Tag: brad keselowski

The SFI and FIA patches…Why they are as critical as they are.

fia 1By David Firestone

Many race fans have seen these small patches on driver suits, and may have wondered what they are. What many do not realize is that these small patches have a very critical role in driver safety. These small patches are the safety certification patches. These small patches state that this uniform part has been examined by one of the two groups, and determined to meet the standards set by the group. For North American made equipment that group is SFI.

sfi

According to their website, SFI was founded in 1963 as part of Speed Equipment Manufacturers Association or SEMA, as a safety group. Back then, the safety culture wasn’t as rigorous as it is today, and there were not many standards in place. SEMA started the safety certification with SFI or SEMA Foundation, Inc certification. If the equipment didn’t meet SFI standards, the participant could be denied entrance to the event. Eventually, SFI left SEMA and became its own independent group.

Since then, SFI has certified safety equipment, and their certification is the standard in North America. This small patch is usually sewn into the inside wrist area on the left sleeve. This example, from a Terry Labonte suit from 2008, indicates that the suit meets “3.2A/5” standards. According to their site, this certification is standard for driver suits, and this suit would need re-certification in the next 5 years, or 2013. This certification is standard for many NASCAR suits, as shown below.12-stremme-sfi36-said-sfi

10-labonte-sfi 12-miller-sfi

For suits made internationally, the certification comes from a different group, the FIA Institute. Like SFI, the FIA Institute has the exact same goal, to make sure auto racing is safe, and that the equipment that drivers wear is as safe as possible. Unlike SFI however, FIA certification ends up in one of two places, either on the back of the neck,36-barron-neck

or inside the belt,

9-kahne-fia

Both certifications serve the same purpose and both are mandated in racing today. These certifications also appear on driver gloves,90-stricklingloves-ltag

and even helmets, usually on the HANS anchormcdonalds-2 - Copy

Moving on to more 2013 paint schemes…

Trevor Bayne #6 Valvoline Ford Mustang Love this scheme! This brings back some fond memories of Mark Martin behind the wheel back in the 1990’s. The color and design scheme are amazing, so it gets an A

Regan Smith #7 Tax Slayer/Hellman’s Chevy Camaro Same as the 5 and 88, so nothing really to say here…

Brad Keselowski #22 Hertz Ford Mustang Only Penske can ruin one of the best color schemes with an awful design. Seriously what is the design on the front? It kills this scheme. Final Grade: D

Travis Pastrana #60 Ford Mustang What the Hell? Did Lisa Frank design this car? I’d love to comment on the color scheme, but just looking at the picture is enough! I didn’t think it was possible to make a scheme worse than the Kyle Bush Sponsafier car, but here we are! Final Grade: F’

By the way, I never thought I would reference Lisa Frank in this blog…

Jamie McMurray #1 Cessna Chevy SS Cessna has figured out the way to a good paint scheme, simple colors and simple design. It works very well and earns an A grade.

Casey Mears #13 Geico Ford Fusion Eww…just eww. The color scheme is dreadfull, and the designs on the side are painful to look at. It passed because of the logo and number design. Final Grade: D-

Kyle Busch #18 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry Great color scheme, and good basic design, but there is something with this car I find annoying. The driver’s name is on the windshield and above the door, so why is it on the top of the hood? Not just on the top of the hood, but UPSIDE DOWN as well? Seriously? It makes no sense, and takes the final grade down to a B

Television Logos

By David Firestone

I recently did a post focusing on Christian Fittipaldi, and the unusual way his suit displayed the so-called television logos.  But these logos have a unique history all their own.  One of the first examples on an in-car camera being used was the 1979 Daytona 500.  At that time driver suits mostly looked like this: That is Buddy Baker after winning the pole at Bristol that same year.  As can be clearly seen, no logos of any kind on the legs, or sleeves.  For much of the early and late 1980′s that was mostly the case.  Even though by 1989 there were opportunities to add logos in good places, in many instances this did not occur.  There are instances where there were logos on the legs and sleeves, and the position in many of them is consistent with today.

