Category: my thoughts on

By David G. Firestone

Big news yesterday, as not only was the new name for what was the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was revealed, but NASCAR itself has a new logo. I can’t say I’m all that shocked about either, but I will say it did take NASCAR a lot longer than I thought it would to come up with a new logo.

Let’s discuss NASCAR’s new logo. The old setup was good, but it was designed in 1976, and really needed an update. It’s a much more minimalist logo, with a different font, and the color bar is much shorter. I have to say…I like it. The font looks much better, and while I liked the old color bar setup, this new design looks really good. It works well. I give it an A.

Now the new name…the “Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.” I’m kind of surprised with that. It doesn’t roll of the tongue. It sounds almost like the name was a placeholder for something better. I thought they would have gone with the “NASCAR Monster Energy Series.” Traditionalists refer to it as the Cup series, and there had been discussions about removing the Cup from the name. In this case…it was the wrong move.

Also, why isn’t NASCAR the first word in the series title? Every series in NASCAR is the NASCAR X Series. In this case, Monster Energy is the first word in the title. Granted there is the Verizon IndyCar Series, but I’ve always thought it should be sanctioning body then sponsor. It sounds better, and works better.

Is the logo in the video the new series logo? Is the series logo going to be a black rectangle with the logo seen in the video? Is NASCAR moving away from the oval designs of the Xfinity Series, and Camping World Truck Series? If so, that would mark a return to the old Winston Cup logo patch design. This could work if the logo isn’t too big. But if the black rectangle is the new logo, it would have to be a little bigger for detail. This could work, or it could be disaster. I’ll reserve my judgment.

I also have to give NASCAR and Monster Energy credit for ruining what could have been a great press conference. NASCAR and Monster Energy held a massive press conference to reveal that a deal had been signed, but didn’t give any details on the series name or logo. Then, they basically used Facebook and Twitter to release a video declaring the new series name. It should have been reversed. They should have released a press release stating that a deal had been signed, and had the huge press conference to reveal the new series name and new NASCAR logo. I did not think they would mess this up as badly as they did.

We just can’t skip over this press conference thing. This should be the biggest moment of the off-season, and instead, it amounted to a little more than a press conference. The series could have had a great name and logo, but instead it has a terrible name, and a mediocre logo. NASCAR had so much opportunity to make this announcement great, but they screwed it up in every way possible. The new NASCAR logo is the only good thing about this. The ball was really dropped today. I can only hope that going forward, mistakes will be fixed.

By David G. Firestone

As predicted, it was announced today that Monster Energy will be the new series sponsor for what was the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. This had been predicted, and I watched the press conference. I took a couple things away from that conference.

*NASCAR is getting “significantly less” money for the sponsorship from Monster than they did from Sprint. This doesn’t come as a shock to me due to the fact that within the last 10 years, TV ratings, and race attendance are down. Obviously this had an effect on the overall deal, and Monster had the best deal for the amount of ideas for the price.

*Monster has made it clear that they will be more aggressive with marketing. This is not a minor issue, for the reason above. Monster wants to “bring more younger viewers into the sport, while not alienating the current fan base.” I’m paraphrasing, but that is a good approach. Spring didn’t seem to be as interested in marketing as they should have been, and the sport suffered as a result.

*Looking at their current sponsorships and their current attitude, Monster is a motorsports oriented sponsor. Between Formula 1, Kurt Busch, World Rally Cross, and now NASCAR, it’s clear that Monster was the best choice.

*I have to wonder how this will affect current sponsorships. One guarantee a series sponsor has is that it automatically becomes the only company that can sponsor cars in their industry. Monster could be in any number of industries. Monster Energy could be classified as being in the energy drink, soda, or beverage industry. If it is in the energy drink category, that would be the best thing, because that would mean that other soda and beer companies wouldn’t have any issues. If it is in the soda category, that could affect Hendrick Motorsports, who has deals with Pepsi, and BK Racing, who has deals with Dr. Pepper/7Up. If it is in the beverage industry, that could make it very difficult for teams to find new sponsors.

*While current sponsors will probably get grandfathered in by the current deal, there is no guarantee that the sponsorships will remain in place. Something could happen that would violate an agreement, and then certain sponsors will get banned. This isn’t an unreasonable thing to worry about. Under Nextel/Sprint, Verizon and AT&T were both banned from sponsoring cars in the premier series.

