Jacky Ickx and Brian Redman 1973 #15 Ferrari 312PB
The Ferrari 312PB is a really small and really boxy car. While Ferarri has a great color scheme, the pointless gray takes away from the red and yellow. The odd yellow stripes on the side, as well as the yellow front take away from this look further. The tail does work here. All in all, this is a forgettable look, and it’s worth a C.
By David G. Firestone
Matt Kenseth #6 Wyndham Rewards Patriotic Ford Fusion-Decent scheme, but not enough red for a patrioitic scheme, and the middle of the car is an over desigend mess of jumbled stripes. C-
JJ Yeley #7 Steakhouse Elite Chevy Camaro-The camo gives the black a cluttered look, and the gold isn’t used enough. The color scheme works well, but the design scheme needs improvement. B-
Chase Elliott #9 NAPA Patriotic Chevy Camaro-It’s a decent scheme, but the sides are over designed, and the yellow door number contrasts with the scheme as a whole. It looks cluttered, and while it could be better, it isn’t awful. C
Aric Almirola #10 Smithfield Patriotic Ford Fusion-The black clashes with the patriotic motif, which itself is a jumbled mess of stripes. It has a decent color scheme, but the scheme earns a D-.
Ross Chastain #15 Internetwork Engineering Chevy Camaro-A smooth, simple look with a great color scheme that earns an A.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. #17 Fastenal Patriotic Ford Fusion-The patriotic motif is a bit over done, but it’s not terrible, and the color scheme works well with the design scheme. All things considered, it’s worth a B-.
Kyle Busch #18 M&M’s Patriotic Toyota Camry-Same scheme as last year, same A grade.
Daniel Suarez #19 Interstate Batteries Toyota Camry-Same scheme as #18, same F grade.
Erik Jones #20 Circle K Toyota Camry-It is still a decent scheme, but black replacing white isn’t an upgrade, and the changing of the stripe angle doesn’t improve it either. Both of these changes take an A scheme down to a B+.
Gray Gaulding #23 Toyota Camry-The plain hood and roof look out of place when compared to the jumbled mess of designs on the sides. The side is so over designs with random elements, that it makes my head hurt. I can’t say anything good about this scheme, so I won’t. F
William Byron #24 Liberty University Patriotic Chevy Camaro-Replacing the standard text with patriotic text works well, and it looks good. A
Ryan Newman #31 Liberty National Patriotic Chevy Camaro-It’s amazing how a change of color and change of design can take a scheme that is awful to a high A scheme. This scheme looks great, and I give it an A.
Ryan Newman #31 Kalahari Resorts Chevy SS-Same basic scheme as last year, same C-grade.
Matt DiBenedetto #32 Cosmo Motors Ford Fusion-Same scheme as last year, same B- grade.
Michael McDowell #34 Dockside Logistics Patriotic Ford Fusion-Replacing the standard text with patriotic text works well, and it looks good. A
Chris Buescher #37 Cottonelle Chevy Camaro-The cotton and the blue would work by themselves, but together they just don’t work. The color scheme is good, but the design scheme looks odd. All totaled, this scheme gets a C-.
Kyle Larson #42 DC Solar Patriotic Chevy Camaro-Same scheme as their Clash scheme, same D- grade.
Darrell Wallace Jr. #43 Kroger Red, White & Barbecue Chevy Camaro-There are too many different design elements. Each one by themselves would work, but together they give the car a jumbled look that earns an F.
Jimmie Johnson #48 Lowe’s Patriotic Chevy Camaro-It’s amazing how a change of color and change of design can take a scheme that is awful to a high A scheme. This scheme looks great, and I give it an A.
Jeffery Earnhardt #55 Black Rifle Coffee Chevy Camaro-The sides are a tad over designed, but its not bad. It’s a good scheme that’s worth an A-.
Timmy Hill #66 Crash Claims R Us Toyota Camry-The blue on the front is pointless, and ugly. They serve no purpose, and take an A scheme down to an A-.
