Our textbook describes a common model for friction (both static and kinetic) in which the area of contact between interacting surfaces is irrelevant to the size of the frictional force. However, we can't help noticing how wide the tires are on drag racing cars! One explanation for the large size of the tires would be to give a larger contact patch between the tire and the track in search of more traction. But our model says contact area doesn't matter. Clarify this situation in a mini essay of 2 or 3 sentences. Sort out whether contact area matters or not. Can you think of other advantages of really wide tires -- in addition to how cool they look.