*and finally, I didn’t realize that Monster Energy was an independent company, that has some stock owned by Coca Cola. I had thought that Coca Cola had purchased Monster a few ears ago.

It should also be noted that the series name and logo are still being worked on, so as soon as those get revealed, I will discuss them at length.

UPDATE: Since Monster Energy is in the Energy Drink category, only current energy drink manufacturers will be impacted. The only major sponsor this affects is 5-Hour Energy, and there is some debate over whether they are an energy drink or energy shot, which could affect their sponsorship of future cars.

 

By David G. Firestone

Before I finish for the year, I wanted to take some time and discuss a few things in the NASCAR world that are changing. Some are good, others are not. But all of them are going to impact the 2017 NASCAR season.

First is the big news that there are new rules for Cup drivers in the Xfinity and Truck Series. The two most important new rules are:

*Drivers with more than five years of full-time premier series experience will be ineligible to compete in the final eight races in each series, as well as the Dash 4 Cash races in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. The final eight races are comprised of the regular season finale and the entirety of the Chase in each series.

*Starting next season, premier series drivers with more than five years of full-time experience will be eligible to compete in a maximum of 10 races in the XFINITY Series and seven races in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

I don’t think that the rules go far enough. I am a fan of the idea that the minor leagues of racing should only be used for driver development and/or driver injury rehabilitation. That is how every other sport in the history of ever has used their minor leagues. In my mind, full-time Cup drivers shouldn’t be allowed to compete in the Xfinity or Truck series, unless they have missed some races due to injury and want to judge if they are capable of running a full Cup race, or they lose their ride, and aren’t competing in the Cup series anymore.

Please don’t try to tell me that the Xfinity and Truck races benefit from “star power” of the Cup drivers. That argument makes zero sense whatsoever, because no other sports league does that with their stars. Did the NHL send Wayne Gretzky to the minors to boost their star power? Did the NBA send LeBron James to the D-league? Did the MLB send Mickey Mantle to the minors to boost star power? The answer is no. Mantle and Gretzky did spend time in the minors, but that was early in their careers, where their talents were obvious but they needed some more polish before debuting in the major leagues.

I also got some news last week that proves something I have been saying for some time. Greg Biffle was released from Roush Racing due to a lack of sponsorship. Biffle finished 23^rd in the standings, and was the third best of the Roush drivers, with Trevor Bayne finishing 22^nd, and Ricky Stenhouse finishing 21^st. Roush Fenway Racing has gone from super team to super joke in the last decade. I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

Why Jack Roush refuses to use the free agency system for his team is perplexing. Roush exclusively uses his developmental program for his Cup teams, despite all evidence that in recent years, it hasn’t worked well. Even teams like Richard Chldress Racing, and Joe Gibbs Racing, who were also using their developmental programs for their Cup talent figured out quickly that the free agent market is a great way to boost their teams. Roush seems to be fixated on that, despite that in the last 10 years, it has gotten them nowhere.

Yes, it did work with Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, and Greg Biffle, but those guys were very talented drivers who would have thrived no matter where they ran. While Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Trevor Bayne are talented drivers, they aren’t on the level of Edwards, Kenseth, or Biffle. That’s not taking anything away from them. You need to be a talented driver to race your way into the Cup Series. Hell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is a two-time Xfinity Champion, but when was the last time a driver was Xfinity Series Champion, then went on to win a Cup Championship? Bobby Labonte did it in 2000, but that’s the only example. Roush has more faith in his developmental program and his equipment than he should. The only driver to win in a Roush-Fenway car was Chris Buescher, and he just signed with a Chevy team for 2017.

Now we move on to Brian Scott. This is the sort of thing that just annoys me with professional athletes sometimes. Prior to the race at Phoenix, Scott announced that he would be retiring from driving at age 28. I’d like to quote the Richard Petty Motorsports press release if I may:

“MOORESVILLE, N.C. (November 10, 2016) – Richard Petty Motorsports and Brian Scott today announced Scott, driver of the No. 44 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford, will retire from full-time competition in NASCAR at the end of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Scott has made the personal decision to focus on his young and growing family and also the next phase of his career.”

