What did YOU do today?

[Rick W]

Who knows about NASCAR and NASCAR tires?

An interesting acquisition yesterday, Craigslist, didn’t cost me a nickel. I picked up two NASCAR race day tires that were autographed by the entire pit crew for Rusty Wallace (?).

I know about as much about NASCAR now as I did dogs before I got Lincoln. But I started research.

Apparently, Miller Genuine Draft (avRusty Wallace sponsor., and a sponsor of several races,) ran a promotion in 94 or 95 where you got coupons when you bought the beer. Once you got a certain number of coupons, you could mail them in and they would get you a tire signed by the RW pit crew. Although the signatures are from Rusty Wallace‘s pit crew, there is some doubt if each tire actually ran on Rusty Wallace‘s car. BTW, RW ran Ford at the time. I contacted MGD to see if I could get more information about the promotion, and also get an idea of how many tires they gave away. I’ve never seen one before.

Yellow letter tires were introduced in mid 93.

The thing that looks like a date code is actually an individual serial number for each tire. I’ve already contacted Goodyear racing to see if I can trace the tires to the racing team and ideally the driver and the race. Obviously, the bigger the driver and the bigger the race, and anything that happened during the race, would value these much higher than just any old NASCAR tire signed by the pit crew.

There’s a light yellow crayon mark on both. One is RR52, and the other one is LF29. Apparently these codes were written on the tires on race day as they were distributed to the drivers from Goodyear at each race. RR and LF are right rear and left front respectively, and the number is supposed to be the number of the car.

In 94/95, 52 was Ritchie Petty. Yes he’s in the famous Petty family, but the car was not part of the Petty racing machine. The car owner was Maurice Petty. Also Ford.

In 94/95, 29 was driven by Steve Grissom. I haven’t found any information on him yet.

On the tire, where it says “Goodyear” and “eagle,” there are thin lines that run through the words. Apparently these thin lines define “bands” where the number of bands indicates which racetrack ran the tires. I found that info, but I can’t find any info on which band is which track.

The bright white marking is apparently put on by the pit crew, indicating which set of tires, and which position.

On one of them, there is a white pit crew mark “8/65.” I think that might have something to do with the number of laps the tire ran.

I’m curious to verify what I found so far, and fill in a lot of the blanks, including driver Grissom. There are red and yellow marks and stamps on the surface of the tire, not part of the rubber, and they apparently all mean something.

If anyone knows or anyone can point me, I’d be very appreciative.

 

[sgtsandman]

Who knows about NASCAR and NASCAR tires?

An interesting acquisition yesterday, Craigslist, didn’t cost me a nickel. I picked up two NASCAR race day tires that were autographed by the entire pit crew for Rusty Wallace (?).

View attachment 125913
View attachment 125918
View attachment 125914View attachment 125915View attachment 125916View attachment 125917

I know about as much about NASCAR now as I did dogs before I got Lincoln. But I started research.

Apparently, Miller Genuine Draft (avRusty Wallace sponsor., and a sponsor of several races,) ran a promotion in 94 or 95 where you got coupons when you bought the beer. Once you got a certain number of coupons, you could mail them in and they would get you a tire signed by the RW pit crew. Although the signatures are from Rusty Wallace‘s pit crew, there is some doubt if each tire actually ran on Rusty Wallace‘s car. BTW, RW ran Ford at the time. I contacted MGD to see if I could get more information about the promotion, and also get an idea of how many tires they gave away. I’ve never seen one before.

Yellow letter tires were introduced in mid 93.

The thing that looks like a date code is actually an individual serial number for each tire. I’ve already contacted Goodyear racing to see if I can trace the tires to the racing team and ideally the driver and the race. Obviously, the bigger the driver and the bigger the race, and anything that happened during the race, would value these much higher than just any old NASCAR tire signed by the pit crew.

There’s a light yellow crayon mark on both. One is RR52, and the other one is LF29. Apparently these codes were written on the tires on race day as they were distributed to the drivers from Goodyear at each race. RR and LF are right rear and left front respectively, and the number is supposed to be the number of the car.

In 94/95, 52 was Ritchie Petty. Yes he’s in the famous Petty family, but the car was not part of the Petty racing machine. The car owner was Maurice Petty. Also Ford.

