This is probably insignificant in the whole scheme of things, but I attended the Pepsi Midget Nationals in Sun Prairie on Sunday night and it struck me that of the 25 cars in field, 16 of them were painted black. Five were white - only four were painted a color other than black or white. Frankly, I found this kind of drab. The first heat had 8 cars - all of them black. A kid in front of me asked his Dad, "Why are all of the cars the same?" Add to this the fact that there were a number of pairs of team cars that looked almost identical - it was kind of difficult to keep track of who was who. And I'm not a nube - I've been to easily over 100 midget races at Sun Prairie alone in my life. This is a trend I've been noticing over time.

Am I the only one who thinks this? Why isn't there more variety of car liveries in midgets? It would make watching the races more interesting. I've always loved the Hoffman #69 sprint cars because are so identifiable on the track. The orange Wendy's midget that Jerry Coons Jr. drove is beautiful. Why don't more teams try to make their cars stand out like that?

I had the same complaint at the Chilibowl. I can't tell who is who. No originality anymore.

I really don't care the color, You got 25 midgets. Most of us would be happy to get 20. In the day like today where getting a car together and actually taking it to a track cost a small fortune. I'll let the paint job slide.

Numbers however, I remember one Chili Bowl where there were a couple races where eight of the top ten were all 71s and many of them identical except maybe a small K or X after the number.

Much of the unpainted black bodywork is carbon fiber with unpainted black plastic tail tanks.. The white body work is unpainted white gelcoat fiberglass with black plastic tail tanks (I don't think they make white plastic tail tanks.)
Paint weighs 8 to 10 lbs and cost a lot of money so unless you have a sponsor who pays for the paint and insists on a certain paint job, it probably won't get painted.
If you go to the pit, you will see many cars who don't even paint the frame, to save money and weight. They just spray the frames with WD40 to control rust.
Its good that cheap "stick on" decals are available or many of them would use "shoe polish" numbers.

Unfortunately, with most racing going to spec cars, they also seem to be going to spec black and white "colors"

Actually, Most of the top nascar, indyspeccar and sports cars use expensive decal wrap for all of their colors and graphics to save 15 to 20 lbs of weight.

When I use to get fiberglass parts in my shop for repair, I could read the entire history of the car by sanding down through all the layers of different paint colors, just like rings of a tree. Some of this stuff probably had 15 to 20 lbs of extra weight with 6 to 8 layers of extra paint.

It is quite sad what this has all turned into.....

mac miller in INDY

Any color you want as long as its black "Henry Ford"

I as well notice the identical color cars, when you have 3 red cars , 6 white cars and 8 black cars in the feature its difficult to identify who is who . Hence the reason I powdercoated my chassis orange and painted the body yellow . My yellow paint job cost me $12.37 of rustoleum yellow. and touch up is a breeze.

Cost is part of the reason.

I used to co-own a sign shop with sprint car driver, Brian Hayden. Vinyl graphics can cost a car owner quite a bit of money. Brian's cars have been yellow since 2001 maybe. He owns his own body shop so he paints everything himself. All we have on the car is the yellow paint, maybe a sponsor decal & numbers. We always felt the money spent on race car graphics would be better used to buy more spares, tires etc. you know, things that keep a car racing.

If the car isn't on the track all you've really got is a cool looking garage toy.

The multi car teams usually have more money to play around with stuff like graphics.

It all comes down to cost. Also, if you need to do touch ups, it is 100% easier with black or white. When you add colors, trying to match those up are near impossible. Graphics cost a lot of money, and the more intricate, the more cost. Like Bill said, we spend our money on what is needed to run, not to make the car more colorful.

With that being said, if I got a sponsor that wanted a car a certain way, and they want to pay for it, then I would do that.

Paint is a hassle and an expense on something that on any given night might be trashed.

What I would rather discuss is how come I can't read anybody's name on the side of the hood?

It's either on there in some small font, or some weird font that I cannot read, even when I'm in the pits standing next to it.

The fans in the stands do not know who is who anymore.

Those that do not put the driver's name on the side, I've always wondered why not?

I can't see the cost of paint doing anything. Have you paid for a "wrap" lately?