Bridgestone continues to relocate IndyCar racing tires

Bridgestone Americas, which owns the Firestone tire brand, said it will renovate and relocate the iconic Firestone logo located on the rooftop of Firestone Plant One in south Akron, Ohio.

The project started on December 5. The glowing logo, which has been around for more than a century, will be removed in stages, after which Bridgestone will replace the neon signs with energy-efficient LEDs. The project will take several months to complete.

Firestone Plant One houses the workshop where the company manufactures IndyCar racing tires.

Bridgestone is now moving this production to a new plant called the Advanced Tire Production Center (ATPC), which is being built about a mile south of the first plant and a few blocks from the company's technical center. The enterprise will open in 2022.

In 2019, Bridgestone extended its agreement with NTT IndyCar to become the only tire supplier for the series until 2025.

All IndyCar tires will be manufactured in the new plant. When fully operational, Bridgestone says the new facility will produce around 30,000 racing tires a year.