Johnny G & Friends Babcox Media

Sally Thomas is a second-generation tire dealer with ambition, grit, and heart for the tire industry. Her father, Paul, founded the business in 1981 out of the driveway of their family home, and he and his wife, Sandra, soon blossomed the company into a full-blown tire and service location in Asheboro, North Carolina.

Sally grew up working in the business but pursued a career in nursing before making her way back. In 2012, Sally, with her business-savvy, and her brother, Bryan, with his tire and service-know how, took over J.P. Thomas & Company, which had grown significantly into a multi-division corporation. They have since added several locations and have more than tripled their revenues over the past decade. 

Today, they operate eight retail stores known as Thomas Tire & Automotive, two commercial locations, three wholesale distribution warehouses known as East Coast Tires, a Mighty Auto Parts franchise, and an e-commerce business. They are also distributors for Hunter Engineering, Challenger Lifts, Atlas Copco and CPS Products. 

Community makes McMahon’s Best-One stand out from the competition. The company was founded in 1969 by Pat McMahon, who bought out a local independent tire dealer in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, with the help of Paul Zurcher.

Pat built a strong foundation for the business, and today, his son, Bubba, who grew up in the tire industry, now owns it with Randy Geyer, a longtime employee. Bubba’s wife, Kim, is now president of McMahon’s Best-One, and together they are pushing the limits on what it means to be an independent tire dealer.

With 13 locations and counting, McMahon has close-knit ties to the communities it serves and is elevating the professionalism in our industry to thrive in the future. 

Tiger Woods, Jason Day and Freddie Couples are just a few of the names linked to the quality and precision behind Bridgestone Golf – but the man behind the scenes who helped create and catapult the Bridgestone Golf brand to PGA grounds is Dan Murphy, the company's current president and CEO.

Dan has a long history in the golf business and is a golf fanatic himself. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000s when he was recruited to help launch the Bridgestone Golf brand, and he quickly distinguished it for its golf ball fitting capabilities.  Since then, Bridgestone Golf has manufactured golf balls and accessories for everyone from PGA tour pros to weekend warriors teeing up with their buddies. Bridgestone Golf also serves as the premium lifestyle link to the Bridgestone Tire brand.

In this episode of Johnny g & Friends, presented by Firestone, Dan and Johnny g discuss: 
Jason Day's involvement with Bridgestone Golf's new MindSet golf ball (1:06);Tiger Woods' involvement with Bridgestone Golf's golf ball R&D (3:35);Details on Bridgestone Golf's golf ball testing technology (6:18);How tire development influences tire design and vice versa (8:28);Experimenting to see how golf balls with different dimple patterns fly (11:15);An inside look at how golf balls are made at Bridgestone Golf's factory in Covington, GA (14:47);Dan's vision for Bridgestone Golf in the future (16:49);Rapid fire questions (19:06).

Tiger Woods, Jason Day and Freddie Couples are just a few of the names linked to the quality and precision behind Bridgestone Golf – but the man behind the scenes who helped create and catapult the Bridgestone Golf brand to PGA grounds is Dan Murphy, the company's current president and CEO.

Dan has a long history in the golf business and is a golf fanatic himself. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000s when he was recruited to help launch the Bridgestone Golf brand, and he quickly distinguished it for its golf ball fitting capabilities.

Since then, Bridgestone Golf has manufactured golf balls and accessories for everyone from PGA tour pros to weekend warriors teeing up with their buddies. Bridgestone Golf also serves as the premium lifestyle link to the Bridgestone Tire brand.

In this episode of Johnny g & Friends, presented by Firestone, Dan and Johnny g discuss: 
Dan explains how he found himself with Bridgestone Golf (1:58);What was Bridgestone's marketing strategy to emerge from its underdog status as a golf ball maker in the early 2000s? (4:11);Bridgestone Golf's mandates for success (6:24);Johnny g and Dan discuss the ad campaigns developed to promote both Bridgestone tires and Bridgestone golf balls (8:36);How COVID changed golf (10:57);The importance of Bridgestone Golf's approach to golf ball fitting (14:04);Touring the Bridgestone Golf test center (16:36);Dan's fondest memories at Bridgestone Golf (19:00);Behind the curtain of when Bridgestone Golf signed the contract to manufacture Nike golf balls (22:31).This is PART 1 of a two-part episode with Johnny g and Dan Murphy. Come back to Tire Review tomorrow to watch PART 2!

Andrew Firestone is the great-grandson of Harvey S. Firestone, the founder of Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. Andrew’s last name appears on signs in tire stores around the world, but it wasn’t until the early 2000s that Andrew began to delve into his Firestone roots after rising to fame on the series “The Bachelor.” Since then, Andrew has developed a love and appreciation for the tire industry and the Bridgestone-Firestone company and brands.

Today, Andrew continues his great-grandfather’s legacy as an entrepreneur, founding his own development company in the hospitality industry.

Welcome to Johnny g & Friends. Today, we have a special episode for you: The Greatness Round-Up of Season 3. In this episode, we take one question I asked all of our guests this year and compile their answers into one episode of never-before-heard audio.

This year, I asked our guests, “How do you work on the business instead of in the business?” In this episode, you'll hear from:


Marc Pons, owner of Chapel Hill Tire;Beth Barron, president and CEO of Chabill’s Tire & Auto Service;Paul Sullivan, vice president of Sullivan Tire & Auto;Matt Jensen, president of Jensen Tire & Auto;TJ Beroth, president of Beroth Tire & Automotive;Dennis King, president of Dunlap & Kyle.We appreciate all of our Season 3 guests sharing their knowledge about the tire business with us this year. Be sure to be on the lookout next year for Season 4. Have a Happy New Year!