NASCAR’s Darlington weekend sees eighth year of throwbacks

Since 2015, NASCAR‘s annual trip to Darlington Raceway has become a time to honour the past with paint schemes resembling historic cars. All three national series—Cup, Xfinity, Camping World Truck—are on hand for the occasion.

As usual, the majority of the throwback liveries are modelled after past cars. Generally, drivers opt to pay tribute to those who formerly drove for their team or with their number, such as Hendrick Motorsports‘ William Byron having his #24 painted like Hendrick Vice Chairman Jeff Gordon‘s #24 DuPont (predecessor to Byron’s sponsor Axalta) car from 2007. Gordon, one of NASCAR’s household names, is a popular choice for throwbacks this year as all three series features at least one Gordon throwback: while Byron fills the Cup slot, Ryan Vargas does so for Xfinity by emulating Gordon’s Pepsi car from his brief foray into Xfinity Series team ownership, while Lawless Alan‘s truck is a tribute to Gordon’s 2007 Department of Defense one-off scheme.

A sponsorship angle also applies in cases like Kurt Busch‘s McDonald’s machine resembling when the fast food chain sponsored Bill Elliott in 1996, while Elliott’s son Chase has his NAPA Auto Parts car designed after Jimmy Means‘ 1993 NAPA car. Kyle Busch, who is in his final season with funding from Mars, Incorporated, has a throwback based on M&M’s first foray into Cup sponsorship with Ernie Irvan in 1998. Xfinity driver Patrick Emerling, a Whelen Modified Tour veteran, went as far as to acquire sponsorship from the late Richie Evans‘ supporter B.R. Dewitt for his Evans Modified throwback.

Some tributes have no connection of any kind beyond a driver being a favourite of a Darlington competitor in their youth or having an attractive paint scheme. For example, Carson Hocevar‘s #42 Premier Security Chevrolet truck is painted to resemble Travis Pastrana‘s 2012 Boost Mobile-sponsored #99 Xfinity Toyota. The livery even includes the hidden #1 in front of the number, a “loophole” that Pastrana included to continue using his trademark #199 despite NASCAR only allowing double-digit numbers. Corey LaJoie‘s #7 also employs the three-number approach as a tribute to Marty Robbins‘ #777 by having the last two sevens much smaller than the first, enough of a difference to follow NASCAR rules.

Others go for a personal route like Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, and Brandon Brown driving cars based on vehicles from their early careers, while Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell‘s throwbacks are respectively to their 2016 Daytona 500 and 2017 Truck Series championships. Keeping it in the family, Harrison Burton and his cousin Jeb are honouring their fathers Jeff and Ward‘s racing careers.

In a rather punny throwback, Truck driver Dean Thompson‘s #40 is a tribute to sprint car racer Dean Thompson, who has no relation save for the name.

As the Next Gen car has its door number shifted forwards, many had concerns surrounding how teams would implement throwbacks. For example, Brad Keselowski‘s scheme is based on 2004 Mark Martin Viagra scheme, which had its number located within a blue circle, but the initial reveal had the circle in its original location and therefore misaligned with the number; this was eventually rectified by RFK Racing.

There are some who do not plan to join in the fun like Richard Childress Racing‘s four entries. Boo.

Credit: Niece Motorsports/Lefty Designs

Cup Series

Xfinity Series

Truck Series