In the late 1990′s, TV logos were still, for the most part off the radar screen.  But around 1997, sponsors started taking the hint, and adding these logos.  Although it was not popular across the board,  it steadily gained momentum, and by 2004 these logos began to be the rule rather than the exception.    Granted in-car cameras were somewhat more nomadic then they are now, but even still it is kind of amazing that these logos took as long as they did to catch on.  Here is an example of a televison logo.  This logo comes from a Mike Skinner suit from 1997:31-skinner-rsleeve2 - Copy

 

This is how it appears when the driver’s arms are at their sides.  When the driver has his arms at the wheel, or crossed, the logo appears like this:31-skinner-rsleeve2

It seems so simple, and it is surprising that it took that long to figure this out.  In fact, in a number of instances, logos on sleeves looked like this, The Ted Musgrave suit from a previous post:15-musgrave-rsleeve1

While that looks good outside the car, inside the driver compartment, it looks like this to an in-car:15-musgrave-rsleeve1 - Copy

Not good for an in-car, the logo is next to impossible to read.  The legs have gotten the same treatment, in some cases the logo looks like this Ricky Craven model from 1996:41-craven - Copy

But to an in-car camera, the logos look like this:41-craven-legs - Copy

Again, the logo is impossible to read.  The proper alignment looks like this:31-skinner-legs

This is the proper alignment, when the driver is in the car, and the camera is to the side, the logo appears as such:31-skinner-legs - Copy

The whole point of sponsorship in racing is brand exposure, and these logos are a perfect example of this.  I still love the fact that even the drivers who almost never have an in-car camera have these logos.

Moving on to more 2013 paint schemes….

Ryan Newman #39 Wix Filters Chevy SS  “Black with lime green and silver shark fins is a really great design” said no one ever.  Final Grade: F

Moving on to the Nationwide Series…

Austin Dillon #3 Advocare Chevy Camaro  I’m not a fan of power blue in most cases, but here it just works.  The RCR 3 always looks good, the logos are good, and the whole car looks sold.  Final Grade: A

Regan Smith #5 Tax Slayer/Hellmans Chevy Camaro  Could someone please explain to me why Dale Jr. and Regan Smith are running identical paint schemes in the Nationwide Series this year?  The only differences between the two cars are the numbers and name rail.  The Hellmans scheme stays at a B-, but the Tax Slayer scheme looks better from the layout shown here, and it has earned the A rating.

Brad Keselowski #22 Discount Tires Ford Mustang This would be an A grade, if not for the Discount Tire logo…why does it look like it was designed by a 5 year old in art class?  The letters are so horribly aligned, it takes the scheme from classic to comical.  I’m shocked that it isn’t written in Comic Sans with the D backwards.  It is really sad, because it takes away from an otherwise great scheme, and takes the final grade from A to B-

Ty Dillon #33 Ritz/Wesco/Armour Chevy SS Three schemes to discuss.  The Wesco scheme is good but if the door numbers were a different color than the stripes, it would get a better grade than B-.  The Ritz scheme is completely solid, with great colors, great design, and great logos, and gets an A.  The Armour scheme is decent, but the numbers could use a more visible outline.  There is also a logo just behind the door number that is next to invisible.  Final Grade B+

Some Thoughts on 2013 Paint Schemes So Far

I discussed the basic design changes for the 2013 redesigned schemes.  Today, I thought I would look at some of the schemes that have been released, and give my thoughts on them. 

Let’s look at the Chevy schemes first.

Jamie McMurray  The basic scheme is solid here.  The Bass Pro Shop “lightning bolt” used in last year’s scheme is gone, and a single Golden Arch has taken its place.  The car has a cleaner look as a result.  I like the design of the car number here as well, and the goldenrod yellow works rather well.  Final Grade: A-

Kasey Kahne  I really hope this is a prototype design,,,the color scheme is all wrong, there are too many light colors, and the door design is just brutal.  The tailpipe decals which are already bad have a silver border around them, which just makes them stand out even more. Of the Chevy schemes released, this is the worst.  Final Grade: D+  

Danica Patrick  Last year Danica’s car was painful to look at.  However if this is the final design for Danica, I like it.  The yellow is much more subdued, giving it an overall better appearance.  Also the orange and black stripes at the bottom give it a bolder look as well.  The numbers need work though, as the generic racing font doesn’t do the car any favors.  Final Grade: B+

