There has been a lot of name changes recently …

Some are explainable, others not so much …

Tow became RACE TOW TRUCK TOM …

Why? Well, presumably his name was TOM and not really TOW but I’m not sure anyone really cared … maybe his name was Tom but all the gang at the Speedway called him “Tow,” though clearly not in an ironic sense like a really fat guy being called “Tiny,” but odd that this was s important to change … the only logical explanation is that they plan on releasing a lot of other tow trucks so calling one Tow was a bit too all-encompassing.

It’s almost Halloween – maybe a scary thing? They plan on releasing 36 Tow trucks to match the Piston Cup racers? I am kidding. I haven’t heard a thing and of course, the first giveaway would be that this would make the name change a thing built on logic … so the answer as of now is – who knows why it was important to change?

(And as Jestrjef points out, since the RACE OFFICIAL is named TOM, is every official named Tom? What’s up with that?)

Dudley Spare & Luke Pettlework both (and others) Pitty’s have lost their names and will now simply be referred as …

This change I can understand.With close to 200 characters coming, trying to remember who was Dudley Spare and who was Petrol Pulaski is tough and it was only going to get tougher with another couple dozen Pitty releases … might as well just call them by the racer … other than Pit Crew Guido and My name is Not Chuck, do we really need a name for the Vitoline Pitty? Because you can also argue that while RPM has a name, isn’t it easier just to call him RPM #64?

(Same with the Crew Chief’s … as long as it gets released, I don’t really care if they assign a name to him).

And of course, we still want at least 3-4 Pitty’s per team – a wide one, a tall one, and the mid size …

And while not a name-change from the last release, note the megasize releases of the hauler cabs-only have now been changed to “Racer” Semi or as in the case here, CHICK HICKS SEMI … so you can tell the difference between the CHICK HICKS HAULER & the cab only megasize release, CHICK HICKS SEMI:

(UPDATED Chick Hicks Semi Photo supplied by “ScoobyDoo”- thanks!)

It does show that the Chick Hicks Semi megasize has the hitch hole to match the Chick Hicks Hauler front but in addition to the different expression, the megasize one also has the decal on the mudflaps … in other words, Collect Them All.