Tag: shell pennzoil

Paint Scheme Grades-May 28,2016

By David G. Firestone

Jamie McMurray #1 Bass Pro Shops/National Wild Turkey Federation Chevy SS-Camo is an automatic one letter grade deduction, but the scheme is so bad, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. I don’t like the use of the turkey, I think it looks awful, and the color scheme is not great. F

Jamie McMurray #1 Cessna/McDonald’s Patriotic Chevy SS-The switching from white to red is an improvement, and actually takes this scheme from a B+ to an A-.

Brad Keselowski #2 Miller Lite Patriotic Ford Fusion-The pointless addition of “patriotic” element take one of the best schemes, and an A+ scheme down to a C-.

Brad Keselowski #2 Miller Lite 1972 Throwback Ford Fusion-Great throwback, love the ambitiousness of the design, and the color scheme is great. A+

Austin Dillon #3 Cheerios/Lee’s East Rowan Cafe Chevy SS-Same as Cheerios, but with Lee’s East Rowan Cafe on quarter panels, same A+ grade.

Trevor Bayne #6 Advocare Patriotic Ford Fusion-When your regular colors are red, white, and blue, YOU DON’T NEED A SPECIAL PATRIOTIC SCHEME THAT ADDS EXTRA COLORS! As if that wasn’t bad enough, the design scheme looks terrible. F

Danica Patrick #10 Nature’s Bakery Patriotic Chevy SS-Camo is not a good look on race cars, and normally, I would deduct one letter grade from the grade, but this scheme is so bad, I’m just going to give it an F.

Greg Biffle #16 Cheez-Its Patriotic Ford Fusion-The patriotic elements at the bottom of the car just look forced, and the car as a whole is taken from an A+ down to a B+

Kyle Busch #18 M&M’s Patriotic Toyota Camry-A good scheme that works well as a patriotic scheme. The design works well with red, white, and blue, and works well. A+

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #17 Fastenal Patriotic Ford Fusion-The trimming of the stripes on the sides look good, and the addition of the red around the star look really good. Fastenal took a B+ scheme up to an A-.

Joey Logano #22 Shell/Pennzoil Mosiac Ford Fusion-The Shell/Pennzoil scheme is bad to begin with, but the mosaic motif just makes it look worse. F

Chase Elliott #24 NAPA Patriotic Chevy SS-If you do a patriotic scheme, could you commit to it, and not just take your normal scheme, and add some patriotic elements to it? It just looks lazy. It’s like writing a term paper the night before it’s due. D+

Chase Elliott #24 NAPA Throwback Chevy SS-While I like the idea of the vintage NAPA logo, could you commit to it, and add them to the quarter panel? It’s not a bad scheme, but not adding it to the quarter panel is not a great move. I’ll give it a B- since the color and design schemes do work here.

Ryan Newman #31 Whelen Chevy SS-Not a bad looking scheme at all, the red works well, the white sides work well, and the car as a whole is a good looking car. A+

Chris Buescher #34 CSX Play It Safe Hire Our Veterans Ford Fusion-Two words: Purple Camo. F

Landon Cassill #38 MDS Patriotic Ford Fusion-It’s a patriotic scheme that works well with the sponsor, and the design scheme for Front Row. A+

Landon Cassill #38 MDS Patriotic Ford Fusion-It’s a patriotic scheme that works well with the sponsor, and the design scheme for Front Row. A+

Kyle Larson #42 Target Scott Dixon Chevy SS-Scott Dixon’s throwback scheme is really good on his IndyCar, and that good look transfers to the Target Chevy of Kyle Larson. I can’t say anything bad about this scheme. A+

Martin Truex Jr. #78 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevy SS-New scheme for 2016, same as Bass Pro Shops, but more the camo is more prominent. F

Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 Nationwide Patriotic Chevy SS-When I said I wanted a total commitment to a patriotic scheme, this is EXACTLY what I meant! This is a great looking scheme, and the waving flag motif works very well. I can’t say anything bad about this scheme. A+

Matt DiBenedetto #83 Hope For Warriors Toyota Camry-Let’s just put as many patriotic designs we can on the side of a car and see how it looks…well it looks awful!  F

Michael McDowel #95 Thrivent Financial Patriotic Chevy SS-See Dale Earnhardt Jr. above. A+

