Why? Why not?

Yes, those are crossbones behind the Ask.com logo.

"Why?," you may ask. The answer is simple. Because.

According to Kevin Hamlin, part time Nationwide Series driver, the owner of Ask.com likes pirates, so the Hall of Fame Racing team rid themselves of the awful white and blue flames scheme and debuted their new pirates (and apparently ghost flames) scheme last week at Talladega.

The Rundown: Kurt Busch is apparently running some sort of useless product scheme, don't know when. ... The M&Ms Halloween scheme is back. ... The designer of Richard Petty Motorsports' schemes apparently dropped his sketch pad in toxic waste, and this is what came out. ... Kevin Harvick will run some sort of Pennzoil scheme at the All Star race later this month. ... Michael Waltrip's NAPA Brakes scheme designer went all out. ... Another crappy video game scheme from Logano. ... Insert Star Trek joke here. ... Erik Darnell's Northern Tool + Equipment scheme from the Truck Series last season looks just as good on a Nationwide car. ... Dale Jr fans better have more money for diecasts. ... More unnecessary diamond plating in 3, 2, 1, boom.

Tickled Pink

There are certain colors that are considered bad luck in racing. Black is often grouped with evil. Green, while associated with the start of a race and the payout after the event, is also frowned upon in motorsports.

And then there's pink. In recent years, pink has become much more of a common color in NASCAR. But all of these schemes have a common reason -- breast cancer research, and support has been great.

But then there's this thing. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. I suppose that, in these economic times, if you can strike a deal with any company, you should slap its logo on the hood. On the other hand, Danny O'Quinn has to be slightly emasculated to have "SALON WISH" plastered across his chest. (And Danny is built like an NFL linebacker, so that's a big logo)

And then there's the design of the car itself. The overall scheme is pretty good. It's just the colors. I can't bring myself to look at it for more than five seconds without breaking out into a mixture of aloud confusion, laughter, and visually-induced vomiting. Sure, the colors "go well together," but... it's pink. And don't even get me started on the "SALON WISH" typeface.

Let's just hope this doesn't take off like the flame fad of the early part of the decade... Blech.

The Rundown: As noted earlier, Kerry Earnhardt's Rick Ware Racing team showed up at Talladega with a plain black car, not the Dale Earnhardt-inspired scheme they unveiled earlier this week that I wrote about yesterday. ... Hall of Fame Racing also went black for Tally. No idea what that's about, but it's better than the scheme they've been running. ... It still seems strange to see the 43 in anything other than Petty blue, but Reed Sorenson's Air Force car is dead sexy. ... Continuing Hendrick Motorsports' trend over the past few years of reusing Darrell Waltrip's schemes from when he didn't drive for HMS, Jeff Gordon is driving a Pepsi Challenger-based scheme. ... Carl Edwards' Claritin scheme is back for 2009, apparently unchanged from 2008. ... Clint Bowyer will drive a car sponsored by The Hartford in "select races." Jeff Burton will also be sponsored by the company at some point, and I would assume the scheme will be essentially the same. ... Gabi DeCarlo's Great Clips truck sported what has now become the standard scheme for the sponsor. ... Jeremy Mayfield ran a Big Red scheme for the second week in a row. ... Don't adjust your set on Sunday: Leading them to the green flag is this beauty. ... I can't be the only one to mistake this for a 7 Eleven car every time I see it. ... I usually don't like schemes that try to make themselves look like a flag waving in the wind, but this is just too nice not to like.

The Legacy (and Futility) Continues

In 2001, the sport lost its greatest star, Dale Earnhardt, on its greatest stage, the final lap of the Daytona 500. NASCAR had lost its down-home, good-ol'-boy feel, and in an instant become a more streamlined, "Hollywood" version of itself. More importantly, two of its drivers, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his half brother Kerry, had lost their father, the man who got them into the sport and gave them their first breaks. There were many calls to give Dale Jr. the #3, because he was already at the sport's highest level, and some to hold it until Kerry, who was looking promising in the ARCA series, was ready to drive in the Winston Cup Series.

