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By David G. Firestone

It’s amazing how many used firesuits are on the market in this day in age. Every one of them tells a story. Some are worn by professional racing champions. Some are worn by weekend warriors. Interestingly, some people who acquire these suits to sell don’t know the true back story behind the suit itself. This is evident that in the next couple weeks, I’m going to discuss two identical suits with different back stories from the sellers.

One of America’s most well-known sports car races in America is the 12 Hours of Sebring. Located in Sebring, Florida, it was opened on the defunct Hendricks Army Airfield in 1950. The race lasts 12 hours, has several different classes racing, and has had many well-known race winners including Juan Manuel Fangio, Dan Gurney, Mario Andretti, A. J. Foyt, Bobby Rahal, Arie Luyendyk, Scott Sharp, Wayne Taylor, and Scott Pruett.

While BMW is considered a luxury car brand, they are involved in Australian GT, DTM, IMSA, GT Racing, and FIA Formula E. They have won the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1975, and 1999. At some point in the 1980’s, one of their teams came outfitted in this cream colored single-layer OMP suit. The suit shows some wear, and while I can’t match it 100%, there is an undated photo showing three crew members wearing this same suit design. The collar has a Velcro strap, and an OMP patch on the strap.The cowl has a small unreadable flag tag sewn into it.The right chest features a BMW logo sewn into it.The left chest features GOODYEAR, JEB’S HELMETS, and SKF BEARINGS sewn onto them.The front torso features a black stripe over a red stripe. There is some damage to the red stripe. The suit has an unadorned white belt.The legs are unadorned, and have standard cuffs.The shoulders have black over red stripes. The sleeves have OMP patches sewn into the upper area, but are otherwise unadorned. The back is unadorned.The back of the neck has the warranty label sewn in an off-center manner. The back torso is unadorned.Next week, I’ll discuss an almost identical suit with a different, yet believable back story.

By David G. Firestone

NASCAR has a lengthy history in the United States. Founded in 1948, 72 years ago, NASCAR has taken stock car racing to new heights. Once a regional promotion, NASCAR is now an international powerhouse. NASCAR and their various series have logo histories that are interesting.

Let’s start with NASCAR itself.

1948-1968

The first NASCAR logo features a track-inspired oval design, with checkered flags, and two streamlined cars heading toward each other. NASCAR INTERNATIONAL is printed in black on the greenish-yellow oval.

1968-1978

A newer version of the logo is introduced. The oval is gone, the colors have changed from black and greenish-yellow to blue and white. The checkered flags have a much more pronounced, and a line motif is added to the back ground. NASCAR is on top of the cars, INTERNATIONAL is underneath them.

1978-2017

A brand new logo is introduced in 1978. A rectangle with NASCAR in white lettering, with various different colors in the negative space replaces the old school NASCAR International logo. A series of colored vertical bricks are on the left side of the logo.

2018-???

A much more toned down version of the previous logo, with different font is introduced during 2017, with much fanfare.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has a unique tradition that stretches back to the 1970’s, the Series Logo. Series Logos are now commonplace in most forms of racing The evolution of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series logo over the years in interesting.

1972-1981

This logo is designed in classic 1970’s design, and can be seen on driver suits, as this Dale Earnhardt Sr. example from 1980 clearly shows.

1982-1988

The “1 Car” logo was a major redesign, and features a logo, with NASCAR GRAND NATIONAL SERIES embroidered, and a 1980’s car. Very visible on driver suits from the era.

1989-1992

A simple Winston logo, which, while underwhelming is very visible on this Bobby Hillin Jr. Suit, and this photo of Dale Earnhardt Sr. from 1992…and look who is next to him!

1993-1996

Again an underwhelming yet attractive series logo. The interesting thing about logos from 1993-2001 is that there are two designs, red with white lettering that displayed better on light driver suits, and white with red lettering that displayed better on dark colored driver suits. Though the rule was rather ambiguous for a while.

1997-1999

This design went through some changes when Winston changed the design of their packaging. Starting in 1998, Winston went from a rounder typeface to a narrower and straighter typeface, as a young Tony Stewart is modeling.

1998:

Every team and driver ran the NASCAR 50^th Anniversary logo on their cars and driver suits. Not bad at all.

2000-2001

A square design with an oval logo was used from 2000-2001, with the color-flipping returning. At this point, the discussion of who would replace Winston started, as due to legislation, cigarettes would not be allowed to sponsor auto racing within the next few years.

2002-2003

The transitional oval logo. The Busch Grand National series had adopted an oval logo in 1995, and since the series would change sponsorships in 2004, this new logo would be the bridge between the old and the new.

2004-2007

New sponsor, new colors, new shape. Nextell Communications took over in 2004 and it became the Nextell Cup Series. This logo would remain constant until Sprint and Nextell merged, which led to:

2008-2016:

Same color scheme, same shape, same basic design.

The logo has become a marketing point for NASCAR teams and NASCAR itself. Die casts, driver uniform coats, t-shirts, pit crew shirts, and many other items carry these logos.

2017-2019

Monster Energy takes over the series sponsorship from Sprint, initially for only one season, though two seasons were eventually announced. The new Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series has a logo based on the new Xfinity Series. It’s a black rectangle, with the current Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

2020-?

Starting in 2020, the Cup Series took a different direction with its sponsorship. Instead of one company sponsoring the Cup Series with exclusive rights for their field, four companies, Busch Beer, Coca Cola, Geico, and Xfinity sponsor the new Cup Series. Another welcome change is that the exclusivity aspect of the sponsorship is gone.

Now on to the NASCAR Xfinity Series

1982-1994

These two logos were used for the Busch Grand National series. The plain Busch logo worked better and was used more often than the Busch Beer Series logo.

1995-2004

An oval logo with the sponsor name, and GRAND NATIONAL SERIES added below. It was very marketable and worked quite well as a logo.

2004-2007

Grand National Series has been removed, and some minor redesigns to BUSCH and the NASCAR logo as well. 2006 featured the 25^th Anniversary logo.

2007-2014

Complete redesign for the NASCAR Nationwide Series which began when Nationwide took over the titular sponsorship of the series. Uneven oval with a Nationwide logo, and a NASCAR logo, with a new overall design and color scheme.

2015-2017

Xfinity takes over the series sponsorship, and release an off-center oval logo, black outline with cutting edge designs on the black outline. The center is white, and features a NASCAR Xfinity Series logo.

2018-Present

With the new NASCAR logo came a new Xfinity Series logo, this one a black square with red designs and a NASCAR Xfinity Series logo replaces the oval.

Last but certainly not least the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series.

1995

For the first season, the Truck Series was referred to as the “Super Truck Series by Craftsman.” It featured a decidedly early 1990’s logo. It lasted for only one season.

1996-2002

The Craftsman Truck Series is a better name and the logo, while still bearing a 1990’s style design, is more refined and professional.

2003-2008

The entire logo is inside the oval, some minor color and typeface changes are present as well. 2005 featured the 10^th Anniversary logo.

2009-2018

The same off-center oval design as the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup logos, with a sponsor redesign for Camping World, who took over for Craftsman after 2009.

2019

Gander Mountain takes over from Camping World. They are both owned by the same company. This results in a new name, The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series, and a logo, this one with a black rectangle, outlined in blue, with a blue rectangle with white lettering.

2020

The series makes a slight change, going from the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series to the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, complete with new logo, adding RV into the logo.

Next week, the first of a couple of random suits.