How Racing Tires Can Help You Make It To the Winner’s Circle

Understanding when it’s time to move beyond street performance upgrades and into specialized competition gear can be tough sometimes, but when it comes to drag tires, it’s pretty easy. Drag racing requires you to put everything on the line at launch, and drag tires are optimized to help with that goal.

Racing Tires vs. Street Tires

Racing tires maximize traction under ideal conditions, and for that reason, they are not a good choice for open road conditions. Luckily, with the right garage tools, you can make changing your tire set easy, even if you do it at the track. The other options are to bring the vehicle in on a trailer or to use DOT-approved drag tires.

The DOT requirements for street tires include tread requirements that help channel liquid away from contact surfaces in rainy or slushy conditions. They also help with traction in loose material like sand or snow. Street tires also need to perform well at temperatures well below freezing and in the heat of the summer.

By contrast, racing tires only need to provide traction under track conditions. They also need to be optimized for speeds that are well above any speed limit, and above the 145mph ceiling recommended by most OEM tire designs. As a result, they are made from a softer rubber that gets sticky as it heats up, helping it get better traction against the surface of the track.

True slicks have a two-ply sidewall design that wrinkles under pressure to optimize cornering physics at speed and acceleration at launch, but racing radials combine the wide contact surface and sticky materials with a sidewall design that is more familiar to most drivers. Slicks tend to have better acceleration at launch as a result, but drag radials are known to be more stable at top-end speeds, and as a result, they offer more control.

Street Legal Drag Tires and Wheels

If you are looking for drag wheels and tires that conform to DOT standards, you’re going to be looking at radials. They’re sturdier and have a longer lifespan. Not every radial drag tire is DOT-approved, though. They have to have a certain amount of tread and meet other requirements, so if you are shopping for tires that you can keep on the vehicle when you drive it to the competition, you need to double-check that DOT approval is affirmed in the product description before placing an order.

Finding the Right Tire for Your Next Race

Deciding on the right racing tire involves more than just thinking about your needs with respect to DOT approval. It also means choosing between the top-speed stability provided by radials and the off-the-line launch provided by bias-ply drag slicks. Even if you never drive the tires on open roads, there are reasons to choose radials for certain drag builds. Start comparing your build and the benefits each tire brings today so you can get your hands on the parts you need to place the next time you are at the track.