Birds and Sports

Quick, what do Randy Johnson, Dave Winfield, and Dale Earnhardt Sr. all have in common? Well for starters, all were very talented, and all are Hall of Famers, but that isn’t all. The unique thing about these three players is that each one of them has accidentally killed a bird while playing sports. Dave Winfield was playing in Toronto in 1983, and was playing catch with a bat boy, when a seagull flew into the path of the ball, and was hit and killed as a result. This was a total accident, but the fans were so upset that Winfield was arrested for animal cruelty. Police later dropped the charges, and Winfield was released. In 2001, Randy Johnson was pitching a spring training game, when he hit a dove with a pitch in a freak accident. A number of animal rights groups were upset, but no charges were filed.

Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s story is by far the strangest. At the 1991 Daytona 500, Earnhardt was a heavy favorite to win the race. Davey Allison won the pole, Hut Stricklin was 2nd, and Earnhardt was 3rd. Allison led the first lap, and Earnhardt took the lead during the 2nd lap. During that same lap, Earnhardt’s Chevy Lumina struck a seagull on the back stretch. Although this might not seem that bad, it seriously damaged the car, affecting the air intake, and raising the temperature of the engine. Emergency repairs took place, and while Earnhardt finished 5th, he wasn’t in contention for the lead after the seagull incident.

The really weird thing is that for many years, the seagull incident was a metaphor for Dale Sr.’s record at the Daytona 500. No discussion on his 19 futile attempts to win the Daytona 500 would be complete without mentioning the seagull incident. While other attempts to win the 500 ended with flat tires, or running out of gas, or just plain wrecks, the seagull incident stands out, along with the 1997 flip.

The 1997 Daytona 500 had the other unique incident at Daytona. During the 1997 event, Earnhardt was, again, a heavy favorite to win the event, and on lap 188, he was in a four-way battle for the lead, and he got into a wreck with the 28 car of Ernie Irvan, and rolled his car on the back-stretch. Irvan’s hood flies into the crowd and causes a number of injuries to fans. Earnhardt’s car lands on its wheels and Dale gets out of the car and heads to the ambulance. As he does so, he notices that his car has all four tires on it, so being Dale Earnhardt, he gets out of the ambulance and walks over to the car, and asks the guy attaching the car to the wrecker to see if the engine will fire, and it fired. He climbs back into his car and drives back to pit road, where is car is patched up as best could be done, and he finished the race 5 laps down. This is the only incident where a die-cast was made of a wrecked car. Speaking to reporters after the race, Earnhardt said “Well I just wanted to get back in the race and try to make laps, and we runnin’ for a championship…I got in the ambulance and I looked back at the car and said “man the wheels is still on that thing.” I got out of the ambulance and and asked the guy inside the car and he was hooking it up, I said “see if it would crank,” and he cranked it up, I said “get out, give me the car back” so I drove it back around and we taped it up.” It is a moment that still brings chills to my spine and this is 15 years later.

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I am proud to say that I own a piece of each car from the two above stories. From the 1991 Daytona 500, I own a small piece of the passenger-side fender, which still has race damage present. As seen below:

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From the 1997 Daytona 500 I have this piece of what remained of the car after the event. Interestingly, the car was repaired, and raced at Talladega later that season. The race damage is clearly visible on it:

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Moving on to paint schemes…

Kyle Busch #18 M&Ms Toyota Camry Very solid scheme here. Not only is the color scheme great, it looks even better than last year, with a clean front. The cleaner lines of the new car just make this scheme so much better as well. Final Grade A+

Jeff Burton #31 Caterpillar Hybrid Excavator Chevy SS Another great scheme, though the tailpipe decals are really ugly, and the yellow roof number is really ugly. Final Grade B+

And we also have some driver suit photos and videos

Joey Logano #22 Shell/Pennzoil Ford Fusion This was posted on Logano’s Facebook page, and all I can say is… Hey look kids! It’s Ronald McDonald! Joking aside, this seriously looks like a McDonald’s suit, but with Shell and Pennzoil logos. That being said, it’s not a bad suit, the television logos are good, and it gets a final grade of an A

Jimmie Johnson #48 Lowes Chevy SS This video, from Hendrick Motorsports YouTube page shows Johnson’s new suit.  Very solid, with a great color scheme and basic design. I could to without the white collar, but that is only a minor complaint for a great suit, and it gets an A!