The friction coefficients of tread rubber under different contact pressures and sliding velocities were tested on a laboratory abrasion and skid tester LAT 100, and a proposed friction law was applied to characterize the frictional behavior of tread rubber displayed in the experiment. In order to verify the friction law, the steady-state cornering rolling of the rubber wheel incorporated with the enhanced friction model was simulated with the ABAQUS package. On this basis, the enhanced friction model was applied to the tire cornering simulations at slip angles in a wide range using the explicit solver and the contact pressure distributions of several cornering conditions were investigated. The results show that the computed tire cornering responses are in good agreement with experimental results and the numerical noises are controlled within a smaller range.