Firestone

Playboy Sept. 1964

The first time the Indy 500 was driven on one set of tires.  Continuously.  That's pretty impressive, but I'd like someone with a better knowledge of Indycar history to weigh in on this.  Particularly, because I'm pretty sure that most Indy races nowadays aren't run on one single set of tires.  I may be wrong, but I think this is true.

Tires in these races are stressed to the limit, and wear very quickly.  The solution to fast wear is to make them more durable, but this typically comes at the cost of traction.  So, why was Firestone able to do this in the 60's?  Were the cars back then much slower than the modern cars, that they didn't need high levels of grip and could get away with more durable tires?  If so, at what point did racers start moving back toward multiple sets of tires per race?

If anyone with a little wisdom wants to drop a little for us, leave a comment!