In 94/95, 29 was driven by Steve Grissom. I haven’t found any information on him yet.

On the tire, where it says “Goodyear” and “eagle,” there are thin lines that run through the words. Apparently these thin lines define “bands” where the number of bands indicates which racetrack ran the tires. I found that info, but I can’t find any info on which band is which track.

The bright white marking is apparently put on by the pit crew, indicating which set of tires, and which position.

On one of them, there is a white pit crew mark “8/65.” I think that might have something to do with the number of laps the tire ran.

View attachment 125919

I’m curious to verify what I found so far, and fill in a lot of the blanks, including driver Grissom. There are red and yellow marks and stamps on the surface of the tire, not part of the rubber, and they apparently all mean something.

If anyone knows or anyone can point me, I’d be very appreciative.

I don't know a whole lot about them either. I have heard that they have enough rubber to deal with the stresses of the race track and provide the needed grip but apparently not enough to hold air pressure long term, like a passenger car or truck tire does. Enough to finish a race but that is about it.

 

[SenorNoob]

ht shift was supposed to replace a bearing. They did the right bearing in the wrong machine. Then they did it in the right machine. But messed it up and it started to overheat. So they took it apart again to replace with the last bearing we had in stock. At that point, what little supervision they had said (basically) “Stop. Put the tools down. Put your hands in your pockets and let day shift straighten this mess out.” So, here we are.

Are you sure we don't work at the same place? LOL. I get a story like that at least once a week from second shift when I come in on 3rd. Usually spend half of the night fixing the things they worked on. The sad part is one of them is ASE certified and the other has a local tech school certification in industrial maintenance. I just grew up poor so learned to fix things rather than replace. My only training/certifications are in IT.

 

[Curious Hound]

Are you sure we don't work at the same place? LOL. I get a story like that at least once a week from second shift when I come in on 3rd. Usually spend half of the night fixing the things they worked on. The sad part is one of them is ASE certified and the other has a local tech school certification in industrial maintenance. I just grew up poor so learned to fix things rather than replace. My only training/certifications are in IT.

If you wear this uniform, then we might work in the same place.

 

[Rick W]

I don't know a whole lot about them either. I have heard that they have enough rubber to deal with the stresses of the race track and provide the needed grip but apparently not enough to hold air pressure long term, like a passenger car or truck tire does. Enough to finish a race but that is about it.

Yeah, they have very little to do with over the road tires. Keep in mind these guys could go more or less than 200 mph. They use a very special rubber compound that, when heated up, actually feels sticky like scotch tape on the surface. i’ve never been close to a NASCAR track, but I’ve been in the loop on Indy car racing, SCCA, and amateur driving up at Road Atlanta and at the Atlanta motorsports Park. After the tires are warmed up, you can actually pick a little rubber off with your fingernail. And on these multi hundred mile races, I don’t think any of them are designed to go more than a quarter of the way. Really cool technology.

My interest is in more of the history of the tires and who used them, but all input is always appreciated.

They’re actually just wide 15 inch tires. I’ve been thinking about what I could put them on or fabricate a little trailer, but it would be sacrilege with the autographs. And one of them has a pretty good flat spot either from braking hard or from spinning out. I bet you it would take barbell weights to balance them.

 

[scotts90ranger]

I pretty much just ended up mowing a bunch yesterday, also burned some pallet wood that was cut up all random like by someone that misunderstood at work when they were told to cut up some pallets... also emptied the oil catch thing in the shop into the stove oil tank while I had the tractor around moving stuff around before I put the mower on the back...

 

[97RangerXLT]

ahhh the days before NASCAR sucked... I was into it in the 94 to 98 seasons, I liked Jeff Gordon and to a degree Dale Sr. at the time I was into the GM Chevy cars ( I was young and dumb) and had a black 96 Monte Carlo. great looking car, also the reason why I started liking Fords more and more... that car was the 2nd biggest piece of crap that I have ever owned, and only in 2009 when Dodge said "Hold my beer, I got this!" did I learn the real meaning of POS.

Anyways, I had a sticker for my Monte Carlo of Calvin bawling next to a #2 helmet on it.

