dale earnhardt Jr – Page 8 – The Driver Suit Blog

Every Great Outfit Needs Gloves and Shoes to Match!

By David G. Firestone

Since the fire risk in racing is as high as it is, it makes sense that driver uniform includes fire retardant shoes and gloves to go along with it. Although they are frequently overlooked by many fans, they are just as critical to driver safety and comfort as the suit and helmet. Gloves and shoes have, like the suit and helmet, become fashion forward in recent years.

Let’s look at the gloves first. Gloves in racing are typically made of multiple layers of Nomex, and feature a textured layer on the palm, which is designed to help the driver grip the steering wheel. Gloves may be waterproofed for open cockpit racing, where rain and other inclement weather may not impede the race. The gloves give the same amount of protection that the suit does, roughly 30 seconds, and are certified by FIA and SFI. This example, worn by Hut Stricklin in 2000 shows the basics..

The textured palm…

The thickness…

as well as the liability tag and the safety certification…

As I mentioned above, gloves have evolved to be more visible on in-car cameras. These examples, worn by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson show how these new customizations can take a simple safety equipment item, and add some visual appeal to it. A search on eBay reveals that these items do wind up for sale after they are used.

Next, let’s discuss the shoes.

Shoes are as important as gloves in terms of fire protection. Those 30 seconds of fire protection are critical for the driver to get out of a burning car. The basic design of the shoes are meant to help the driver, well, drive. Some drivers in years past have opted for nontraditional racing shoes, such as Dave Marcus who was well-known for wearing wingtips while racing.

Typical racing shoes consist of a rubber, fire retardant sole, with triple-layer Nomex material covering the foot. The tongue, and shoe laces are fire retardant as well. Velcro straps are frequently employed to secure the shoe as extra protection. Let’s look at a race-worn pair, this pair worn by Scott Riggs in the early 2000’s.

These shoes show the sole design,

Main design, with the reflective layer adding some extra protection…

and thickness…

While the design of the gloves are fashion forward, the shoes are more utilitarian than anything else. But they do wind up on eBay sometimes…

Jamie McMurray #1 Bell Helicopters Chevy SS Love the simplicity in the design and color scheme, as well as Bell’s great logo! It is simple, yet elegant, and earns an A grade

Kasey Kahne #5 Farmer’s Insurance 85^th Anniversary Chevy SS It’s amazing how a color change can affect a scheme. I graded the standard scheme at a D+ earlier this year, and with the black red and tan color change it takes it from a D+ to an A-. Notice that there is no real difference between the two schemes except the colors and the new one is so much better!

Kevin Harvick #29 Bad Boy Buggies Chevy SS I like this scheme for the same reasons as the Jamie McMurray Bell scheme, and it gets the same A grade!

David Stremme #30 Window Wax Toyota Camry The best way I can describe this scheme is that there is nothing good about it. Anything they could have messed up with this scheme, they did. It gets an F-

David Stremme #30 Lean 1 Toyota Camry See Above

Landon Cassill #33 Justin Workboots Chevy SS I like the design scheme except for the primary sponsor logo is a completly different color than the rest of the car. The thing is that the two color schemes work very well by themselves, but the combo of the two just makes no sense. It takes an A scheme and brings it down to a C…PICK A COLOR SCHEME!

Richard Lasater and His Helmet

By David G. Firestone

Spent the last week just being insanely busy, with Passover and the Chicago Sun Times Collectables Convention, but now back to work. I’ve discussed the safety aspects of race gear, but today, I’m going in a bit of a different direction. Even in today’s safety-conscious racing environment, injuries are always a possibility. Denny Hamlin suffered a fractured vertebrae, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. has suffered a concussion in the last few years. Wrecks can be hell on drivers, but what about the uniform protecting them? What would a helmet from a wreck like this look like?

Well the helmet looks like this:

For a helmet that went through a scary-looking wreck, it is in good shape…and that is not by accident. It was worn by Richard Lasater throughout the 1993 season. At the 1993 Fram Filter 500K, Lasater was involved in that scary wreck, and wasn’t seriously hurt. As for overall damage, it is mainly scratches, scrapes and dings, no cracks or serious damage.

The helmet kept Lasater safe and suffered minor damage because that is what it was designed to do. After the race, he autographed the helmet and it wound up in my collection. This helmet shows better than any other helmet I have the reasons why proper equipment is needed in racing.

