Nascar tire size? Should they go low profile?

Question

Thanks jeffy for stealing my avatar.LOL.

Answer 1

No because there would be no room for the safety bladder inside the tire and wheel.  Even though they don't always work the bladder has saved a many of car over the years.  NASCAR would be fools to turn away from that profile of tire.

Plus a lower profile tire would allow less buffer between the pavement and the wheel, you would go into way too many cracked wheel situations at the speeds they are running.  Even many of the other types of racing using Corvettes, Lotus, Mercedes and such super high performance low profile cars do not use that low of a profile tire...

Since NASCAR's beginnings there have been changes to cars that make it impossible to do certain things, one is bumping and grinding, and a full side impact collisions.  We could put bumpers around the entire care like they do at the go cart tracks and have 100% improvement in the sidewall duration...  Want to see that, I think not!

Point is, it isn't just the sidewall being effected by the cuts, it is also the main tread area that is getting cut, the body of a NASCAR car or truck moves up and down about 3 inches at least and if a body panel is pushed inwards the wheel cut out of the car is going to come right down on the tread area of the tire...

Answer 2

The lower the profile, the less grip in the turns as the sidewall will not "give" as much.

Answer 3

they already only 10 in. wide  

Answer 4

Low profile tires at high speeds just don't work.  They'd go flat every lap and they have no grip on banked race tracks.