It takes exactly one minute and 41 seconds for engineers at the Firestone Motorsports facility to balance, stagger, and letter a racing tire, which is probably a good thing since the company has produced 5,100 tires for the month of May and 32,000 total for the racing season.

Those production numbers are a 50 percent increase over last year, due in large part to the recent open-wheel racing merger between the Indy Racing League and the Champ Car World Series that occurred back in February and has generated the largest entry list and media frenzy at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the past decade.

Firestone executives say they don’t mind the production increase or the added media attention. In fact, the company admits that for the most part it’s business as usual, just with more races, more tracks, and more cars.

“The race track is a huge laboratory for our company,” Firestone Racing Executive Director Al Speyer said. “In racing, we are able to learn about new technology at a much faster rate. Our dealers have the confidence that if Firestone can build a tire that stands up to the demands of the IndyCar Series and speeds over 220 mph, that same commitment to innovation and advanced technology will be in the tires we develop for their customers.”

Speyer added that the month of May at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the traditions that accompany it underlie a large portion of the Firestone identity.

“IndyCar Series racing and the Indianapolis 500 have a rich history and loyal fan base, and the Firestone brand is a great fit for that audience,” Speyer said. “Our new advertising campaign captures the romance and nostalgia of the Indy 500, and it has received a tremendously positive response from our customers.”

In fact, since the company’s return to motorsports in the mid-1990s, Firestone’s consumer sales in North America have nearly doubled.

So what happens to all of those used racing tires? Speyer says that once a Firestone racing tire is “retired” it is ultimately shipped to a facility where it is burnt as fuel for a cement kiln.

“We have found this to be the most environmentally-friendly way to dispose of the tires and ensure that the proprietary technology they contain does not leave the company,” he explained.

Brian Kern writes for the Hendricks County Flyer in Avon, Ind.