Tony Stewart  Both of Tony Stewart’s paint schemes leave something to be desired.  The Bass Pro Shop scheme is the better of the two.  The total lack of white on the Bass Pro Shop scheme give the car a good look, and the stripes give a cleaner line.  The orange on the bottom needs to be a little darker, but it;s a great scheme.  Mobil 1 on the other hand has too much white, an awful set of stripes that seem to be non-sequitur with each other.  The overall color scheme is all over the place and is very confusing to look at.  In addition, the white on the back doesn’t help.  Final Grade: C+

Jeff Gordon Are you kidding?  Black flames on a car that is totally black outline in blue?  Pepsi has a great shade of blue and a great logo and yet they manage to screw it up by trying the Pepsi Max design to be edgy.  I’m a fan of black cars, but this just falls flat. Final Grade: C- 

Kevin Harvick  Ok, let’s make this clear:  This is what a Budweiser scheme should look like, this is not.  This is one of my favorite schemes so far, it looks like a Budweiser car should look like, so my Final Grade: A

Jeff Burton From what I’ve seen the Cat car looks about the same as it did last year which is actually a good thing, because the scheme is solid, has good colors, great number designs and a good pattern used.  Final Grade: A

Juan Pablo Montoya Great color, great number design, and the pattern used is a lot more sublte than last year’s scheme.  The quarter-panels have too many associate sponsors and looks too cluttered, keeping the Final Grade at a B.

Jimmie Johnson  Less is more and this paint scheme proves that.  The Z-28 stripes, good color scheme, and clean design gives the Lowes car a simple yet elegant design that just works.  The Jimmie Johnson Foundation scheme is a little cluttered, but it still works.  Final Grade: A

Dale Earnhardt Jr.  The Diet Dew scheme isn’t great, the design is pointlessly complex, and the red on green number design is just brutal.  If you look at this picture of the National Guard scheme you will see that one of the major changes to Chevy’s driver suits is the full Chevy logo, as opposed to just a red bow tie like last year.  This design was used in IndyCar last year and looks better than the old design.

Moving on to Ford…

Brad Keselowski  The scheme is decent, but the dark red lettering on the dark blue background is very hard to see.  Miller needs to rethink that part of the design, but other than that it’s a good scheme…though I still miss the beer-colored wheels from last year!  Final Grade is a C

Marcos Ambrose  Is it normal to get seasick while looking at a paint scheme?  The Petty Blue just does not work here, and the oval around the letters is pointless.  The car looks awful even though it has a great color scheme and great sponsor logos.  Final Grade: D

Greg Biffle  There’s nothing really wrong here, but nothing really right here either.  The side design looks forced, the black roof is idiotic, the color scheme is good, but the number design looks too cliche.  It makes no sense, but 3M schemes never do, so I’ll give it a C

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.  The Best Buy scheme looks good.  The number design, color scheme, and simplistic design give the car a good look.  The Zest scheme on the other hand has an awful scheme, and like Kasey Kahne’s scheme, has too many light colors and not enough dark to make the scheme work.  The Final grade is a C overall, an A for Best Buy and a D for Zest.

Trevor Bayne Timeless, plain and simple.  This scheme works well, and if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.  Final Grade: A

Joey Logano This scheme could very easily be mistaken for McDonald’s.  The red wheels don’t do it any favors, and the Penzoil scheme is too simplistic.  Sometimes less is more when it comes to car design.  Final grade: D-

Carl Edwards  The stripes work well here, and the color scheme is good.  Unlike the Zest scheme, this scheme uses enough dark blue to make it work.  The UPS scheme however is a disaster.  The dark brown really works, but the various shades of gold, orange and red make the design look like a sad rainbow.  The white numbers don’t help that much either.  Final Grade is a C, A for Fastenal, D for UPS

And finally a look at Toyota’s schemes thusfar

Matt Kensith  This Dollar General scheme could be good if some of the black stripes go, and what is up with the DG design on the bottom of the quarter-panels?  The yellow-to-orange fade on the back doesn’t work either.  Final Grade: D

Clint Bowyer  The dual blue and white scheme is popular this year, and this scheme is one example.  The basic design would work better without some of the stripes on the front.  Otherwise it’s a solid scheme with a B grade.

and last but not least, Martin Truex Jr.  Simple, elegant with a great color scheme, great logos and great number design.  Final Grade: A

I will add more input when more schemes are released.