AJ

 

[sgtsandman]

ahhh the days before NASCAR sucked... I was into it in the 94 to 98 seasons, I liked Jeff Gordon and to a degree Dale Sr. at the time I was into the GM Chevy cars ( I was young and dumb) and had a black 96 Monte Carlo. great looking car, also the reason why I started liking Fords more and more... that car was the 2nd biggest piece of crap that I have ever owned, and only in 2009 when Dodge said "Hold my beer, I got this!" did I learn the real meaning of POS.

Anyways, I had a sticker for my Monte Carlo of Calvin bawling next to a #2 helmet on it.

AJView attachment 125928

The biggest P.O.S. I ever owned was a 1981 Mercury Lynx (Ford Escort). In Ford's defense, it was a first year car that had just replaced the Ford Pinto. It was a gutless wonder with a trash transmission that had vacuum lines running all over the engine bay and an air pump for the catalytic converter. The second worst was the Chevy Sprint (Geo Metro) which was a re-badged Suzuki. The thing was definitely designed and built to be a throw away vehicle. Doing basic maintenance on it was a nightmare and the engine was fine until it over heated. Then it would start burning oil like no one's business. The concept was great. Execution, not so much.

 

[JoshT]

Worked on the F-250 yesterday. Got it all back together from the list of maintenance/mods/repairs I was doing. Only failed on accomplishing one item, that was swapping in the 2017+ mirrors. Got bit by the import reproduction part quality control. Electronics in one mirror did not work, bought over a year ago so warranty gone, and bork in process of trying to disassemble to fix myself. Might try to repair and install later, but that is shelved for now.

Thing isn't running for crap right now. Hopefully I just need to put a bunch of miles on it to clear the trapped air out of the oil and fuel rails. At least that's what people on the diesel forums are telling me. Rainy weather today so didn't really want to get out for a drive.

Other than that and the rain, it was dad's 71st birthday yesterday so hung out with them for the afternoon and ate good. That was the weeekend.

Are you sure we don't work at the same place? LOL. I get a story like that at least once a week from second shift when I come in on 3rd. Usually spend half of the night fixing the things they worked on. The sad part is one of them is ASE certified and the other has a local tech school certification in industrial maintenance. I just grew up poor so learned to fix things rather than replace. My only training/certifications are in IT.

I think that song is sung anywhere that maintenance takes place.

I typed up a whole speil about how I uised to work in a similar environment, but I don;t want to think about those days sdo I deleted it. Simply put I had the same problems when I was in a tool box. A job that should take a two days turns into 4 because I have to rework half of what second shift did. I catch the blame for correcting their work, when I saved a week of rework on the backend for preventing the leaks and crap that they would have caused.

Man am I glad to be out of that environment. They eventually figured it out when I moved onto better things. Both figured out what I'd been trying to tell them, and figured out how to do it right so they didn't have to do the rework.

 

[racsan]

Did very little today, most sundays I don’t accomplish much. catch the laundry up, pre-make lunches for the upcoming work week. Its rained off & on all day here & is currently storming out. Good day to not accomplish much.

 

[sgtsandman]

Pretty much the same here. Not much of anything.

 

[Sharky]

the same thing I do every morning, an hour long walk with my dogs
my boys taking a break.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Got up, nuked some spammers on here and haven’t even had my coffee yet…

I‘m about to start trying to raise a ruckus though. The new ordinances that are about to be passed in my township appear to contain a 4th Amendment violation…

 

[Rick W]

Did I ever mention I love craigslist/marketplace?

20 inch spot/flood combo light bar. 2 6-LED flood/spots. Both of them are the “better quality“ type.

All never used. And then they came with a box of the really heavy duty brackets that clamp on the roll bars on a jeep or something like that, a bazillion of the little rubber grommets that go with them, the mounts for the six – LED lights, and some other hardware.

$30.00. I need them like a hole in the head, but I’m a junkie.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

So… it’s bad. It’s really bad. I’m not sure if it would cross a line if I posted it here because it isn’t really Republican/Democrat political. It’s more like small town crap. But these ordinances… they have the potential to screw every person living in the township at the whim of the Code Enforcement officer… who is NOT elected. Looks to me like a clear 4th Amendment violation and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Punishable by fines and imprisonment. Not even allowed a pile of lawn clippings in your yard. Among other things. It’s bad. I’d like to post it so you all can see evil…