Let me see I understand this correctly, you are giving up a job that pays very well, where you have no real worries providing for your family, to focus on your family. I looked this up, and I discovered that Brian Scott’s career earnings in the top three series are over $10 million, and that’s just on-track, that doesn’t factor into endorsements. You are also one of the few drivers who has built-in sponsorships. You don’t have as much trouble as some drivers in finding companies to sponsor your team.

Also, you retired to “focus on the next phase of your career.” Someone please explain to me what in the Hell that means? What is this “next phase?” You have worked your whole life to become a race car driver, but now you have retired. I hope you have a decent education, and can find a decent place to work, because very few places pay as well as your previous job, and I’m willing to bet your savings won’t carry through for 18 years.

Something else that went under the radar in recent weeks is that it was announced that Phoenix International Raceway is making some improvements to the track. Now normally, I would be all for it, because that usualy means that there are new fan amenities and some new stuff for the driver. Then I saw what was being done, and I went into shock. Here is the generalized list, according to NBC Sports:

-The start/finish line is shown to be in what is now Turn 2.

-All the frontstretch grandstands would be eliminated and replaced by an elevated RV parking lot and have additional parking behind it.

-The Allison grandstand in Turn 2 will be extended to go through the entire turn.

-Pit road will be moved closer to the infield and have a tighter radius. That will allow additional space between the track and pit road.

-There would be five new garages for competitors.

-The media center would be moved from its present location across from the current start/finish line to just beyond Turn 2.

-The infield care center would move from behind the current media center to between what is now Turns 3 and 4.

-Victory Lane would be moved behind pit road to spot between what is now Turns 1 and 2.

When I saw that the front-stretch grandstands would be eliminated, and that the start/finish line would be moved to turn two, I honestly thought it was a joke of some kind, but the plans that have been submitted clearly show this is the real setup. What in the world is going on here? Was the racing in Phoenix so bad, that the track had to be drastically changed? I didn’t think it was bad. It boggles the mind that someone not only came up with this, but submitted the plans for approval. I can only hope the racing is as good as they want it to be.

As of this writing, NASCAR hasn’t announced a series sponsor for the Cup series. I’m going to start my winter break after Saturday, but if the announcement comes through, I will discuss the new sponsor and new logos. See you in January.

By David G. Firestone

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I’d like to talk about some things I am thankful for:

I am thankful for my family, my house, and my pets.

I am thankful I have a job with decent security and good benefits.

I am thankful I live in the United States of America.

I am thankful for the fact that I can blog about the subjects that I love.

I am thankful for my readers.

…and lastly, I am thankful that 2016 will soon come to a close, and I can hope that 2017 will be better.

Happy Thanksgiving.

By David G. Firestone

So I’ve been following Tony Pedregon’s 20 Best Funny Cars of All Time, and while I agree with most of his choices, I’d like to know why one particular car wasn’t on the list. Could someone please explain to me why Kenny Bernstein’s 1986 Batmobile Buick didn’t make the list? I get that there could only be 20 picks, but why the most important body design of the last 30 years isn’t on the list?

The fans vote was on point, but Tony’s vote seemed, at least to me, to miss a few things. Also, if you, as a former driver, are going to make a list, COULD YOU EXCLUDE YOURSELF FROM IT? I stopped caring about Tony’s picks when he picked one of his own cars, and it was the worst paint scheme he ever ran, that Kiss disaster from 2003. The fact that both the Batmobile and Jack Beckman were excluded, and your car was included proves how bad his list was.

I’ve also read the report that Monster Energy might be the next series sponsor for The Sprint Cup. This is just a rumor, and I’m not going to confirm or deny anything besides that. What I am going to say is that I’m disappointed that NASCAR doesn’t have a definitive contract for a new series sponsor yet. I’ve seen lists of the potential competitors in the running, but I’m still waiting for real information.

Also, I’m not going to start work on the 2017 Tracker until the beginning of 2017. I’ve gotten burned with early paint scheme releases before, so I’m not touching it until 2017. I can also now confirm that all videos and Throwback Thursday items are ready to go too. I’ve got a good schedule ready, I’m going to try a few things, and we’re going to have fun.

Also, I made a change to my office, and was able to add a little more room. I don’t have that much room to begin with, so this was badly needed, and I’m glad it got done. It seems odd that the racing season is almost over, but with the NHRA having finished their season, the NASCAR season ending next week, and F1 ending after that, it’s a sad part of the year for me.

By David G. Firestone

I’m working on a few side projects this week, so I won’t be updating the tracker or grades until next week. I’ve been wanting to do these for a while, and I’m making them happen. Bear with me, things will be back to normal next week.

By David G. Firestone

I was going to finish this at the end of the year. I wanted to do a list of driver suit manufactures in NASCAR, the NHRA, F1, and IndyCar. Then, this last week, Paul Lukas wrote an interesting article for his ESPN page about what he has termed “logo creep.” Logo creep is when the uniform manufacturer places a small logo on said uniform in such a way that it’s clear to anyone watching the game who made the uniform.

When it comes to auto racing, the logo creep has been a part of the uniform since the 1960’s. At the tail end of 1966, Nomex was becoming the go-to material for driver suits, and the suit manufacturers wanted to put their logos on drivers, since that would increase sales. This usually was in the form of a small patch on the sleeve. This was the standard design for decades, then the shoulder epaulet became a prime spot for a sponsor logo, and that’s when driver suit manufacturers realized that they could add their logos to the epaulet. Which is the current design used today.

I’ve compiled a list of drivers in NASCAR, IndyCar, The NHRA, and Formula One, and I’m going to list them by suit manufacturer. I will also add information about the manufacturer.

ADIDAS

INDYCAR

Conor Daly

NASCAR

Clint Bowyer

You wouldn’t expect Adidas to make firesuits, but they have a racing lineage going back to 1974. According to raceboot.com: “Adi Dassler developed the very first “fireproof” race boot in 1974. Legend has it that Adi acquired a Brabham Formula 1 racing car to understand the environment in which a racing driver operates. He placed the experimental shoes in the foot well of the racing car and then set fire to it. The exercise was repeated more then 30 times to identify weaknesses and make improvements to his race boots.

During the late 1970s through to the early 90s, the Monza become the most successful race boot produced by Adidas to date . Indeed it was the choice of champions including Mario Andretti, Walter Röhrl, Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna.” They have also had Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski wearing Adidas branded uniform products, though at least one of Junior’s driver suits was actually made by Simpson.

The latest trend in auto racing uniforms is athletic apparel companies making auto racing uniforms. Adidas was ahead of the curve on this. It’s also interesting to note that Adi Dassler founded Adidas in Germany after a family feud which led to his older brother Rudolph leaving to found Puma in 1978. We’ll cover Puma in a few minutes.

Something that’s going to come up multiple times is how many athletic show companies that make driver suits don’t sell manufacturer direct, choosing instead to sell via third party sites. Raceboot.com is the Adidas site, and they have a lot of interesting driver uniform information. It’s worth a read.

Adidas likes to use what can be described as a strapless epaulet. There are sponsor logos in place, but no visible strap. The logo creep is in the standard place.

AIR JORDAN*

NASCAR

Denny Hamlin

I’ve added the asterisk, since I have not been able to figure out if Denny’s suit is actually made by Nike, or if, like the Earnhardt suit above, it’s made by someone else, and branded as Air Jordan. I’m thinking it may be made by Simpson, for two reasons. First, the Earnhardt suit above is made by Simpson, and branded as Adidas. Second, after some looking, I’ve been able to determine that Denny’s pit crew is wearing Simpson branded suits. Furthermore, the theory that it’s a Simpson made suit makes sense, since unlike every other manufacturer, Nike doesn’t sell firesuits or auto racing gear in any capacity. Taking all of this into consideration, I’m going to say it’s most likely a Simpson made suit with Air Jordan branding.

The shoulder epaulets are standard strap design, but with no loops on the end of the epaulet, near where the arm gusset is. The logo is, instead, sewn directly into the suit, just next to the armpit.

ALPINESTARS

F1

Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean, Esteban Gutierrez, Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, Felipe Massa, Jolyon Palmer, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz Jr

NASCAR

Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Danica Patrick

Alpinestars started as a ski boot maker in 1963, but quickly realized that it would be better and more profitable to make motorcycle racing boots. After a series of successful riders had a lot of decent success in Alpinestars boots, the company shifted focus to making motorcycle racing gear. Eventually, they shifted to more forms of auto racing, including Formula One, NASCAR, and IndyCar in the late 2000’s.

Like Adidas, Alpinestars is very big on using strapless epaulets. The strap used to have some function, in that it was supposed to be used to pull an incapacitated driver out of a burning car. With the new safety features in race-cars, this risk has been significantly decreased over the years, so now epaulets are more aesthetic than functional.

IMPACT!

INDYCAR

Sage Karam, Carlos Munoz

NASCAR

Landon Cassill, Reed Sorenson, Martin Truex Jr., Josh Wise

NHRA

Jack Beckman, Antron Brown, Ron Capps, Matt Hagan, Tommy Johnson Jr., Shawn Langdon, Leah Pritchett, Tony Schumacher,

Founded by Bill Simpson after leaving Simpson Race Products following Dale Earnhardt Sr.’s death in 2001, Impact has had a decent amount of drivers wearing their products. Their logo creep consists of a small logo beneath the shoulder epaulet, and a reverse Z logo on the sleeve.

KAPPA*

NASCAR

Jeffrey Earnhardt

Like Air Jordan, I’m not convinced it’s made by Kappa, but more likely a Simpson made suit with a Kappa branding. In this case, they don’t have their logo anywhere on the shoulders, but rather on the front, and on the neck.

OMP

F1

Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Nasr

INDYCAR

Marco Andretti, Ed Carpenter, Ryan Hunter-Reay, Spencer Pigot

NASCAR

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Based in Genoa, Italy, OMP has been in the auto racing uniform business since 1973, having had many Formula One legends run OMP suits. It took some time for OMP to make it into American auto racing, but OMP has somewhat of a foothold in the American auto racing market. OMP uses a somewhat larger epaulet, with the logo creep designed similarly to Impact.

PUMA

F1

Lewis Hamilton, Daniil Kvyat, Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Raikkonen, Nico Rosberg, Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel

INDYCAR

Helio Castroneves, Juan Pablo Montoya, Simon Pagenaud, Will Power

NASCAR

Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano

Unlike their rivals Adidas, Puma didn’t really didn’t get into the auto racing uniform market until very recently. As could be expected for a German-based team, Puma started with Formula one, and then branched out. Their logo creep is similar to Denny Hamlin’s Air Jordan suit, with the Puma logo sewn directly into the suit, instead of the epaulet. It is a simple, smooth look. I do miss the curve designs that Puma used in 2014.

Like Adidas, Puma won’t direly sell to customers, rather, they prefer to use third party websites to sell their racing gear. I’m not against that, but it doesn’t exactly send a message of confidence that you can go to Puma’s website, and buy any of their products except their auto racing gear.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS

NASCAR

Michael Annett, Trevor Bayne, Greg Biffle, Alex Bowman, Jeb Burton, Matt DiBenedetto, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, David Ragan, Tony Stewart, Cole Whitt, JJ Yeley

NHRA

Brittany Force, Courtney Force, John Force, Robert Hight, Tim Wilkerson

Once the king of American auto racing uniforms, Simpson Race Products has lost a lot of their relevancy in recent years, as most of the new manufacturers enter the American market. Simpson is credited with introducing Nomex to driver suits in 1966. Their logo creep is interesting, in that they use two different logos. The older box Simpson logo is still used on the T epaulets, and on some of the newer strapless epaulets. The newer Simpson S logo is used on the strapless epaulets as well. For some reason, there doesn’t seem to be any consistency between what logos are used where. I’m also noticing that unlike the other manufacturers, Simpson uses a variety of different epaulet designs as well.

SPARCO

F1

Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Rio Haryanto, Pascal Wehrlein

INDYCAR

Mikhail Aleshin, Sebastien Bourdais, Matt Brabham, Max Chilton, Scott Dixon, Jack Hawksworth, James Hinchcliffe, Tony Kanaan, Charlie Kimball, Josef Newgarden, Graham Rahal

NASCAR

AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell, Jamie McMurray, Casey Mears, Paul Menard, Ryan Newman, Brian Scott

Clearly the most popular driver suit manufacturer in the big leagues of auto racing, Sparco has been in the game since 1977. First introduced to NASCAR in 2004 by Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, Sparco has consistently grown in both driver popularity, and expose. Sparco has used the T-shaped epaulets since the beginning, and the Sparco logo is on the front of the epaulet, next to the armpit. Their Formula One suits eschew the shoulder logos, instead choosing to place them on the legs.