On to Paint Schemes…

Jamie McMurray #1 Bass Pro Shops Chevy SS White? Seriously? Did the designers not realize that the white looks awful? The black and orange color scheme works, but white? I don’t get this scheme at all, and it gets an F grade

Marcos Ambrose #9 MAC Tools Ford Fusion Good color choices here. The basic design is solid. I can do without the quarter panel design, but it is still a good scheme with a B grade-

Danica Patrick #10 Go Daddy St. Patrick’s Day Chevy SS I would like to thank the 1978 Cincinnati Reds for being one of the first teams to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day for encouraging this awful F grade scheme.-

Denny Hamlin #11 Fedex March of Dimes Toyota Camry There are two schemes that fans voted for. With Hamlin on the shelf for a while, Mark Martin and Brian Vickers will share the 11 ride. That said, scheme #1 I don’t hate, but it has something odd going on with the hood and nose design…I swear it looks like the two parts were designed by different people who never interacted with each other, and that earns it a C grade Scheme #2, the better of the two schemes, not only looks more like a FedEx scheme, it is simpler and much cleaner as well, and earns an A grade.

T ony Stewart #14 Rush Truck Centers Chevy SS Good color and design schemes here. A Grade

Kyle Bush #18 Snickers Bites Toyota Camry A paint scheme that has a great color scheme, and illustrates the theory that less is more. Nothing bad about this Scheme-A+

Jeff Gordon #24 Imron Elite Real Truck Paint Chevy SS Based off the classic Jeff Gordon Scheme, it looks really good, and it works as a paint scheme. Great color scheme used here…A+

Jeff Gordon Cromax Pro Chevy SS Another good DuPont inspired scheme with a great color scheme and great design-A+

Ken Schrader #32 Federated Auto Parts Ford Fusion Federated Auto Parts always has great looking cars, and they do not disappoint here. Great color scheme and great design earn a great grade of A+

Timmy Hill #32 U.S. Chrome Ford Fusion NASCAR rules prevent using chrome in most NASCAR paint scheme aspects, which is kind of disappointing since this scheme should have a bit of chrome in it. Even so, it is still a solid A scheme, with great colors and simple, yet elegant design

Josh Wise #35 MDS Ford Fusion The color scheme of the car, and the color scheme of the logos match! As a direct result, the car looks so much better! This scheme earns a B grade because the deisgn on the quarter panel needs some work.

Ryan Newman #39 HAAS Automation Chevy SS Great color scheme, good basic design, I love the diagonal hood logo, A+ Scheme

Brian Vickers #55 RK Motors Toyota Camry Basic design with an uninspired color scheme. The car is just blah. I can’t give this scheme anything except a C-

Brian Vickers #55 Jet Edge Toyota Camry A better color scheme takes the grade from C to B

Joe Nemecheck #87 Maddies Place Rocks Toyota Camry Simple design, decent color scheme, good hood logo, Final grade B

Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 Amp Energy Chevy SS Orange? Amp’s main can color is green. It’s not a bad design, but using a color that isn’t really used on the packaging earns this scheme a C-

Some Thoughts on the Sprint Unlimited and An Introduction to Photo matching

Here are my thoughts on the Generation 6 car after the Sprint Unlimited

Here is a video showing the new cars in action…

Why did the roof logos come to NASCAR? I stated during Winter Testing that I thought that the logos would show up on roof cameras…but they can’t. The logos on the roof are all but invisible to the in-cars, and are next to impossible to see at speed on the regular cameras circling the track. The whole point of sponsorship is for the logos to be seen, but the roof logos defy that, so really, they are useless

Fox debuted several new cameras, including a revamped zipline camera called the CAMCAT that flies over the track, and a gyroscopic camera that stays level even when the car is on a banking. The new zip line camera is really good, and the gyroscopic camera gives the fan a really good idea of how banked the track really is.

The new cars in general look really good, and I was wrong about the names on the windshields. They do look good, and they are easy to see with the in-cars. I don’t approve of the manufacturer logos on windshield on either side of the name though. In addition to the larger roof flaps, the cowl flaps are visibly bigger, and have been moved to the hood.

The orange Home Depot back bumper on the Dollar General Toyota driven by Matt Kenseth looks really weird. As does the door design on the Target Chevy.

Man! Kevin Harvick’s car looks really good, as does Dale Jr’s! Martin Truex in the Napa Toyota is the most improved paint scheme of the whole field.

The cars seem to be sparking more than they did last year. They also look “cleaner” than they did last year. They have cleaner lines and cleaner windshields.

Speaking of windshields and windows the side windows need to be attached better. During the wreck, one car lost a side window, and Carl Edwards lost a side window in the final laps of the race. NASCAR needs to look into that.

The fan picks format worked really well, and I hope this shows up again during the All-Star Race

Now on to photo matching.

One of the best ways to authenticate a driver suit as having been worn by the driver is to find a photo of the driver wearing the suit. In many instances, this is not possible. In other instances the driver wears several different suits throughout the season, and finding the exact suit can be difficult. Let’s take a look at a Ricky Craven suit from 1996.

