Who has the sweetest looking car ?

[namarow]

I give you this, atleast the IRL teams know how to paint the damn cars well.

[cobre]

practice makes perfect; repairing& repainting, they should be good!

[Jag_Warrior]

I give you this, atleast the IRL teams know how to paint the damn cars well.

I certainly have to agree with that. With Champ Car having a major paint company as a sponsor, there was no excuse for the unimaginative, generic red & white paint schemes last year. Add to that, one of the most talented livery designers around is a major fan of the series (some might say a "Fanatic" ). The one area where I would give the IRL the clear nod over CCWS last year (and maybe this year... haven't seen much in the way of Champ Car liveries this year ) is in livery design. In fact, the IRL has always had some good liveries. Even in the early days, when everything else was sort of club racing'ish, many of the IRL liveries looked very professional, or at least creative.

After seeing some of the IRL liveries, I believe I'd have to give the nod to Marco's NYSE livery. With Penske, I wonder why they didn't (couldn't?) go with the Marlboro barcode. The "Team Penske" signage has a sort of will race for food look to it... though we all know the money is still there.

[ChicagocrewIRL]

The "Team Penske" signage has a sort of will race for food look to it... though we all know the money is still there.

Well "PENSKE" in it's own right is a legitimate company that does substantial business in the truck leasing industry. I see Penske trucks everywhere. So in a sense the Penske sponsorship promotes any of the various Penske business ventures including auto dealerships, truck leasing, etc.

[Jag_Warrior]

Yes, this is true. But Penske has been in that business (and others) for many years. Penske has always been vocal about not spending his own (company) money to go racing. Imagine the exposure he could get by running a Penske sponsored car in NASCAR. Won't happen.

[ChicagocrewIRL]

Yes, this is true. But Penske has been in that business (and others) for many years. Penske has always been vocal about not spending his own (company) money to go racing. Imagine the exposure he could get by running a Penske sponsored car in NASCAR. Won't happen.

But it doesn't make sense to sponsor yourself in NAPCAR when others will do it for you at a much higher rate. The marketing value of his IndyCar team is leveraged because the Penske companies can write off the value as a business expense without actually putting any real money into it. Plus Phillip Morris and Mobil still foot most of the bill anyway.

[Jag_Warrior]

One can expense the cost of sponsorship, but not the value of sponsorship. Funding contributed by Altria or Mobil would be considered income to the team. I'll go out on a (short) limb and predict that if only one American open wheel team has full sponsorship in the near or distant future, it will be Penske. Love him or hate him, he's as connected as Don Corleone.

Anyway, I like the Marlboro barcode concept.

[harvick#1]

Yes, this is true. But Penske has been in that business (and others) for many years. Penske has always been vocal about not spending his own (company) money to go racing. Imagine the exposure he could get by running a Penske sponsored car in NASCAR. Won't happen.

yes the (#39 last year) #12 Busch car has run the Penske Rental sponsorship. so he has run his own sponsorship in NASCAR

[R. Mears]

Patricks Black and light Blue do not go together, but her in a car doesn't go together either.

Harvick, do you hate women in racing or just Danica?

ChicagocrewIRL, are you sure Danica's car is #1 because of how the car looks or how she looks?

[harvick#1]

I thought through all this media hype, Danica was the best thing since sliced bread, but still she has no wins and still looks foolish on the track.

Shes sort of like Jr. and Waltrip and needs to concentrate on racing and not modeling/commercials.