10 Memorable NASCAR Paint Schemes from my Childhood
10 Memorable NASCAR Paint Schemes from my Childhood
By Brian Cotnoir
I haven’t done a Paint Schemes article in a while,
so today I want to talk about the Most Memorable Paint Schemes from my
childhood. Now before I continue with
this I just want to point out this is all strictly my opinion, and I won’t be
including any repeats from my previous paint scheme articles like The Top 10
Most Iconic Paint Schemes or the 10 Best Paint Schemes in Cup Series History,
so please don’t b!tch and moan in the comments about how I didn’t mention Jeff
Gordon’s Rainbow Warrior or Dale Earnhardt’s Goodwrench car, or the Tide Rides;
because I already talked about them in other articles and I will post a link to
those articles at the bottom of this post.
1.) Kyle Petty, Hot Wheels
One thing you had to give NASCAR credit for: They
knew how to market the sport to kids back in the 1990’s. They had sponsorship deals and toy promotions
with our favorite fast food restaurants, breakfast cereals, TV stations (more
on that later), and of course toy companies.
The Most Iconic was Kyle Petty’s Hot Wheels car! Seriously, what kid didn’t like playing with
Hot Wheels back in the day? Although,
Petty didn’t have much success in this car, it is still one of the most beloved
cars and paint schemes of my childhood.
2.) Darrell
Waltrip, Western Auto
Darrell Waltrip’s Western Auto car was one of the
coolest of the 1990’s. It had a great
combination of colors that really stood out.
And when he had that car painted Chrome in 1997 for a few select races,
it stood out above all other cars on track.
3.) Terry
Labonte, Kellogg’s/Iron Man
I remember seeing Terry Labonte race this car on TV
at North Wilkesboro and immediately wanting the diecast. When Labonte broke Richard Petty’s NASCAR
record of most consecutive starts and became the new Ironman, his team swapped the regular red, yellow, green, and white
colors of his Kellogg’s Cornflakes car and donned this awesome silver paint
scheme. Labonte actually won the race
at North Wilkesboro with his car, and I did eventually get that diecast at the
store, but was disappointed that it was more of a dull gray than the cool
silver.
4.) Ernie
Irvan, Skittles
Ernie Irvan was my favorite driver as a kid; I was
sad when he left the Texaco Ride at Robert Yates Racing, but seeing him race
this Skittles car sure did get me excited.
Skittles were my favorite candy as a kid and having your favorite driver
race a car sponsored by your favorite candy was a win-win.
5.) Kyle
Petty, Mello Yello
Kyle Petty makes another appearance on this list,
as a kid I always wanted to try Mello Yello, but it was not sold in any stores
near me, and then when I was 11 my family visiting my Aunt & Uncle who live
in West Virginia, and I saw it on the menu at a restaurant and I knew I had to
order it. Honestly, the car looks
better than the drink tastes. Not to
mention it was inspired by the paint scheme of Tom Cruise’s character Cole
Trickle in the movie “Days of Thunder”.
Great Job by Cole Trickle
6.) Robert
Pressley, Scooby Doo/Cartoon Network
Scooby Doo is one of my favorite All-Time cartoons,
so I was a quite a fan of Diamond Ridge Motorsports #29 Scooby Doo/Cartoon
Network car raced by Robert Pressley.
Cartoon Network sponsored a number of different teams in the drivers in
the 1990’s, but this one is my favorite.
Burger King gave away toy versions of it with the Big Kids Meal, and yes
I definitely owned a couple of them. Unfortunately,
this car is probably best remembered for doing a complete flip and landing on
its wheels during the 1997 Daytona 500; where he finished 39th
place.
ZOINKS!!
7.) Jimmy
Spencer, Camel Cigarettes
PSA:
Smoking’s bad; don’t do it! Back
when I first started watching NASCAR, the Cup Series was known as the Winston
Cup Series, I remember it being perfectly normal to see cars sponsored by Big
Tobacco Companies like Skoal, Kodiak, and Winston. What’s weird is I grew up watching all this
blatant tobacco advertising and I never once I had the urge to smoke. I remember often the diecast version of
tobacco (and alcohol) sponsored cars would be replaced with the driver or
team’s name. I actually had a poster of
one of these cars hanging in my room as a kid; but still was never encouraged
to smoke. This car was one of the
easiest to spot on track with the contrasting yellow and purple colors.
8.) Bill
Elliott, Batman Forever
Bill Elliott had a variety of special paint schemes
throughout the 1990’s, with his long time sponsor, McDonald’s. Cheap plastic replicas of his cars special
paint schemes were constantly came with Happy Meals, but hands down the coolest
one was the cross-promotional one between McDonald’s and the movie Batman Forever. Properly nicknamed, the ThunderBat, Elliott
ran these awesome Halloween-esque colors, and I loved it so much as a kid that
I actually owned this diecast of Bill Elliott’s car rather than the regular one
he ran on a weekly basis.
9.) David
Green and Ward Burton, Caterpillar
Caterpillar has been such a huge part of NASCAR and
has sponsored some of NASCAR’s most iconic drivers. David Green first brought Caterpillar to
NASCAR in the—then—Busch Series driving car #95 for American Equipment Racing,
and actually won a couple races and finished runner-up in the Busch Series
Standings. The following season the team
moved up to the Cup Series (and moved up to #96) and began running full-time in
the Cup Series in 1997. The team
struggled to qualify and finished 37th in the final standings.
Caterpillar would eventually move on to sponsor
Ward Burton and with some slight tweaks made to the paint scheme he piloted his
Caterpillar sponsored Dodge to victory at the 2002 Daytona 500.
10.) Dale
Jarrett, UPS
I remember the “Race the Truck, Dale” commercials
so vividly from my childhood. Dale
Jarrett’s team would swap their traditional Blue & Red; Ford Quality care
sponsorship in 2001, and swap over to the Brown and White of UPS. Those commercials are what made this paint
scheme so iconic. Dale Jarrett was
actually driving this car when he won the first live NASCAR race I ever went to
at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2001 and they would continue to sponsor
Jarrett until the end of his racing career.
Race the Truck, Dale!
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