This suit was difficult to photo match but I thought I had in this photo from Fuller Motorsports and Collectibles.

Upon closer inspection, this suit in the photo and the suit in my collection are not the same.

The location of the yellow RACING embroidery is in a different location, the leg stripes in the photo are white whereas the suit I own has green leg stripes…but modifications are not uncommon, and the name and GOODYEAR logos are in different places as well.

This card is from 1996, and shows Craven clearly wearing the suit in my collection.

The RACING, GOODYEAR, and name are all in the correct place. The only difference is that the ALARM SOUTH and MANHEIM AUCTIONS logos are not seen in the card, but on the suit they were clearly added later. They are patches on the suit whereas everything else is embroidered on the suit.

Now on to paint schemes…a lot of ground to cover

We start with the Truck Series

Dusty Davis #1 Accell Chevy Silverado Good Color scheme, simple yet attracive design, final grade: A

Jeb Burton #4 Arrowhead Chevy Silverado Color scheme is great, but the door design is a little overdone. The Arrowhead sponsorship could be used better with an arrowhead design on the door. Still it is a decent design that earns a B-

Justin Lofton #6 MADVAPES Chevy Silverado The early 1990’s called, they want their design back. All joking aside, this is actually a good scheme. The color scheme is great, and the design, while loud, is attractive. Final Grade A

John Wes Townley #7 Zaxby’s Toyota Tundra There is nothing right with this design. Everything here is just awful, and earns the F grade it deserves.

Max Gresham #8 AMWINS Chevy Silverado The side stripes are good, the color scheme is good, and it gets an A grade

Ron Horniday #9 Smokey Mountain Herbal Snuff Chevy Silverado First off, I thought snuff was banned as a sponsor from NASCAR…oh well…anyway, the design is good, and the color scheme is good, thought the gold could be a little bolder. Final Grade A-

Jennifer Jo Cobb #10 Driven2Honor.org Chevy Silverado No redeeming factors at all…F-

Brad Keselowski #19 DrawTite/National Watermelon Association/Reese Racing Ford F-Series The Reese and DrawTite schemes are A grades, but the National Watermelon Association scheme gets an A+ for the graphics on the bed of the truck that make it look filled with watermelons..that is just awesome!

Ryan Blaney #29 Cooper Standard Ford F-Series Another great color and design scheme, and I love the yellow wheels…A+

James Buescher #31 Rheem Chevy Silverado The Same as Kevin Harvick, and it is a good scheme…A

Devin Jones #35 Veristor Chevy Silverado Good colors bad design…C

Ryan Sieg #39 Pull-A-Part Chevy Silverado Good color scheme, but mediocre side design…C-

Kyle Busch #51 Toyota Care Toyota Tundra. Normally I would give this a bad grade, but give the fact that it is Kyle’s truck, the design and color schemes just scream Kyle Busch, so it is rather appropriate. I also love the Days of Thunder numbers and ROWDY above the door…A-

Darrell Wallace Jr. #54 Toyota Care Toyota Tundra I’ll forgive this one as well…A-

Dakoda Armstrong #60 Winfield Chevy Silverado This I will not forgive for one simple reason…THE SPONSOR LETTING IS NEXT TO INVISIBLE ON THE WHITE BACKGROUND! The point of sponsorship is to make your logo and lettering as visible as possible! As such, this scheme gets an F

David Starr #81 BYF/Chasco Toyota Tundra Good color scheme and simple yet attractive design work well here. I like the Lone Star logo on David Starr’s truck as well…A+

Moving on to Nationwide Schemes

Brad Sweet #5/Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 Great Clips Chevy Camaro This looks like a paint scheme that was thrown together at the last minute by an art student. The color scheme is odd, and the design is just weird. What does this has to do with a barber shop? Final Grade D+

Paul Menard #33 Menards Chevy Camaro Pretty much the same scheme as his Sprint Cup Scheme…Same grade too C-

Parker Kligerman #77 Toyota Toyota Camry You can never go wrong with a plain black car with white lettering…A+

Now on to the Sprint Cup

Jamie McMurray #1 Race With Insulin Chevy SS A good design based on Charlie Kimball’s IndyCar race car that has a simple yet good design, and a great color scheme. My only complaint here is that the stripe doesn’t go far enough back. Final Grade: B+

Kasey Kahne #5 Great Clips Chevy SS Huh? What does this design have to do with a barber shop? This design looks like the team didn’t have enough of one single color and went with a patchwork design to make it work…but it doesn’t work, and it gets a D+ grade

Dave Blaney #7 Sany Chevy SS Great color scheme ruined by bad door design and generic racing number design. The design is just disgusting to look at, and it gets a D- The paint scheme saved it.

