Day: October 13, 2014

By David Firestone

In the spirit of my recent additions to The Driver Suit Blog, I’m gonna start writing “My Thoughts on The Racing Weekend” articles on Mondays. These will be pretty straight forward articles, where I recap my thoughts on the racing of the past weekend. If there isn’t, I will comment on any and all announcements made concerning racing and racing news. That said, let’s get started.

Let’s focus on F1 first. The first Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix took place at the brand new Sochi Autodrom in Sochi Russia. The race itself was not without controversy, given the recent events between Russia and the Ukraine. It should be noted that the circuit is a street circuit, with some public roads as part of it. What shocked a lot of drivers was the lack of grip. The surface itself was very nonabrasive to tires, which given that it is brand new does not come as a shock, but the lack of grip made strategy much more complicated. I was wondering which tire compounds Pirelli would bring to the race, and the white mediums and yellow softs did come as a shock. I thought for sure that the red super softs would be used, as did many teams. The racing itself was good, the track is long and it is a really good track.

The Jules Bianci situation was a heavy topic of conversation. He is still in critical condition, but he is in stable condition. Every team and driver had their own tribute, and even F2 and F3 teams wore decals to commemorate him. Mariussa brought his car, and put it in race trim as their tribute. This was a shocking accident in a race that should have been canceled and I am waiting for an explanation as to why the race had to be held.

As for NASCAR, the race at Charlotte was a good one. A rain storm mandated a competition caution, which I don’t like but I accept, and Toyota showed some horsepower in their cars for the first time in a while. Kevin Harvick was putting together a winning effort, but for many similar efforts he put together this year, he came up short. But the major story was a disagreement between Matt Kenseth and Brad Keselowski, and I’ll let the footage speak for itself…

It’s emotion, plain and simple. Kenseth and Keselowski are two passionate drivers. Kenseth suffered the heartbreak of being eliminated from the Chase in the Challenger round. Keselowski had a disagreement with Denny Hamlin, and accidentally ran into Kenseth. Kenseth had his seat belt and some of his safety equipment off, and could have been seriously hurt. I don’t blame Kenseth for what he did, I would have done the same thing. I think Keselowski was being very brash, but you don’t win championships without being a little brash. What will happen penalty wise we will find out later in the week.

As for me, I spent the day yesterday with my best friend Matt and we went to Zizzo Racing to pick up some memorabilia, but more on that on Sunday. I will be back on Wednesday with the Paint Scheme Tracker and on Friday with Paint Scheme Grades. I’m gonna try something I’ve been wanting to do for a while right now. I read and am a huge fan of Uni-Watch, and on Saturdays, they run a piece called 5+1. Written by Catherine Ryan, 5+1 ranks the top 5 college football games in terms of attractiveness of uniforms, and the +1 is the worst. So I’m gonna try this for the race at Charlotte.

5 Jamie McMurray #1 McDonalds Monopoly Chevy SS Smooth look, great color scheme, and I like the use of Big Mac on the name rail.

4 Landon Cassill #40 Hillman Racing Chevy SS Less is more…a lot more. White works well as a background color, and you can’t go wrong with a good shade of red!

3 Kyle Busch #18 Double Mint Toyota Camry While green has traditionally been an unlucky color for race cars, it has been used very well here. The rather simple clean design works well too.

2 Brad Keselowski #2 Detroit Genuine Parts Ford Fusion If the lettering had a black outline, it would have been more visible, but even still, the baby blue works well, as it usually does. The simple design works very well too.

1 Jimmie Johnson #48 Lowes Chevy SS Perfect design and color schemes combine for an awesome scheme!

And the +1 Danica Patrick #10 Go Daddy Chevy SS Pink for October is usually bad, but Go Daddy likes to use a really bad shade of pink. Combine that with an already bad color scheme, and design scheme, and it just looks horrible.