Darlington Throwbacks 2019: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It's time for another edition of Darlington Throwbacks: Good, Bad, and Ugly! Join me on the journey into the 90's (at least it's supposed to be) at the famed Lady in Black!

The Good

Landon Cassil- Starcom Racing 00 - Sterling Marlin Tribute

This car is absolutely gorgeous. No, it doesn’t throw back to the 90’s, but when you see it, you instantly recognize this as one of Marlin’s most well-known rides. It takes you back to the good old days of pulling out fenders under a red flag at Daytona. Props to Derrike Cope and his team on a great throwback for Cassill.

Paul Menard- Wood Brothers Racing 21- Glen Wood Tribute

This car hits the spirit of throwback weekend right on the money. The Wood Brothers are iconic. This car is designed beautifully and will make the old-time fan feel like Wood is back on the track. Let’s hope Menard can make this thing competitive.

Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, and Daniel Suarez- Stewart Haas Racing 10, 14, 21- Tony Stewart Tribute

Once again, none of these cars fit the theme, however Tony Stewart is newly elected into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. What better year to pay tribute to the boss than right now? These cars are replicated almost exactly, from the paint colors, to the designs, to even some of the same sponsors. Well done by SHR and their sponsors to pull this one off to honor Smoke.

Bonus Good: Movie Schemes

William Byron-Hendrick Motorsports 24- Days of Thunder

BJ McLeod- Rick Ware Racing 51- Stroker Ace

These two cars pay tribute to classic NASCAR movies. Byron's Days of Thunder scheme is perfect, so much so that City Chevrolet is the actual sponsor! The Stroker Ace machine of McLeod is more simple, but captures the look and spirit of the great Burt Reynolds movie.

The rest of the Good:

The Bad

Kevin Harvick- Stewart Haas Racing 4- Big Buck Hunter/Busch Throwback?

This one is controversial. Some say Harvick and the 4 team are not participating in Throwback Weekend. Others say since Big Buck Hunter is a 90’s arcade game, the car should count. I am not only going to count it, but I’m going to lead off the “Bad” category with it. Given the awesome tribute the other three SHR cars are displaying, Harvick’s car just falls short. Busch has come up with some pretty good throwbacks in the past. I’m not sure what happened this year.

Daniel Hemric- Richard Childress Racing 8- Caterpillar Throwback

This one is not Hemric’s fault. Nor is it RCR’s. Caterpillar has done this multiple times. Instead of allowing a throwback to honor any car in the 50 year history of RCR, they throwback to themselves! It’s a cool looking car (hence why it’s not in the ugly category), but CAT has to come up with some more creative ideas. Designing the car with old-time CAT logos and imagery just doesn’t cut it.

Denny Hamlin- Joe Gibbs Racing 11- Darrell Waltrip Tribute

This is not a bad looking car. In fact, it’s very good looking. My problem isn’t with how the car is designed, it’s with WHAT car they chose to design. FedEx promised Hamlin since he won the Daytona 500 that he could pick his throwback. Hamlin chose to honor Waltrip’s 17 car. WHY?? Do you know which number DW was most successful in, including winning all three of his championships?? 11! That’s right, the same number Hamlin drives. Why not pick one of the iconic 11 cars? Budweiser? Mt. Dew? Pepsi Challenger anyone? Hamlin missed a great opportunity here.

The Rest of the Bad:

The Ugly

Ryan Newman- Roush Fenway Racing 6- Mark Martin Tribute

I want to like this car. The design is painted the same. The number is styled the same. But Oscar Mayer, I guess, could not give up their red, white, yellow, and orange color scheme. Why not, just for one race, let Newman don the Red, White, and Blue of the famous Mark Martin Valvoline machine?

Chase Elliott- Hendrick Motorsports 9- Bill Elliott Tribute (Duh)

Elliott honors his father every year at Darlington. There is no problem with that. When your dad is Awesome Bill from Dawsonville you should always want to honor him. My problem is that Elliott had some good looking cars over the years. This one is just blasé. It’s just too plain. That’s why it makes its way into the middle of the “Ugly” family.

Ryan Preece- JTG Daugherty Racing 47- Ron Bouchard Tribute

This is a nice tribute to Ron Bouchard. However it is just too plain for me. Sometimes, a good plain, simple scheme can really catch the eye. This one doesn’t. It just looks the every other car from the “good old days.” But hey, at least they threw it back, unlike their teammate (more on that later).

The rest of the Ugly:

Party Poopers

For some reason, not known to myself, three cars chose to be party poopers this weekend and not run throwback schemes. Ty Dillon’s 13 car will look normal, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. picked up sponsorship from Dog the Bounty Hunter on the 17, and Chris Beuscher will pilot a very regular-looking 37 machine on Sunday. Here’s to hoping none of them make it to Victory Lane, though I don’t think we will have to worry about that.

At the time of this writing, the 15, 27, and 66 did not have schemes announced.