Kyle Busch #18 Interstate All Battery Center Toyota Camry This is a design that has elemets from the Dale Jarret and Bobby Labonte eras. I love this design! Great color scheme, simple nostalgic design, and it gets an A!

Mike Bliss #19 G Oil Toyota Camry This is a very weird design…the weed design doesn’t do the car any favors, and the doors and quarter panels are worse. Green, black and white is usually a good scheme, but here is just falls flat. I love how the nose makes it look like the car has a piece of cilantro stuck in its teeth and that boost the grade to a C-

Trevor Bayne #21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion This is based on the 1963 Daytona 500 winning car Tiny Lund drove and it looks really good! I can’t give this scheme any lower than an A so I won’t.

Michael Waltrip #26 Sandy Hook Support Fund Toyota Camry Are you serious? I think it is really disgusting that a support fund for a school shooting is sponsoring a car for the Daytona 500! I don’t know who thought this was a good idea, but it is just awful. I’m so sickened by the sponsor, I will just give the scheme an F-

Terry Labonte #32 C&J Energy Services Ford Fusion Is Terry trying to pull a Grey Ghost? If it wasn’t for the yellow decals, I would be convinced that this photo is in black and white. If the flames were red, or yellow, or even blue I could give it a higher grade, but I can’t give this scheme anything but a D

David Ragan #34 Peanut Patch Ford Fusion Good Color scheme, good overall general design, good scheme, Final Grade: A

Regan Smith #51 Guy Roofing Chevy SS Decent color scheme, the number change is not good from last year, and the basic design is decent, so I give it a C

Brian Keselowski #52 Wreaths Across America Toyota Camry Not bad, not bad at all. Great color scheme and decent design. The hood design needs a little work, the left side looks odd with a white box, while the right side has no box at all, but that is a minor complaint for an A grade

Mark Martin Aarons Toyota Camry Great design, great colors and simple designs that look good, it gets an A

David Reutimann #83 Burger King/Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry. Great classic design with a great color scheme that gets an A+

Travis Kvapil #93 Burger King/ Dr. Pepper Toyota Camry See Above, A+

New Paint Schemes and Some IndyCar News…

We start off today with a unique story from IndyCar. Ryan Hunter-Reay won the Izod IndyCar Series Championship last season, and as such has the right to use the number 1 on his car. He normally used 28 as his car number, because 28 million people worldwide are affected by cancer, and his mother passed away from cancer in 2009. So he is using a number 1 with a rather unique twist. Also mentioned that Marco Andretti will switch to number 25 from 26 next year.

Moving on to NASCAR paint schemes, let’s look at the Nationwide Series first. Two Chevy schemes and one Ford scheme have been released so far

Sam Hornish-#12 Alliance Ford Mustang Could someone explain to me why in the world it has door handle decals? And why does it have a blue line on the door that looks like race damage? I really want to defend this scheme, but no, just no. Final Grade: C

Kevin Harvick-#33 Hunt Brothers Pizza Chevy Camaro First off, the Camaro looks really good on its own, and this paint scheme works quite well. The door-handle decal is visible, but not as bold as the Hornish car. The green/white contrast works well, and the decal package on the front looks really good. The stripes on the sides work very well, and are not as haphazard of some schemes I have seen for this season. Final Grade: A

Dale Earnhardt Jr./Cole Whitt-#88 Tax Slayer Chevy Camaro Decent color scheme at work here, but what is with the pink roll cage? The red black and white scheme has a similar color in the front stripe at the nose. It’s visually distracting, and pointless. The powder blue/pink stripe takes away from a great scheme and takes the final grade from an A to a B-. Get rid of the blue, and it would be an A

Now we look at the Sprint Cup Schemes

Kasey Kahne-#5 Time Warner Cable Chevy SS Awful color scheme, check. Door and panel design that is supposed to be edgy but is really a cliche, check. The most unoriginal sponsor logo in NASCAR, check. Ok, I think we’re all done here, Final Grade: D

Ryan Newman-#39 Quicken Loans Chevy SS Want to have some fun, open the Kahne link, and this link in two different tabs, and switch back and forth to see how “original” this scheme is. Clearly both were designed by the same person, they look almost identical, except the fronts are a little different, and the color scheme on the Newman car is much better. Final Grade: C-

Jeff Gordon-#24 Drive to End Hunger Chevy SS Yuck! They took one of the best color schemes ever and ruined it! But these shots do feature a new design that will be used in NASCAR in 2013, and that is a sponsor decal on the roof. The close-up of the rear-end shows the decent taillight decals, and the unnecessary tailpipe decals, as well as the updated Chevy logo. Final Grade: D-

Been a long day, will be back tomorrow.

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.