NASCAR Cup Series

Brandon Jones honors military with patriotic paint scheme at Richmond

Published Apr. 29, 2017 9:47 a.m. ET

Tom Jensen

The U.S. military has always been a cause near and dear to the NASCAR community.

And in today’s ToyotaCare 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Richmond International Raceway, Brandon Jones’ No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet will be trimmed out in patriotic colors, with a Hope For The Warriors paint scheme designed by 5-year-old Liam Harshman.

Harshman is a military kid. His father was a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps at Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C., prior to his September 2014 retirement.

With April being designated as “Month of the Military Child” by the U.S. Department of Defense, Jones, Richard Childress Racing and Hope For The Warriors teamed up to create a contest for a group of military children to create a design that depicted what it meant to them to be a military child, while using only the colors red, white and blue.

“I’ve gone out with Hope For The Warriors to (military) bases,” said Jones Saturday morning at RIR. “I’ve hung out with some of the service guys, shot tanks and guns. But I wanted to try something a little more personal this time and get their families involved.”

We think that’s a winning idea, and there is absolutely no question that Liam Harshman’s design is a winner, too.