Hudson advantage?

Kdancy

Very curious about this statement and wondered if any here have any insight into this (from the Studebaker forum)as I have never heard of it.
http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?45008-Hudson-problem-explained-by-the-Legendary-Cotton-Owens

A friend of mine's father sponsored/owned some stock cars back at the time the Hudsons ran. He mostly sponsored Fords and Mercurys. He claims his dad had quite a hot discussion with NASCAR about Hudson being able to strengthed their wheels. Evidently those wheels not only had reinforced centers, but were a little wider as well. Some would claim these wider wheels helped the Hudson's handling as much as the lower center of gravity did.

Park_W

The NASCAR history, "The First Forty Years," says they permitted everyone to strengthen the wheels in the bolt pattern area. This was the first mod NASCAR approved.

[Deleted User]

Sounds to me that the guy chose the wrong two brands to sponsor and found it a bitter pill to swallow... poor loser!

StillOutThere

Through '56 the rule book allowed any width of wheel that would fit in the wheel wells and everyone was reinforcing the centers of their wheels so they would not split open at the lug bolts. For example, the '55-56 Chrysler 300s fielded by Carl Kiekhaefer ran as wide as 9.5" wide wheels. The rule book did require the same diameter wheel as factory equipment but virtually everyone at the time was running 15" wheels.
The real determining factor as to what would be done with a cars wheels was the lack of racing tires back in those days. Guys attempted to run 6 ply and 8 ply tires from limosines and ambulances. The earliest racing tires coming around in those days were Goodyear Blue Streaks and Firestone 500s.
So Hudson had NO advantage with wheels whatsoever. When they won it was car and driver. When someone else won, it was car and driver. Oh, and Lady Luck.