Heat In The Tires

I know a little bit about NASCAR racing, not a lot, but a little bit. Believe it or not I’ve raced late model stock cars and modified cars. Ain’t no rush like it.

One of the things you may or may not know about racing is that the air pressure in the tires is set to a lower air pressure at the beginning of the race because as the race gets going and the tires heat up it causes the size of the tires to expand.

The left side tires and the right side tires are set at different tire pressures so that the inside tires (the left side) are smaller than the right side tires which helps the car turn through the corners. If you’re not familiar with this concept take a typical water glass and turn it on its side. Push the larger end of the glass counter clockwise and notice how the glass will turn in a circle. The inside of the glass is smaller thus it turns.

You may have noticed that when a caution flag comes out during a race you will see the drivers weaving back and forth before the green flag comes out. They do this for two reasons: 1. to get debris off the tires and 2. even more important is to get as much heat and expansion in the tires as possible. So, the moral to the story is you have to keep the heat in the tires if you wanna go fast.

That’s the same deal for leaders. Leaders know they have to keep the heat on if they wanna go fast. Keeping the heat on doesn’t mean beating people up. Just as in racing if you beat people up, bang on the other guy’s car you are probably not going to win the race…even if you win, you’ve caused problems for yourself down the road.

Same deal for you…putting the heat on in the wrong way, beating and banging on people may get you a win once in a while, but you will lose a lot more than you win.

When done correctly and in the right situation, keeping the heat on is a good thing. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs