NASCAR's Throwback Weekend Is Bringing Back These Amazing Retro Liveries

Grassroots racing is the theme of this year's nostalgic outing at Darlington Raceway

By  Ryan Erik King
Wood Brothers Racing

The NASCAR Cup Series is preparing to roll into Darlington Raceway for its throwback round this weekend. The egg-shaped South Carolina oval has hosted the championship's Official Throwback Weekend since 2015 and it most prominently features teams racing their modern stock cars in retro paint jobs. The track attempts to implement an overall theme each year to have some consistency across the field; early on, it was simply a specified decade. This year, it is grassroots racing. Track President Josh Harris said in a statement:

"We're honored to continue the tradition of hosting NASCAR's Official Throwback Weekend in the spring. Grassroots racing is the lifeblood of our sport, and providing our industry with a chance to pay tribute to their grassroots origin story acknowledges the importance that it plays in the past, present and future of NASCAR."

Some teams stayed on task with their paint schemes while others outright ignored the theme. Here are the best liveries of the bunch:

Kyle Larson

Hendrick Motorsports is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, so it's commemorating its time dominating NASCAR by bringing back the liveries that decorated victory lane over the decades. Kyle Larson's No. 5 Camaro will be painted to resemble Terry Labonte's 1996 championship-winning Kellogg's Corn Flakes Chevrolet.

Alex Bowman

Alex Bowman's No. 48 Camaro is throwing it back to Jimmie Johnson's early 2000s Lowe's Chevys. Johnson won all seven of his Cup Series titles with Hendrick Motorsports.

Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott's No.9 Camaro will be racing with a livery reminiscent of the National Guard Chevrolet that Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove to win the 2014 Daytona 500.

William Byron

Last but not least of the four Hendrick cars, William Byron's No. 24 Camaro will be painted in the flames of the Firestorm livery first used on Jeff Gordon's No. 24 in 2009.

Ryan Precce

Stewart-Haas Racing stuck to the grassroots racing theme. Ryan Preece's No. 41 Mustang will race the same livery as his 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championship-winning car with Flamingo Motorsports.

Chase Briscoe

Chase Briscoe's No. 14 Ford will race a livery similar to the paint jobs used by Briscoe Racing, his family's sprint car team. The car's hood will feature the name of every driver to race its sprint cars.

Todd Gilliland

Front Row Motorsports is painting Todd Gilliland's No. 38 Mustang in the colors he used to win his first CARS Tour late model race in 2015 at Southern National Motorsports Park.

Corey LeJoie

Spire Motorsports will be racing Corey LaJoie's No. 7 Chevy in a throwback livery to the car he won his first K&N Pro Series East race with in 2012 at Bowman Gray Stadium.

Austin Dillon

Richard Childress Racing is painting the iconic No. 3 in the same golden Bass Pro Shops livery that Dale Earnhardt Sr. raced in 1998.

Daniel Suarez

The Trackhouse No. 99 driven by Daniel Suarez will race in a Quaker State livery made famous by another Mexican driver, Adrian Fernandez, during the 2004 IndyCar season.

Brad Keselowski

Brad Keselowski's RFK No. 6 Ford will compete using the same livery as the 1990s Castrol TOM'S Toyota Supra GT. Most people either know the paint scheme through watching All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship, now known as Super GT, or playing the Gran Turismo video games.

Harrison Burton

Wood Brothers Racing will be competing with a livery from one of its first cars fielded in 1953. Like on the original, Glen Wood will be listed as the driver just beneath the window. A fitting tribute to Wood, who died in 2019.

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