By David G. Firestone

Ok, we have a lot of ground to cover this week, so let’s get started. We had races at Fort Worth, Circuit of the Americas, and The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and I have things to discuss about all of them, because things off track impact things on track.

The US Grand Prix took place at Circuit of the Americas in Fort Worth. For F1, it was a pretty unremarkable race, Nico Rosberg won the pole and Lewis Hamilton won the race. I did find it interesting that teams are only allowed five power units a year and as a result Sebastian Vettel had to start from pit road as a result. Also, with Caterham and Marussia unable to compete due to financial problems, there were only 18 cars in the field. IT was a decent race, but not exactly earth shattering/

I need to clarify a stance here, because this has been something that has been bothering me for a while. I enjoy F1 but I’m not a fan of it, and I don’t consider myself to be a fan of it. It’s like that old Kyle Busch quote “I’ve got no problem with [Dale Earnhardt] Junior, it’s his fans that are crazy.” Well that’s how I feel. I’ve got no problem with F1, it’s just their fans who are crazy. F1 is the biggest auto racing group in the world. Their broadcasts can attract up to 58 million people at a time. But this has gone to their fans heads, as they view NASCAR and IndyCar and other American racing groups as “beneath” F1. Well, here’s the thing, just because something is popular all over the world does not mean it has to be popular in America.

F1 has been on the bottom of the racing pecking order in America for decades. I’m amazed how much money was sunk into Circuit of the Americas considering that their major event is so irrelevant, no other track wants to host it. Sebring, The Street Circuit in Phoenix, Indianapolis, and Watkins Glen have all hosted the US Grand Prix, and while I don’t agree with how Indianapolis handled the event, , all involved don’t want the race back because they were losing money on it. F1 is as dead in America as anywhere. Now there is talk about moving a race to Las Vegas, and one to New York. I’ve got a better idea, move one to London, and one to Paris, where F1 has a fan base. Give the fans in countries where F1 is king more races, if you are going to expand the schedule.

Moving on to the NHRA, one of my favorite forms of racing. The Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas were last weekend, and they were GREAT! The racing was fun to watch, the points battle is really good this year, and with the championships in a couple of weeks at Ponoma, the end of the season is anyone’s guess. The finals are going to be legendary. John Force is battling Matt Hagan for the funny car championship, Tony Schumacher is leading the top fuel championship, Erica Enders-Stevens is leading the pro stock championship, and Andrew Hines is leading the pro stock motorcycle championship.

I want to discuss something that happened recently in the NHRA that makes no sense to me at all. Jimmy Prock was a long time crew member for John Force Racing. He was John Force’s crew chief, but sometimes we all need a change, so he went and tended his resignation for the end of the year. John Force make the questionable decision to demand his immediate resignation. As such, with two races to go, and still a huge factor in the championship, John Force had to make changes to his routine. I don’t understand this at all. Why would John Force, who himself said that when you change your routine, it sets you up for loss, would change his routine at this point in the year, where is is now, makes no sense to me, nor does it seem to make sense to anyone else. Prock went to Don Schumacher Racing and was hired on the spot. So now the advantage goes to Don Schumacher Racing, because Prock not only understand the technical side of the sport but understand how John Force thinks and prepares. So I think that this will hurt Force’s chances at a 17^th championship this season. It was a bone headed move.

Now we move on to the AAA Texas 500 at Fort Worth. The racing was great, it was close, there were a lot of great moves, a lot of great battles, and Jimmie Johnson won, while honoring the Lowes employees with his “red vest” paint scheme. But everyone is talking about what happened with Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski, so let me break it down. During one of the green white checker finished, Keselowski and Gordon got together, and Keselowski accidentally cut down Gordon’s rear tire. Gordon spun out and after the race went to confront Keselowski. Harvick shoved Keselowski, Gordon grabs him, and a huge brawl breaks out. NASCAR has said that they will review what happened and I’m willing to bet penalties will be handed out.

Brad Keselowski is brash, and very abrasive at times, but given the footage, I can’t find blame in any move he made. The move that cut Gordon’s tire was just hard racing, and I don’t think there was anything intentionally done there. I also don’t blame Gordon for being upset at what happened. But I do blame him for going over and arguing with Keselowski. What Kevin Harvick did was unacceptable. He had no place going over and shoving Keselowski, which started the brawl, and I think that Gordon was wrong for grabbing Keselowski. Keselowski did not want to get into a discussion with Gordon, and was trying to back down because he saw how mad Gordon was. It was terrible decisions by Gordon and Harvick that started this whole thing, and I think they should be fined AND lose points.

