Gluck: Best retro paint schemes for Darlington Southern 500
Darlington Raceway’s throwback weekend represents the best of NASCAR.
For the second year, teams, drivers and sponsors have gone all-in transforming the Southern 500 at stock car racing’s version of Fenway Park into a celebration of the sport’s history.
More than 90% of the field will have retro paint schemes on the cars, paying homage to legendary drivers and iconic designs. There will be costumes, old-school graphics on the broadcast and the presence of former drivers at the track.
Former sponsors like Tide and Hooters have chosen to return to NASCAR this week to participate in the celebration. And when Josh Wise tweeted Tuesday he was sponsorless, online bank IncredibleBank decided to back him for Darlington.
That means the throwback concept has translated into actual dollars for race teams while pleasing the fan base at the same time. It’s been one of the biggest positives in years for NASCAR. The only losers in all this are the spotters, who will have a difficulty identifying 40 new paint schemes.
Of course, some of the throwbacks are better than others. There’s always a winner in racing. So here are our five favorites for this year’s race, ranked:
5. Trevor Bayne’s No. 6 Mark Martin throwback
This is the second year Bayne has done a Martin tribute that mimics an old Valvoline paint scheme (except with his current sponsor, AdvoCare). But it’s especially appropriate this season, since Martin was recently elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and will be at the race.
It’s a bit odd because Valvoline is actually sponsoring another car in the race (Paul Menard), but this one still brings out all sorts of 1990s feels.
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr./Jeff Gordon’s No. 88 Buddy Baker throwback
It’s going to stink even more than usual that Earnhardt can’t race this week, because he was really looking forward to driving the No. 88 “Gray Ghost.” Earnhardt was involved in the design of the car — modeled after his favorite paint scheme of all time — which will instead be driven by Gordon as Earnhardt continues to recover from a concussion.
The Gray Ghost was made famous by Baker, who died last year. It would sneak up on other drivers so fast with its dark colors that NASCAR required the team to put day-glo decals on the car to make it more visible.
3. Carl Edwards No. 19 Tony Stewart throwback
OK, so this isn’t a very attractive paint job. But it’s modeled after one that wasn’t very pleasing to the eye: Tony Stewart’s The Home Depot No. 20 paint scheme from his glory days at Joe Gibbs Racing.
It’s a great gesture for JGR to honor its former driver in his final season, and impressive sponsor Arris was willing to imitate The Home Depot’s logo on the hood. That’s a bit of a sacrifice for a company spending big bucks to promote itself, but it makes the car look much more authentic.
2. Tony Stewart No. 14 Bobby Allison throwback
This one is pretty cool because Coca-Cola is sponsoring the actual Coca-Cola throwback paint scheme, and it looks almost identical to Allison’s 1970-73 car.
Stewart waxed poetic about seeing Allison race a dirt car with the Coke paint scheme as a kid — it was the first time he’d ever seen a NASCAR driver race — and clearly feels a special connection to this car.
1. Greg Biffle No. 16 Alan Kulwicki throwback
Biffle should win Best Throwback for a couple different reasons. First, having Hooters come back to NASCAR is pretty awesome for nostalgia reasons, and the car is just like Kulwicki’s (it even says “Underbird” on the nose). It sort of stinks for Regan Smith’s No. 7 car, which already was doing a Kulwicki tribute but didn’t have Kulwicki’s actual sponsor like Biffle does.
In addition, Hooters is using the opportunity to promote the creation of a national First Responders Day. The company even had a special wrinkle at its news conference unveiling the car: Hendrick Motorsports employee Andrew Collier, brother of slain MIT police officer Sean Collier (who was killed by the Boston Marathon bombers), was on hand for the announcement.
That’s fitting, because just like Roush Fenway Racing and a Hendrick employee coming together for this weekend, Darlington’s throwback theme has united the entire NASCAR industry for one special race.
Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck
