10 Awesome Tribute, Number Swaps, and Copycat Paint Schemes in Racing
10 Awesome Tribute, Number Swaps, and Copycat Paint Schemes in Racing
By: Brian Cotnoir
I wish I could come up with a better intro to this article, but I am really struggling to think of a way to do it. A lot of times a teams paintscheme (or livery) depends on the sponsor. You will see corporations and companies sponsor teams across mutliple racing series. In the past companies like Martini, Valvoline, Miller, Marlboro, Budweiser, NAPA, and Bass Pro Shop ran almost idential liveries across mutltiple forms of racing. Other times a sponsor will follow a driver to a new team, and while the paint scheme may remain the same but the numbers will swap, and finally sometime's a car fails to qualify for a race so a team opts to buy a ride from a different team to feature their sponsor, but they have to run with the number of the other team on it for that one race. Whatever the reason here are 10 Awesome Tribute, Number Swaps, and Copy Cat Paint Schemes in racing.
1.) Valvoline in AUSCAR
These two cars look similar to Mark Martin's Iconic Valvoline Paint Scheme run by Hall of Famer Mark Maritn between 1991-1995, but they are not number swaps, they are not one-off rides; in fact they're not even NASCAR. These two paint schemes ran in AUSCAR (which was Australia's stock car version of NASCAR. AUSCAR raced in Australia from 1988-1999, and these two Valvoline Cars are direct copies of Mark Martin's paint scheme. Unfortunatley, I don't know who the drivers are of these cars.
2.) Mike Eddy, GM Goodwrench, Pontiac
Mike Eddy won 7 Drivers Championships in the Midwestern American Speed Association (ASA) racing. ASA was popular with midwestern drivers such as Mark Martin, Dick Trickle, Alan Kulwuicki, and Johnny Benson Jr. Mike Eddy's #88 Pontiac is a direct tribute to Dale Earnhardt Sr.'s Iconic GM Goodwrench Paint Scheme.
3.) Aric Almirola, Maurice Petty Special
For one race at Martinsivlle during the 2013 season, Aric Almirola's iconic #43 Petty Blue Ford was renumbered to 41 in tribute to Maurice Petty who was recently elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Petty ran a handful of races in 1960's (racing cars #41-44 throughout his time in the sport), but he was more succesful as a crew chief and engine builder for his families team. The #41 Followed the familie's tradition of running car numbers in Chronologial Order (Maurice 41, Lee 42, Richard 43, Kyle 44, Adam 45, Thad Moffit (Richard Petty's Grandson) 46).
4.) Rainbow Warrior #46(?)
Ray Evernham divolved in an interview in 2015, the Jeff Gordon's Iconic Rainbow Warrior Paint Scheme was originally supposed to be #46 and not #24. The reason why is because of some licensing issues. Rick Hendrick had built cars used for the NASCAR themed movie "Days of Thunder" and wanted to keep #46 (Tom Cruise's character Cole Trickle's number in the movie), but had to make the swap. The car did attempt to qualify for the 1993 race at Talladega, with Buddy Baker, but failed to qualify.
5.) Sterling Marlin in car 01
Driver Sterling Marlin failed to qualify for the a race at Atlanta in 1998, so his team SABCO, bought the ride of LJ racing's entry in the race, and his Coors Light logos were placed on the ride normally driven by Kevin Lepage, and Marlin ran the race in car #01 instead of it's usual #40.
6.) Juan Pablo Montoya's Cup Series Debut
Want to know something interesting? For the entirey of his NASCAR career, Juan Pablo Montoya raced car #42 in all but three races: his final two races race which he ran for Roger Penske's #12 team, and his debut in in the NASCAR Cup Series whic he debuted racing for Chip Ganssi in a Texaco Sponsored #30 car. Montoya would wreck his car at the 2006 finale in Homestead, but the following season he'd be in the #42 Texaco car for Ganassi for the next several seasons.
7.) Target Road Course Ringers
Another unique addition to the Ganssi stable was at the Road Course races in 2003-2008 when he'd enter his Target cars with Road Course Ringers. These paint schemes were identical to his #41 car, but feature Road Course Ringer Scott Pruett, who raced for Ganssi's IMSA Team, in cars #09 and 39.
9.) Geoff Bodine & Junior Johnson swap race numbers to avoid penalties.
Junior Johnson was notorious for blatantly trying to cheat his way in some NASCAR races. In 1991, Johnson, his crew cheif Tim Brewer, and substitute driver were suspended for trying to run the Winston with a larger engine. The Suspension was to last for 12 weeks, which meant Junior Johnson's #11 car (which was normally driven by Geoff Bodine; who was recovering from a injury he suffered in practice) would be unable to race. For four races while Johson & Brewer were fighting their suspensions, Johson designated his wife Flossie as the new team owner. The #11 Budweiser car was renumbered 97 and continued to race with both Ellis and Bodine.
10.) Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch swap numbers for the Sponsorship.
Jimmie Johson raced the entirey of his NASCAR Cup Series career for Rick Hendrick in his iconic #48. Jimmie Johnson is synonomous with the #48, just like his former teammate and co-owner Jeff Gordon is synonomous with the #24. However, for the 2011 All-Star Race Jimmie Johnson made a number switch. Johnson raced car #5 (which was normally raced by his teammate Mark Maritn) in that years All-Star Race. He was coming off of 5 consecutive Cup Series championships and his sponor Lowes wanted to promote a 5% discount for all of it's Credit Card Holders. While Johnson ran the race with #5, Mark Martin raced with #25.
In 2016 Kyle Busch did something similar in the All-Star Race when he swapped his number from 18 to 75 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of his sponor M&M's. I'm okay with race teams doing it, since the All the All-Star Race is an exhibition race, and is not a points paying race.
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