Next weekend, we have the Brazilian Grand Prix, and the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500, which will decide the four drivers racing for the championship at Homestead. So I look forward to those, and I look forward to my upcoming projects…stay tuned!

By David G. Firestone

Last week, we discussed Tony Stewart replica helmets, this week we will discuss some other replica helmets I have come across. Again these would be great for fans and collectors. I’m amazed that they aren’t available more. This week, we are going to focus on replica helmets of the Labonte brothers.

Let’s start with Bobby Labonte. Bobby Labonte has raced since 1981, he won the 1991 Nationwide Series Championship, beating Jeff Gordon, and Dale Jarrett among others. He started racing in the Sprint Cup that same year, but didn’t have any real success until he took over the #18 Interstate Batteries Pontiac Grand Prix for Joe Gibbs Racing in 1995. In 1997, he had a 7^th place finish, with a win in the final race of the season. This display helmet, probably made for a garage or mechanic desk was released.

It’s not as elaborately designed as the Simpson models, but it is a nice looking piece. The visor is locked in the down position, and doesn’t seem to be the same design as his race helmet. The inside is hollowed out, and the inside is plain plastic. An inexpensive helmet like this would be great to get signed. It would also be a great promotional tool, that’s what is was used for. Seriously, what fan wouldn’t like an autograph from their favorite driver on one of these?

Fast forward to 2011. Bobby is now driving for JTG Daugherty Racing, and he picks up a sponsorship from Lance Snacks. He has a replica helmet, based on his real helmet released by Simpson. This is a full-sized helmet, and it is very detailed. It’s a very attractive helmet, and I love the large cracker sandwich picture on the back. Again, it mystifies me as to why there aren’t many more of these designed just like their driver’s on-track counterparts.

There are also a number of 1/4 scale helmets available from the 1990’s, one example is below.

Moving on to older brother Terry, I finally found a helmet that was in a size I had been wanting. This is a Terry Labonte 1/3 scale helmet from 1997. To give you an idea the scale, let’s look at this chart…

Now that you have a good idea of its size, let’s look at the details. Obviously, it’s very detailed, though one thing that irks me about these 1990’s Simpson mini helmets is that they are solid inside, instead of having some interior details, but since they were sold for $14.99 each back in the day, there was no incentive to make it internally detailed.

There was also 1/4 scale helmets of Terry’s that have been made over the years, some examples of which are below, including the same design as the 1/3 helmet.

I’ve said this over and over, we need more of these! I like these, and I know fans like them too. I’m shocked that racing across the board doesn’t do more replica helmets for fans. I’ve got some more insight on these, but I think we’ll save that for next week.

By David G. Firestone

I’m currently recovering from a fun filled weekend, where I spent a lot of it enjoying Halloween(more on that later), and watching racing. We had two races at Martinsville, a Truck Series race and a Sprint Cup race. As with all races at Martinsville, fenders got beaten, sheet metal got banged, and tempers flared. There was also a scary “big one” at Martinsville, but no one was seriously hurt. Dale Jr. finally won a grandfather clock, Darrell Wallace Jr won his third race, this one in a special scheme to honor Wendell Scott.

For reasons I can’t understand there is no Nationwide Series between October 10^th and November 1^st. This makes no sense to me because this is the point in the year when fans need it most.

With the Nationwide Series Championship on the line at this point in the season, it makes no sense for the series to stop for one week, let alone two. If this break were spread out, say one race in the spring, and one race in the summer, you could make the battle for the championship better, and at the same time

I’ve said before I think the IndyCar season ends much too early. I didn’t mind the back to back races when it was tried the first time, but now there are 3 back to back races, run on a Saturday and Sunday in the same weekend. This compresses the schedule, and is both physically and mentally draining to the drivers. While I understand that these three races are on street courses, it still makes little sense to hold two physically demanding races back to back. What I would like to see would be Toronto getting the back to back race, and races moved to two other road courses, I’d suggest Road America and Circuit of the Americas, and extend the season for 3 weeks. GIVE THE FANS MORE RACING!

For racing fans, this is a depressing part of the year, because we know the racing seasons are ending, NASCAR has 3 more races, F1 has 3 more races, and the NHRA has 2 more races left in the season. By November 24, all the major racing seasons will be over. November24-January 24 will be the longest 61 days in the year for me because that marks the time where there is no national racing, other than occasional winter testing. I’m gonna enjoy the racing while it lasts, but I will miss it once it is done for the season.