Corey LaJoie #72 MyFreedomSmokes.com Chevy Camaro-The military motif works very well here, and the design is great, and earns an A.
Martin Truex Jr. #78 5-Hour Energy Toyota Patriotic Camry-It’s amazing how a change of color and change of design can take a scheme that is awful to a high A scheme. This scheme looks great, and I give it an A.
Kasey Kahne #95 Throne Chevy Camaro-It’s a great shade of green, and the design works well on the sides. It’s a great look. A
Parker Kligerman #96 Gaunt Brothers Racing Chevy Camaro-Changing the color from red to black works well, and the car still looks good. A
By David G. Firestone
In 2016, I wrote a piece on a Race Rock racing suit. At the time I wrote the article, I thought that Race Rock was a real racing team, and they used this suit for promotion. I had spent a long time trying to find out information on Race Rock, but with no success. So I went with the best information I had at the time.
Not long after I posted the colum, it was pointed out to me that I was completely wrong about what Race Rock was. It wasn’t a racing team, but it was a racing themed restaurant in Las Vegas. After doing some more research, it turned out that I was totally wrong about Race Rock. I was going to redo the article, but as does happen in life, I got busy with other things, and Race Rock got put on the back burner. So I’m going to redo the article, but with the updated information. So here we go:
I’ve talked about the promotional advantages of driver suits and racing suits before. True, a racing sponsorship can pay a lot of dividends. According to this article from Fox, “A new study conducted jointly by the Los Angeles-based media agency Wasserman and Buffalo, New York-based Nervve showed that Denny Hamlin’s Daytona 500 victory was worth $1.9 million in earned media value for his primary sponsor, FedEx.”
But where racing suit design differs than regular work design is that the sponsor or team can design the suit in ways which most normal companies wouldn’t be able to. Denny Hamlin’s suit can be designed for maximum sponsor exposure. While Denny for some reason doesn’t wear TV logos on the sleeves, if any FedEx employee were asked to wear a uniform similar to Denny’s suit or the teams pit shirts, the company would be a laughing stock.
While racing suit design for promotional appeal is a new concept in marketing, mechanics in auto racing have been around since day one. Mechanics make the cars run, and keep them running. They have to work on cars and wear special clothes, as the fluids in the car can ruin most street clothes. The design of auto racing uniforms has influenced fashion many times over the years, and has proven popular.
Race Rock was an auto-racing themed restaurant in Las Vegas, which operated from 1999 to 2001. It was similar to the NASCAR cafe, in that it was filled with auto racing memorabilia. It was meant to work in conjunction with the Neonopolis mall, but the mall didn’t open until 2002, the restaurant was a flop, it closed, and the memorabilia was sold off. The wait staff were issued these jumpsuits to wear as uniforms.
The front has a CART patch and RACE ROCK RACING TEAM embroidered into the chest,a checkered flag stripe, and a yellow stripe across the chest with a PPG patch and a BILSTEN SHOCK ABSORBERS patch sewn into the yellow stripe.
The belt, and legs are unadorned.
The shoulders have yellow unadorned epaulets, 
and short sleeves with MOPAR PERFORMANCE RACING TEAM and CHAMPION SPARK PLUG patches on the right sleeve, and VALVOLINE RACING and HOLLEY patches on the left sleeve.
The back of the suit has a giant RACE ROCK RACE TEAM logo embroidered into it. Other than that, there are no designs present at all.
Race Rock was an interesting experiment that could have worked, but fate was against them. It was also another in the long line of theme restaurants that were tried in the late 1990’s, and failed. Race Rock joins The NASCAR cafe, The WCW Nitro Grill, The All-Star Cafe, Mars 2124, WWF New York, ESPN Zone, Michael Jordan’s, and countless other restaurants that tried to lure fans into their doors, but failed. I can only wonder if the mall across the street succeeded, how long Race Rock would have lasted
Next week, something fun and special.
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