Expert: Barry Smith - 5/12/2006

Question
What are the benefits of inflating tires with nitrogen and who can back up these benefits?
Why does Nascar inflate their tires with Nitrogen?

Answer
The benefits are:

1)  Reduced oxidation of rubber compounds - which should extend the life of a tire before the materials fail - which probably isn't very useful unless you keep tires a long time.

2)  Reduces pressure loss - this is somewhat useful as it extends the time before you need to add "air" to compensate for the air that seeped through the casing - but a lot of the air loss is around the beads where it contacts the rim so that's not as useful as it sounds.  Besides even if you only check your tires twice a year (when the weather changes from hot to cold or the other way), you should be able to tell when you need to "top up" and it's not all that difficult.

3)  And the reason NASCAR (and other racing series use nitrogen) - there is no water introduced into the tire.  Water, in liquid form, can change the way the heat buildup affects the pressure buildup.  For racing this is very important as this affects the handling of the car.  But on the street, this has almost no meaning as the differences are small and most folks wouldn't be able to tell the difference - not mention use the difference to their advantage.

All the other benefits that are sometimes sited are bogus because you can get those same benefits if you properly inflate your tires with air.

Hope this helps.