Something else I did this weekend needs some explanation.  I live in a subdivision in Evanston, Illinois and for my entire life we have celebrated Halloween the Sunday before the 31st, which took place yesterday.  We have a gathering in the center, and have trick or treating through the neighborhood after that.  After that is all said and done, there is a neighborhood chili cookoff where we all gather, eat chili, and drink beer.  After 10 bowls of chili I needed to go home and lie down, before I could start this article, so I apologize for it being as late as it is.  I will be back on Wednesday with the Paint Scheme Tracker and on Friday with a uniform article, and on Saturday with the paint scheme grades.  See you then!

[Editor’s Note: This post was originally scheduled for August 16, however given the events the previous week, I made the decision to postpone this article until after Tony Stewart returned to racing. Like I did with a previous article, I will dedicate this to the memory of Kevin Ward Jr. DGF]

By David G. Firestone

I recently discussed why we need replica helmets in auto racing. Well since then, I came across some more replica helmets, and I decided that we should continue the discussion. This week, we will look at NASCAR replica helmets. NFL and MLB have replica helmets and they are popular as collector items. But when it comes to auto racing, there is next to nothing. Helmets in racing are designed in a similar vain to goalie masks in hockey. They are custom painted to the driver’s specifications. They are used to identify the driver in F1 and IndyCar. Why replica helmets are not more widely available is a mystery to me.

In many instances, the replicas are made by the company that makes the helmet.  They are made in a number of sizes, 1/4, 1/2, and full size, as shown here: Nowhere is this more obvious than Tony Stewart and Simpson. Tony Stewart is extremely loyal to Simpson. He has worn Simpson suits for his entire career, and will talk about how much he likes them. Simpson has made a number of replica helmets for him, like this bright orange full size helmet, and this 1/2 scale red chrome helmet.

The full-size helmet was released after his 2005 Nextel Cup Championship. It is designed with Stewart’s flame pattern and sponsor decals. It also has the BEAM Designs logo. BEAM Designs is a prolific helmet designed in auto racing, having designed helmets for Stewart, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson and others. It is very nicely detailed, and the design looks amazing!

The 1/2 scale red chrome helmet is also based on a design Tony Stewart used, again it is very nicely detailed. It again shows the BEAM logo, and unlike its full-sized counterpart, it has a ventilation port on the left side. These are popular to get signed, and often appear on eBay.

Riddell Helmets, who up until this season was the supplier of replica helmets to the NFL, made a number of replica helmets for NASCAR, and they did a Tony Stewart helmet, this one plain orange, with Home Depot logos on the visor and sides. They often appear on eBay signed by Stewart, Joey Logano, and Matt Kenseth. It’s plain, but it does work.

In 2001, en route to his first Winston Cup Championship, Tony Stewart raced a Jurassic Park III scheme at the Pepsi 400, where he finished 26^th. He had a matching driver suit and helmet. The helmet was recreated by Action, one of a number of companies that made replica die casts. It is very detailed for its small size, and it looks really good.

Replica helmets are awesome, and I think they should be marketed and sold to fans more. Fans like them, they like to get them autographed. I will elaborate more next week.

NEW LOGO ALERT!

As I mentioned durring my paint scheme grades on Friday, the new Xfinity Series logo for 2015 was unveiled yesterday.  I was wondering what they were going to do with the logo, so here are my thoughts.  First, I like that they are sticking with what I call the slanting oval logo, I think it’s unique and looks good.  It does kinda remind me  of the Carolina Hurricanes logo.  Second, the white background with red lettering works very well, it makes the logos visible, much more so than a red background.  Third, the lack of design clutter gives it a very nice look.   I like this logo, and I hope they don’t change it.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

You have probably noticed the changes to the format as of late, and there will be one more major change starting next week.  After this week, I will move the uniform/memorabilia articles to Friday, and move the paint scheme grades to Saturday.  This is a practicality change due to the fact that I write the normal articles in advance, but paint scheme grades are done on the fly.  Since many paint schemes are not seen by the general public until Friday afternoon, running the grades on Friday morning makes no sense.  So here is what the format will look like starting on Monday:  Mondays-thoughts on the racing weekend.  After the season ends, I will discuss off season news, as well as uniform and/or memorabilia news.  I will also add racing memorabilia videos as well on Mondays.  Wednesday: 2015 Paint Scheme Tracker-this will be a permanent feature, where I will chart every paint scheme used by every team in 2015.  I’ve been wanting to start this for a while, and now I have the ability to do this thanks to my new work schedule.  Fridays will feature the standard memorabilia related articles.  Saturdays will feature the paint scheme grades.  If any of you have any suggestions, feel free to drop me a line.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a TJ Zizzo tire from his explosion at the U.S. Nationals at Indy.  Well I recently got a race-used windshield and put it on to make a coffee table, and added my NHRA memorabilia on top of it, and I think it turned out well.