| Published:N/A |
| Date: October 2006 |
| Section: Nascar/Opinion/Satire |
| Comments: |
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By: Ian Essling
Kevin Harvick, Chase for the Nextel Cup contender and shoe-in Busch Series Champion in 2006, announced on Saturday that his primary sponsor of GM Goodwrench will be leaving after this season, to be replaced by Shell Oil Company.
The new Shell paint scheme is predominantly yellow to follow company colors.
While RCR and Harvick are both happy with the new sponsorship, the cars in the RCR stable that will be sporting this new design have other thoughts.
"I've put a lot of time into this company," said Chassis 167, a car that won the Phoenix race earlier this year. "We [RCR cars] like the black and silver. Nothing we have done makes us deserve this treatment! Nothing! We run well all year, and now we get to look like a bunch of floating bananas on the track next year. Honestly, who's afraid of a banana?"
Chassis 134, a similarly shaped intermediate car, echoed the sentiment, "RCR cars have always had great paint schemes, and we've been proud to run them. If I was racing for DEI or Roush, I would expect to look like an idiot every weekend, but we're supposed to be high class over here."
The cars are so upset with the change that a number of them have become defiant and claimed that they will do "whatever it takes" to avoid using the scheme.
Harvick's restrictor plate car took responsibility for the driver spinning on lap 139 at this weekend's Talladega race. The chassis was quoted as saying he'd rather end up in a scrap pile and that he tried to end his own life, but video shows the 24 car of Jeff Gordon making contact with Harvick's car and initiating the spin. The chassis still maintains its suicidal threat and may not be run again.
RCR has a record of emotional cars; at the season-opening Daytona 500 in 2005, one chassis destroyed itself during a qualifying race while trying to wreck Jimmie Johnson, a driver the chassis itself loathed. The backup chassis that was run during the race then had a terrible breakdown when it was re-decaled with the special '05 Daytona scheme. The car handled terribly the entire race, until an accident finally put it out of its misery late in the day. 
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