintenance costs, but three flips between 2007 and 2010 led it to replace the wing with a spoiler. Brian France later called its introduction his biggest failure. The Generation 6 car was better received, though Denny Hamlin was fined $25,000 for criticising it and refused to pay, so NASCAR took the sum from his winnings.
The Next Gen car, introduced in 2021 and racing from 2022, was promised better racing, lower costs and more safety. Drivers and fans say the cars are too alike and passing is hard, especially at short tracks such as Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond. Kurt Busch suffered a concussion at Pocono in July 2022 and did not race again. Alex Bowman missed five races after a concussion at Texas that September. Ryan Preece's flip in the 2025 Daytona 500 was the seventh for the car since its debut.
Noise is a separate charge. In 2007 the New York Times cited two studies by US occupational health researchers at Bristol in 2005, finding noise could reach 140 decibels at full throttle for three to four hours. Richard Petty and Jeff Burton were said to need hearing aids. A NASCAR spokesperson said mufflers had been tried in the 1960s without success; they were retested in 2023 at the Busch Clash, with heat still unresolved.
Governance draws fire as well. The France family has majority-owned NASCAR since Bill France Sr. founded it in 1947, and critics have called it a "benevolent dictatorship". The charter system of 2016 has been blamed for raising barriers for new teams; Leavine Family Racing's owner said the team did not get full value for what he paid. On the environment, NASCAR says about 6,000 US gallons (23,000 litres) of fuel are used in a typical Cup weekend, and the cars have no mufflers or catalytic converters.
The FIA-FOTA dispute
This one hit Formula One at its highest level. In early 2009 FIA president Max Mosley proposed an optional budget cap of 30 million euros for 2010, with extra technical freedom for teams that opted in. The teams objected to what amounted to two rulebooks. Ferrari went to a Paris court, which ruled that its objection had no basis: Ferrari held a technical veto but had not used it at the previous World Motor Sport Council meeting.
Seven teams - Ferrari, BMW Sauber, Toyota, Renault, Brawn GP, Red Bull and Toro Rosso - said they would withdraw from 2010. The ten FOTA teams then voted unanimously at Monaco to leave unless the cap rules changed. Williams filed an unconditional entry within three days and was suspended from FOTA; Force India did the same on 5 June. The FIA took entries from 15 parties for three new places and published a 2010 list on 12 June, then raised the proposed cap to 45 million euros on 16 June.
The eight remaining FOTA teams asked for more time, were refused, and after meeting at Renault's Enstone base announced a breakaway series. A Sky Sport poll found 91% of Italian fans backing it, and a Network 10 poll found more than 65% of respondents favouring the new series over Formula One. The crisis reached a head at the World Motor Sport Council in Paris on 24 June, where FOTA agreed to stay and Mosley agreed not to stand for re-election. A day later he demanded apologies and the deal looked shaky. On 8 July FOTA walked out of a meeting. On 15 July it was confirmed Mosley would step down.
On Hungarian Grand Prix weekend thirteen teams met commercial rights holder CVC to discuss a new Concorde Agreement. BMW Sauber announced its withdrawal on 29 July and the FIA signed the agreement on 1 August. Separately, N.Technology sued over its rejected 2010 bid, and the French courts dismissed the claim on 10 November. Zoran Stefanovic, who wanted to enter as Stefan Grand Prix, complained to the European Commission about the selection process.
Where it all ended up
The cap never came into force for 2010. BMW and Toyota left Formula One; Sauber took Toyota's grid slot and became Alfa Romeo Racing in 2018. The 2010 newcomers Team Lotus, Virgin and HRT did not last the decade. Haas joined in 2016 and Cadillac in 2026, taking the grid to 11 teams. In 2020 teams agreed a cost cap for 2021, set first at $175 million and trimmed to $145 million because of the pandemic, with exceptions such as driver salaries and marketing. That is roughly twice the 45 million euro (about $62.4 million) cap the FIA proposed in June 2009.
