Another year, another couple of movie-themed (or movie-adjacent) throwback schemes hitting the track!
I’m always a sucker for throwback weekend. Even if we’re getting the Skoal Bandit for what feels like the 15th time, or a previous champion is throwing back to his own race-winning fauxback this time around (sorry, Martin Truex Jr.), it’s fun to see what obscure schemes make it onto the track.
For this week, I figured we could dive into the baker’s dozen of movie-inspired paint schemes that have hit the track for the special weekend. Always love when this event rolls around — I’ve got an old Wood Brothers Racing locked and loaded for when my coworkers and I head to a local concert series this week. I also trekked down to Darlington Raceway back in 2022 to cover throwback weekend and it was a blast. It’s one of my favorite things NASCAR does every year.
That all said, there have been some solid entries unveiled this year — Kyle Larson‘s Terry Labonte homage, Sheldon Creed and John Hunter Nemechek‘s retro Toyota schemes, Cole Custer‘s orange Yellow (see what I did there?) imitation and Layne Riggs‘ familial tribute are some of my favorites this go-around.
But two stand out. More on those towards the end.
Movie-inspired throwbacks began in 2017, when Cody Ware ran a No. 51 for Rick Ware Racing influenced by — what else — Cole Trickle’s Mello Yello scheme. The hood and side sponsorships had “Pray for Texas” emblazoned on them in the wake of Hurricane Harvey’s devastating landfall in the Lone Star State.
RWR continued cornering the movie throwback market by tacking on another Days of Thunder scheme, this time emulating Russ Wheeler’s No. 18 Hardee’s car from the movie on BJ McLeod‘s Chevrolet. To date, it’s still one of the best in this subgenre of schemes, even if Tyler Ankrum just upstaged it this year.
A year later, 2019 really kickstarted the movement, as William Byron ran the long-awaited City Chevrolet scheme Cole Trickle’s car famously sports in the movie. It’s my personal favorite scheme from the film and one I never get tired of seeing, and even better that they got City back on the car.
This wasn’t the first time this had been replicated, as Kurt Busch did — and nearly won in it — at Daytona International Speedway in 2013.
Also in 2019, McLeod became the first two-time runner of a movie throwback when he adopted a Stroker Ace-esque livery in the…
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