Hi Gerry, While you're bacically right, at that time because Johnny Mantz was an experienced Indy driver he had connections with Firestone in Akron and they provided the tires for him. He was the only driver in that particular Darlington race to have real racing tires. Almost all the other competitors including Lee Petty ran a Sears Custom then. Lee Petty complained vehemently after the race to no avail. A great read on this is found in the Petty history library of books on them.
