Firestone Firehawk INDY 500 V2: There’s more to it than a name

The year was 1911 when a local Indianapolis sales manager suggested to Harvey Firestone that Firestone Tire, eight years on from manufacturing its first tires, should back a driver in the Indianapolis 500. The rest is the stuff of legend.

Ray Harroun went on to win the inaugural race with his Firestone-shod Marmon Wasp, and more than 75 times since then, the winning car and driver have wheeled out of Gasoline Alley, raced hard for 200 laps of the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and headed to Victory Circle on Firestones.

In honor of that esteemed heritage, Firestone’s latest ultra-high performance summer tire proudly carries the Indy 500 as part of its name, the Firehawk INDY 500 V2. And it’s available now for your high-performance car – perfect timing for the summer driving season.

“If you’re the kind of driver who likes to drive on back roads often and also do the occasional track day or performance driving event, the Firehawk INDY 500 V2 would do well for you,” says Todd Chapman, Senior Manager, Product Strategy at Bridgestone Americas.

There’s more to it than a name, and the racing knowledge transfer into Firestone’s Firehawk line of tires is very real.

“There’s a constant communication between a variety of groups (within Firestone) where motorsports is involved, because leveraging our involvement in motorsports is something we’re extremely proud of,” explains Lisa Boggs, Director of Bridgestone West Motorsports.

“Racing is a thread that runs through the company. If you attend an NTT IndyCar Series race, you’ll see Firestone Complete Auto Care activation. The flipside is the proof point that our consumer tires are developed with the knowledge and the skill and the understanding of technology that it takes to go through Turn 1 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 240mph.”

Firestone tires are used by every car racing in the 2026 Indianapolis 500. For Firestone, it’s a high-speed mobile laboratory. Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment

Technology or knowledge transfer between the road and racing divisions happens in a variety of ways, from engineering insights to material adaptations. The Firehawk INDY 500 V2 uses Firestone’s ENLITEN technology – a suite of technologies that is designed to deliver customized and uncompromised tire performance while promoting a focus on enhanced sustainability.

“A lot of these technologies are sustainability-focused, but we want to make sure that it also still meets the requirements of the segment,” says Chapman.

“So in this case, it being a summer performance tire, we’re trying to expand upon the performance of the previous generation product using our ENLITEN technology stack to improve dry and wet handling. Tire compounds, or more specifically, the monomers within those compounds that are developed for racing, are then used to put together a compound for a street tire. It may not be a direct one-to-one compound between racing and street, but elements of that compound design or the learnings that we have from racing have allowed us to better improve our street compounds as well.”

Does ENLITEN technology tie back to motorsports?

“Motorsport serves as the mobile lab,” says Boggs. “We go racing to learn about tires, and ultimately it’s about track to road, not just racing for the sake of racing. It’s all about developing the best tires. So, for the NTT IndyCar Series and Indy NXT by Firestone, we have ENLITEN. This year’s Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 tires feature key components of Bridgestone Global ENLITEN Technology. The tires incorporate renewable and recycled materials such as recycled steel for bead wire in all right-side tires, as well as materials derived from palm oil waste residue.”

Like the Firehawk INDY 500 V2 road tire, Firestone’s NTT IndyCar Series and Indy NXT race tires incorporate ENLITEN technology in their construction.

Heritage and racing tech transfer are embedded in the Firehawk INDY 500 V2. The result is a tire offering performance-oriented drivers feedback and control on spirited drives with the kind of durability that means you’ll enjoy doing that as often as possible.

Find out more about the Firestone Firehawk INDY 500 V2 ultra-high performance summer tire at firestonetire.com.