Big Chief in the The Crow vs The Green Monster At Cash Days

Not all tires are created equal, especially when it comes to width. We’ve seen the difference tire size can make over and over on Street Outlaws, especially in the earlier seasons. Small Tire Cash Days was held this past weekend in Fort Worth, meaning it was time for the small tire guys to shine and the big tire guys to either tune their rides to the smaller tires or pray to the traction gods. By restricting tire size, it levels the playing field for everybody, giving some of the more more experienced small-tire racers a legitimate chance to take out the cars that they normally wouldn’t be able to hang with on big tires. Knowing what he was up against, Big Chief bolted up a pair of 29 x 10.5 slicks and went for it, hoping to do everything possible to make his twin turbo Pontiac hook on small tires, despite giving up several inches of contact patch per tire.

In the first round, Chief drew a pretty stout opponent in the Green Monster, a Mustang that is right at home on small tires, meaning the Crow would have to do its job flawlessly, as even a single slip would open the door for the Green Monster. Big Chief does a little mental sparring by taking his time to do his burnout and backing up really slowly, hoping to throw the Mustang’s driver off his game. However, it would all prove pointless just a few moments later.

When the flagger hits the light, the Crow immediately goes up in smoke while the Mustang, with admittedly less power, hooks up and streaks through the Texas night to the win. This is a great example of small tires leveling the playing field, and also a perfect look at why the higher horsepower rides run on monster rear tires, especially when they’re on the street.

You can see after the race when Aaron from NXGonzo video takes a peek down the street just how bad Chief spun, leaving long black marks as he fought for traction, but eventually just had to roll out of the throttle and watch the Mustang race to the stripe and the win.