By T.J. Buffenbarger
(January 16, 2026) — Amid one of the busier winter stretches in our sport major news about tires has been a hot topic over the past several days capped off with Friday’s news of the Great Lakes Super Sprints switching to American Racer.
Here are some takeaways from the past several days in tires.
• The Great Lakes Super Sprints are in prime position to make a tire change of this magnitude relative to other series. If a series such as the Sprint Bandits were to make this change, they are surrounded by tracks and series that may not follow that same direction.
GLSS in the 360 world is good sized yet relatively contained. If a series like the Sprint Bandits wanted to do this, they would be surrounded by other tracks and series that may not make the same decision.
Other than the races at Eldora, there are not a lot of people dropping in to race with them from outside Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Canada. With so much 410 racing in the area, it allowed them the flexibility to do this without hindering their teams from doing things outside of GLSS as much as other regions.
This is where the GLSS move to American Racer differs significantly from the move made on the pavement side when Must See Racing branched out on their own and chose American Racer as their spec tire. There isn’t a competing entity, like Auto Value Super Sprints were at the time, to split the marketplace.
In polling a handful of GLSS is teams the reaction to the move is largely positive. There is a wait in see attitude about the wear and lifespan of the product, but otherwise were largely receptive to the change in brand.
GLTS being open shouldn’t cause much disruption when they go into Indiana and Ohio. In fact, it might attract some other racers that want to or are curious about the American Racer tires. Some of the best years of the Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series were contested with an open tire rule, and I feel the open tire makes the GLTS series an attractive option for some of the non-wing teams.
The Lightning sprints also do not see a lot of outsiders coming into race, so the open tire gives them some cost options as well.
• Sprint car racing in Michigan has experienced a positive relationship with Hoosier, particularly the people staffed locally around Lakeville, Indiana, for an extended period. For the most part sprint car race in Michigan has utilized Hoosier as a single source time provider longer than many other parts of the sprint car industry. Other than very short stints with American Racer on the right rear and Goodyear for a very short period before the 410’s even went that direction, Hoosier has been a part of the industry here.
Only a few hours from the Lakeville plant itself and their reps are fixtures around the races in Michigan. This change has to do with cost increases over the past several years.
This decision was not made by GLSS leadership lightly, as it was debated for a considerable amount of time before doing so. Those relationships built over years likely factored into prolonging this from happening a year or two ago.
• The GLSS move to American Racer also comes at the perfect timing for their series relative some of the other, larger sprint car series contacts coming up. From discussions over the fall and winter with several industry people there are multiple series with agreements coming up for renewal.
With tire cost and availability becoming a hotter topic by the day in sprint car racing, getting in the door early and being able to point out that your band made the move before someone else could prove important.
I expect a lot of eyeballs on how things go with GLSS and American Racer over the next year to help influence their future decisions on what to do about tires with their series.