Throwback Thursday: 10 favorite old-school paint schemes
It's Throwback Thursday, and already this week, three drivers have unveiled their special retro paint schemes for the upcoming September 4th Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Last year, the venerable South Carolina track staged its first throwback weekend and the results were tremendous: Drivers, crews, officials, fan and the media all had a great time with it as teams pulled out all the stops to go old-school.
With that in mind, here are our 10 favorites from the 2015 Darlington weekend:
10. JOSH WISE -- The bright Tide orange colors that Ricky Craven won with at Darlington in 2003 looked great on Wise's car last year. Unfortunately, he was a DNQ.
9. TREVOR BAYNE -- The No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford carried a classic Mark Martin Valvoline scheme in red, white and blue, but with new sponsor Advocare.
8. KEVIN HARVICK -- When Budweiser introduced its first can in 1936, it was gold, and so was Harvick's Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet for the Darlington weekend.
7. KASEY KAHNE -- What we now know as Hendrick Motorsports began in 1984 as All-Star Racing, with the original scheme closely replicated on Kahne's car.
6. RICKY STENHOUSE JR. -- Many in NASCAR believe David Pearson was the best driver in history. Stenhouse's car carried classic Pearson/Holman-Moody colors from the mid-1960s.
5. BRAD KESELOWSKI -- Another no-brainer. Bobby Allison won the 1983 Southern 500 in Miller High Life colors, which Keselowski raced last year
4. DALE EARNHARDT JR. -- Junior might be the biggest history buff in NASCAR, so a classic 1980s Valvoline look like Neil Bonnett drove was a perfect fit.
3. ARIC ALMIROLA -- Is there any more iconic paint combination in NASCAR than STP day-glo red and Petty Blue? Nope. And at Darlington, Almirola and Richard Petty Motorsports were representing.
2. CLINT BOWYER -- This one was a heartbreaker and a heartfelt tribute. Just three weeks after Buddy Baker's death, Clint Bowyer raced in a car painted up like Baker drove in 1974, when his Ford was sponsored by RC Cola.
1. KYLE LARSON -- This wasn't so much a tribute as an exact recreation of Kyle Petty's Mello Yello scheme from the early 1990s. And Larson got into the role perfectly, with an enormous wig that made his hair look as big as Petty's was back in the day.
