What Happens To Used NASCAR Tires After A Race?

When the men sitting around the hotel table in Daytona Beach, Florida, established the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) back in December of 1947, they probably never took into account just how many tires those stock cars would burn through over the next 77 years, en route to giving us countless memorable racing moments.

Goodyear (the official sponsor and sole supplier of tires for NASCAR) makes (by hand, mind you) each one of the more than 100,000 tires it supplies for all three of NASCAR's top series (the Cup Series, Xfinity Series, and Craftsman Truck Series) each year. Each tire is only good for about 100 miles (or as little as 20 minutes), and during a 500-mile race, a car can put on as much as 40,000 miles of "normal" wear. 

Under today's current set of rules, 40 cars start every race. The number of tires each will use depends on the track configuration and length, the incredible speeds they race at, and whatever changes are implemented (i.e., the use of option and prime tires). However, a team will typically burn through between nine and fourteen sets (36 to 56 tires) by the time the checkered flag is waved. Some quick back-of-the-napkin math shows that with 40 teams competing, as few as 1,440 or as many as 2,240 tires can be used each race.

So, what happens to all these really expensive ($550 a pop) used tires? In short, they're returned to Goodyear in order to be recycled, retreaded, and studied to help make a better tire.

There are 36 total races in a NASCAR season, but the first 26 are considered the "regular season," with the final 10 (divided into four rounds) used as the playoffs. Thus, roughly 51,840 to 80,640 tires are used per season, and that's just in the main NASCAR Cup Series. When you add the Xfinity and Truck Series with the assortment of other sponsored races (Pintys, Mexico, Euro, Whelen Modified, and ARCA series), a good estimate puts total annual tire usage well north of 300,000. 

Technically, the teams don't own the tires per se; they're leased from Goodyear. Each team has a tire specialist who gathers all the necessary data from the used tires after a race. The tires are then taken to a centralized semi-tractor trailer. They're eventually hauled back to Goodyear for further inspection and either recycled or retreaded for additional track test usage by the race teams.

In some cases, the tires are sold to fans as souvenirs. Tracks like Sonoma Raceway in Northern California reuse tires to make tire pack barriers in impact zones, and by their count, used 1,000 reused tire packs made up of 25,000 tires in 2024.

In 2009, the racing league established the sport's first industry-wide sustainability platform called NASCAR Green (now NASCAR IMPACT). In 2013, it teamed up with Pittsburgh-based Liberty Tire Recycling (a partnership that still exists), which became the "Official Tire Recycler of NASCAR Green." At that time, about 120,000 Goodyear tires were being recycled annually. Since NACAR's inception in 1948, it's pretty safe to say that millions upon millions of tires have been used on cars partaking in its races.