In 2002, a year after that day, Dale Jr partnered with Richard Childress to run two Busch Series races in his dad's famous #3. These paint schemes were neat, in that they used essentially the same scheme (a base color with milk splashes at the bottom) to convey two different products (Oreo and Nilla Wafers), only switching the main base color (blue for Oreo, yellow for Nilla Wafers) It started out well, with Jr. winning at Daytona, but Jr. wrecked in the second race at Charlotte.

In 2006, Earnhardt, Sr., inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame. To coincide with this all five DEI cars (Martin Truex and Paul Menard in the Busch Series, and Truex, Earnhardt, Jr., and Menard in the Nextel Cup Series) ran paint schemes like the famous black and silver that Sr. ran from 1988-2001.

In 2007, Dale, Jr., announced that he would leave DEI. Fans clamoured for him to go to RCR and run the black #3, but this would not happen. Still, countless fans still obsess over the thought of what could have been.

Fast forward to now. Kerry (the one that was forgotten) didn't turn out to be a success (though you could argue that he could stand in as a Dale Earnhardt impersonator) and after years of floundering in the Busch Series, has mostly watched on the sidelines. He signed with Rick Ware Racing to run a few races in the Nationwide Series, starting at Talladega, his dad's playground. Then they unveil the car.

Is this really necessary? Yes, his last name is Earnhardt. Yes, it's Talladega. But why can designers (these people are getting paid, by the way) not stay away from this scheme? Sure, it's simple, and many times, that's what sponsors want. Just enough to draw attention to the car, but little enough not to distract from the sponsor logos. Unfortunately, people will not see this car and think "Fastwax.com." They'll think, "hey, that looks like Dale, Sr.'s car!"

The sooner people can differentiate between Dale and his sons, the sooner we can maybe get back to where this sport was before Dale died.

EDIT, 3:56 PM: RWR showed up at Talladega this weekend with a plain black car, so the point is moot. Maybe Kerry wanted to differentiate himself from his dad. Or maybe some head honcho at RWR got slapped. Or something.

The Rundown: Ryan Newman will run a Prelude to the Dream scheme this weekend at Talladega. ... Morgan-McClure Motorsports (you know, that team that Ernie Irvan used to drive for?) is back this week. Unfortunately, Eric McClure is driving the car, and how appropriate -- they're sponsored by a trash bag. ... In more "rehashing classic schemes while completely losing its special-ness" news, Kasey Kahne will drive this piece of work at Charlotte in October, now that he's driving for the King. ... Newman has also been stealing Tony Stewart's food, uh... Nationwide Series ride. ... Dale, Jr., is driving this mashed-up, half-camo, half-Dale, Sr., car at Daytona. Hey, it's an excuse to get another Earnhardt in black.

Welcome

Hello, everyone. I've never been much for blogs. I don't write blogs. I rarely read blogs. There is, however, one that I do read a lot - Paul Lukas's UniWatch Blog. I'm sure many of you are familiar with it. Paul and his small team of writers blog daily about sports uniforms and their design. He covers a wide variety of sports, from baseball and football and hockey to bowling and tennis and cornhole.

One sport that he rarely covers happens to be my favorite -- auto racing. Occasionally, he will comment about a stick-and-ball sport with some sort of connection to auto racing, but he usually leaves it alone.

So I set out, not to "copy" or "steal" his idea, but to expand upon it. Auto racing, especially NASCAR, is one of the most colorful and unique sports when it comes to the design of the cars. A car one week can be a completely different, unrelated design than the week before. With 43 cars on the track each weekend, that can add up to a lot of paint schemes over the course of a 38-race season.

This probably won't be a daily write-up like UW unless I get some help, but I hope to regularly post. Enjoy!