Drivers and Their Sunglasses

I do not know what it is with race car drivers and their sunglasses. I was looking through some old slides of racing in the 1970's and found this picture of Tom Reffner and his cool sunglasses. Even back then, drivers had to have the cool shades.

Now days, just about every time a driver is interviewed on television, they have to put their sunglasses on. I know they must get some endorsement monies. But it is hard to tell who’s sunglasses they have on most of the time.

I do not know about you, but I like to see someone's eyes when they are talking to me or being interviewed on television. It is just polite or good manners. A few drivers do take off their sunglasses when being interviewed, but very few.

I am just not sure how far this endorsement fad will go. It started out by stating the manufacture of your race car. Then the drivers started getting their major sponsor into every interview. Small patches started appearing on the upper half of their driver's uniforms so they would show up on the head shots. Then the drivers had to take a drink of their drink sponsor's beverage before they could answer any question. Then the sunglasses started getting in on the act.

When will this all end? Will drivers strip down to their boxers to make sure we know Jockey is giving them underwear?

Back to Comments

ARCA racing is done. Summer is winding down. So I will now have more time to write about racing. There is still time left in the NASCAR season. The Chase is rolling along. The NASCAR Hall of Fame just announced the first class. There is plenty to write about just in NASCAR. Check back often for new articles about racing.