STAND 21

NHRA

Alexis DeJoria, Richie Crampton, Doug Kalitta, Morgan Lucas, JR Todd, Steve Torrence, Del Worsham,

Based in Dijon, France, Stand 21 was founded in 1970 by Yves Morizot. They are one of the larger custom-made suit makers in the world. Though their biggest customers are in the NHRA as of right now, they are still very well-known. They prefer to use a strapless epaulet, and a 21 logo on the shoulder epaulets.

I’ve also begun to notice a new trend in the big leagues of auto racing. Formula One aside, more and more teams are beginning to let drivers pick which driver suit manufacturer to wear. While the drivers get to choose, pit crews are assigned a specific manufacturer for their pit crew suits. Since crew members can get rotated from one team to another, this makes logistical sense.

It does seem that epaulet designs and logo creep are evolving at a much quicker pace than years back. I can’t help but wonder what the future holds for auto racing logo creep.

By David G. Firestone

October is known for a few things, baseball playoffs, pink for breast cancer, and most of all, Halloween. With Halloween comes scary movies, trick or treating, and controversy. I’m getting sick of religious groups trying to convince cities and towns to outlaw trick or treating. A country of 300,000,000 people doesn’t have to change for you.

Moving on, the major thing that drives Halloween is spooks and fear. Fear is an interesting emotion, since it’s really the only emotion that all living creatures possess. For most creatures, the big fear is the fear of death. Death is a really scary concept because what happens after death, nobody knows. The end of life drives every creature on the planet Earth.

For humans, there are many other fears. Some of them can be rationalized, such as the fear of losing loved ones, the fear of being fired, and the fear of death. We each have our own fears, some of which we can rationalize, at least to ourselves, others we don’t know why we are afraid of it. One fear I learned about recently is Aulophobia, or the fear of flutes. There are some people who are genuinely afraid of the most mundane of objects.

I’ve said before that I’m afraid of thunder and lightning, and I’m afraid of flying. Again, one of these fears is easy to rationalize. I don’t like the idea of sitting in a metal tube for hours on end, 20,000 feet off the ground, where if something goes wrong, there is 20,000 feet to the ground, followed by an explosion and fire. It’s why when I travel, I use Amtrak. Plus with Amtrak, I’m not glued to a seat, I can get up and walk around whenever I want.

The thunder and lightning fear is a bit harder to rationalize. Granted I do work outside, so I have to worry about the dangers it poses, but I’ve been afraid of it my whole life. I guess it has to do with the sudden bright light in the midst of darkness, then the loud booming sound. I’m not alone when it comes to this fear. Lots of people are afraid of thunder and lightning.

I’m also going to confess to a fear of clowns. Now this is an odd one since there is no reason in this world I should be afraid of clowns. I’ve noticed something when it comes to this fear. I’m not afraid of “scary” clowns. Take Pennywise the Clown from It, for example. That doesn’t bother me at all, since Pennywise is supposed to be scary. To me, the creepy clowns are the ones that are supposed to be cute and funny. The cute and funny clowns scare me more than scary clowns. There is something about cute clowns that scares me, and for the life of me, I can’t figure it out.

Many people have found various ways to deal with crippling fears, some of which have ruined their lives. I’m not sure if I should deal with these fears, since they don’t really hinder my life at all. I hope I don’t get anymore fears since they aren’t fun, and I hope you don’t either.

By David G. Firestone

Going in a bit of a different direction this week. I watch a WWE-themed video series from What Culture. One of their recent videos was titled “10 Times WWE Threw Their Money Down The Drain.” There are more examples, and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is an example that needs to be discussed.

A lot of racing fans and a lot of WWE fans probably didn’t know that from 1999 to 2001 WWE sponsored two NHRA funny cars, one driven by Jerry Tolliver and one driven by Jim Epler. When it comes to WWE messing up opportunities to make money and promote their brand, if they can screw it up, they will. Their NHRA sponsorship was no different. This was doomed from day one for a number of reasons, which we will go through.

The first major reason is timing. Yes there was an auto racing boom in the mid 1990’s. TV deals expanded, viewership went up, sponsorship money was great. By 1999, the teams needed more and more money from sponsors. Sponsors were also getting annoyed when they sponsored a mediocre driver, who didn’t get much camera time. Granted, the WWE didn’t start sponsoring the team until 1999 because of budget issues, but it was so badly timed I can’t rationalize the decision.

The second major reason is their choice of racing, the NHRA. Anyone who knows me, and anyone who reads The Driver Suit Blog knows that I LOVE the NHRA and I love drag racing. That being said, I’m not so dumb that I think the NHRA is the best, or most popular sanctioning body in auto racing. NHRA drag racing has always been low on the totem pole of American auto racing. Their television contracts have been mediocre, they don’t get much mainstream press, their viewership ratings have never been great, and they aren’t the alpha dog in auto racing.

For those reasons, it’s perplexing that the WWE would choose the NHRA over NASCAR. NASCAR is the alpha dog of American auto racing, especially when it comes to viewership. I don’t know the numbers, but I’m willing to bet that one Sprint Cup car costs a whole lot less that two funny cars. NASCAR would have also been a better decision because WCW had sponsored cars for years, and it would have been a good competition, I’ll get to that a little later. Keep in mind that this is 1999, and while the Monday Night Wars were more or less won, they were still going on. This would have been a great to keep the competition going on, and promote the brand, again, I’ll get to that a little later.

The third major reason is that the WWE chose to sponsor two funny cars. Now this could go either way, it could be rationalized that the category is one of the most popular, and the most visible in drag racing. I can’t disagree with that logic, since it is the case. But when it comes to Epler and Tolliver, there was a major Force preventing them from having any real success, a John Force, that is. This took place in 1999 to 2001, when Force was at the height of his dominance. Keep in mind that from 1990 to 2004, there was only one funny car championship Force was not involved in, and that was Cruz Pedregon in 1992. 2004 saw Force’s teammate Tony Pedregon winning the championship. Force was unstoppable. Anyone racing in funny car at that time was chasing John Force with little success. While Epler and Tolliver had wins, they weren’t able to stop Force.

While we’re on the subject of drivers, let me add the fourth major reason, the choice of drivers. Compared to John Force, most drivers were mediocre at that time, but I would have aimed a little higher than Jim Epler and Jerry Tolliver. They aren’t bad drivers, but they aren’t close to John Force in terms of talent and wins. While they did win in their Camaros, which at that time was Chevy’s funny car program on life support, they couldn’t match John Force. So the WWE is pumping money into a racing program that can’t live up to the hype, no matter how hard they tried.

The fifth major reason this was a horrible decision is because of promotion…or lack therof. As I said above, WCW sponsored NASCAR for a number of years. While many racing fans hated it, it was a brilliant move. WCW promoted their cars, used the drivers in angles, worked the nWo angle into the racing, and at one point even had wrestlers on their pit crews. So you would think that WWE would promote their funny cars similarly…right? Most wrestling fans who read this would not have known that the WWE even got involved with the NHRA, since WWE never mentioned the funny car sponsorship at all. They didn’t mention it on television, or on their website. Their talent appeared on the sides of the cars, but were never seen at the track. While they used their cars to promote the XFL, which had even less of a fan base than WCW in 2001, they never promoted their own racing team.

As merchandise is a big part of WWE’s business plan, you would think that WWE would use merchandise to help promote their brand, and again you’d be wrong. While the merch trailer was always at the track, racing merch was never to be seen on the WWE shop on their website. I can’t understand how WWE seemingly went out of their way to not promote their racing. It’s mind boggling. Again, this isn’t a cheap venture, this was costing them millions of dollars. Why they didn’t at least mention it on TV, or have a wrestler at the track, or promote it in any way is baffling.

CM Punk said it best: “Vince McMahon is a millionare who should be a billionare.” Thanks to the XFL, WWE New York-been there, food wasn’t great, Million Dollar Mania, ECW, Tout, Icopro, the WBF, and a host of other failed ventures, Vince has lost more money than the bottom 100 million Americans will ever see in their lifetime. I’m just going to end it here, because it seems that Vince isn’t a great businessman.