Darlington Throwbacks: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

This weekend Darlington Raceway is celebrating the history of NASCAR with their throwback weekend, culminating with the Bojangles Southern 500 on Sunday evening. This is a breakdown of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly schemes that will be hitting the track this weekend. (along with a couple bonus sections)

The Good

Danica Patrick Stewart Haas Racing #10

When talking about great tributes, this is the first scheme that should be discussed. Stewart-Hass Racing is paying tribute to soon-to-be Hall of Famer Robert Yates with this throwback to the classic #88 Quality Care Ford Credit Ford. The scheme is nearly spot-on from the flag design, to the white-trimmed, red numbers, to the Big Blue Oval emblazoned on the hood. The best part of all? Ford Credit came back on board to sponsor the car! It’s a shame this car has no chance of ending the night in Victory Lane.

Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports #5

This is one of the few paint schemes that look EXACTLY like the car they are paying tribute to. Kasey Kahne’s Great Clips throwback is a near-exact replica of Geoff Bodine’s 1986 Daytona 500 winner for Hendrick Motorsports. The classic star logo is perfectly replicated, as well is the “5” itself. Give props to Great Clips for allowing the Levi Garrett colors to come back to life to make this one of the top two throwbacks that will take the green flag at Darlington.

Honorable mention:

The Bad

Ty Dillon Germain Racing #13

No, you are not seeing double. The image on the left is Ty Dillon’s 2017 Darlington throwback scheme. The image on the right is Casey Mears’ 2016 Darlington throwback scheme. Both pay tribute to cars owned by the great Smokey Yunick. The problem is they are nearly identical. It may have been Germain Racing’s decision to make the cars identical (lack of funding, perhaps?), or it may have been up to Geico. Either way, a little more creativity could have been used when selecting a tribute scheme for Throwback Weekend. Johnny Rutherford, the driver of the source of this throwback, may be the only driver to win in the 13, but there are other deserving 13 cars to which to pay tribute (Elliott-Marino Racing, anyone?).

Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports #34

This scheme gets a vote in the “bad” category for many of the same reasons as the 13 car. THIS SCHEME IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS 2016. That’s right, Chris Beuscher drove the car on the right to a respectable 17th place finish at Darlington in 2016. To be fair, Landon Cassill did say on twitter that the 95 team used the idea they were going to use for a throwback to Alan Kulwicki, but FRM and Love’s could have come up with something better than this. Maybe a throwback to Jim Roper’s 1949 cup winner as a fan on Twitter suggested?

Honorable mention:

The Ugly

Joey Logano Penske Racing #22

This was likely a decision by sponsor Shell/Pennzoil (I believe it was to celebrate the first motorsports scheme after Shell acquired Pennzoil) so I can’t put too much blame on Logano or Roger Penske. This car, however, is part of The Ugly for a couple reasons. First, this scheme does not even pay tribute to a NASCAR machine! It pays tribute to Jimmy Vassar’s 2002 Indy car. This is NASCAR Throwback Weekend!!!!! Secondly, there is not enough change from Logano’s normal scheme to make this car appealing. It’s a shame that sponsors have so much input as to what these schemes look like (understandably), because Penske could have come up with a better idea (see Logano’s 2016 throwback).

Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing #20

Finally, the worst, ugliest throwback scheme of all. Matt Kenseth’s #20 Circle K throwback “paying tribute to” his first NASCAR win is awful. “Paying tribute to” is in quotes because this scheme barely represents the car Kenseth drove to bump Tony Stewart in the final corner of Rockingham to win his first Busch Series race in the winter of 1998. This is another case of too much sponsor control and just bad designs. There is absolutely no white (minus the Lycos logo) on the original car! There is not an outline on the red paint, as shown on the Circle K car. The only things the throwback got right are the yellow numbers! I like the idea of using this source material, but Circle K and JGR could have tried harder to match it. Even when a scheme is changed from the original to match the sponsor’s colors, it can still look good, as is the case with Ricky Stenhouse Jr’s 5/3 Bank Darrell Waltrip Tribute (see the Good section).

Honorable mention:

Bonus* The Party Poopers

A few NASCAR teams are not taking part in Throwback Weekend in Darlington. Whether this decision was made by the team or the sponsor, it just doesn't make sense. The Bojangles Southern 500 will likely be one of the most-watched races of the 2017 MENCS season, providing more exposure for the sponsors and teams. The drivers may be disappointed with this decision, but they will be racing just as hard as those with throwback schemes. This is disappointing to fans considering the 18 and 19 had such good schemes last season paying tribute to two iconic JGR cars (see below). The 66 and the 83 are not running throwback schemes, but they get the benefit of the doubt being lower-budget teams that may not have been able to find a sponsor, let alone convince one to paint their car special for a one-off. Here's to hoping one of the "party poopers" doesn't make it to Victory Lane Sunday night.

for a full list of MENCS throwbacks

Bonus* Best and Worst Xfinity Schemes

Best

William Byron's tribute to the late Ricky Hendrick is among the best of the Xfinity throwbacks. It captures the look of the truck and will help any race fan remember Ricky.

Chad Finchum's MBM entry is a cool throwback to Pete Hamilton's 1970 Daytona 500 winner. It is especially neat because it is a Dodge paying tribute to a sweet Superbird.

Finally, Brendan Gaughan's throwback to his own Truck Series days is perfectly executed.

Worst

JR Motorsports hit a homerun with Byron's scheme, but failed miserably with Elliott Sadler's. The car throws back to Cale Yarborough's days in the 28, but it only matches in design (sort of). Sponsor loyalty is important, so not changing the color makes sense, but this scheme fails. Plus Dakoda Armstrong is running a better Yarborough tribute with the correct number and colors!

Ryan Sieg's scheme isn't so much bad as the situation it represents. It pays tribute to his late brother Shane, who fell onto hard times and was suspended indefinitely from NASCAR for violating the substance abuse policy. Sadly, Shane passed away in August.

The Mike Harmon tribute to Red Farmer just misses the mark. While the colors are the same, the patterns and overall design of the car differs too much.

for the full list of Xfinity Throwbacks