One of the many things that made NASCAR awesome was seeing all the cool paint schemes the drivers would drive during the races. As a kid, I loved checking out all the new paint schemes a driver would drive for a particular race or season and I loved keep up all the paint scheme changes with the The Official NASCAR Preview and Press Statistics Magazine Guide.
Today, I am going to do a Top 10 list of what I think are the best NASCAR paint schemes in racing history.
10. Ryan Newman's #12 Alltel car:One car I loved was the black and white #12 Alltel car that Ryan Newman drove in the Early 2000's. I thought it looked even cooler than Jeremy Mayfield's #12 Mobil 1 car that was driven before Newman took his place.
Ryan Newman was also one of my favorite drivers to root for in NASCAR, when I wasn't rooting for Jeff Gordon or Bill Elliott.
9. Mike Skinner's blue and yellow #31 Lowe's car:When people think of the Lowe's car in NASCAR and the person who drives it, they think of Jimmie Johnson. But for me, I'll always think of the guy who drove for that sponsorship before him: Mike Skinner.
During the 1997 season, Mike Skinner was promoted to full-time, driver of the #31 Lowe's car. He won poles at both of the season's races at Daytona International Speedway and had three Top 10 finishes. He also won the Rookie of the Year award that same season.
I always liked the look of this car as a kid and loved the blue and yellow design of the car. I thought Mike Skinner had much more personality as a driver than Jimmie Johnson (No offense to any Jimmie Johnson fans you might be reading here.)
8. Steve Park's yellow and black stripped #1 Penzoil car:As a I said in my other NASCAR article, another one of my favorite NASCAR drivers of mine was Steve Park who drove the yellow and black striped Penzoil car.
I loved this car as a kid and I always thought Steve Park was one of the more underrated NASCAR drivers. It's a shame his racing career never went anywhere.
7. Robby Gordon's #31 Cingular car:In the second half of the 2001 season, Robby Gordon joined Richard Childress Racing as a replacement for an injured Mike Skinner in the #31 car. For the 2002 season, he got a completely new paint scheme for his car and began driving for the now-defunct cell phone company, Cingular.
This is definitely one of all time favorite paint schemes in NASCAR. I remember begging my parents to take me to the store so I could buy this diecast car to play with. It was definitely one of favorite cars play with as a kid.
6. Bill Elliott's 1999/2000 #94 McDonald's car:Before Bill Elliott sold his racing team to Ray Evernham, Elliott had his own racing team called Bill Elliott Racing, which he drove for from 1995 to 2000. During those seasons, he drove the iconic #94 McDonald's car.
For the 1999 season, Bill Elliott teamed up with Dan Marino to form a multi car racing team. The team was renamed to Elliott-Marino Motorsports, adding the No. 13 and keeping the No. 94, Marino owned the No. 13 while Elliott owned the No. 94. He also updated his McDonald's paint scheme, adding a yellow stripe to side of this car and made the #94 and top of his car black.
I always loved this car as a kid, and it was definitely one of the must-have diecast cars I had to have as a kid.
5. Bill Elliott's red #9 Dodge car:For the 2001 season, Bill Elliott sold his team to Ray Evernham and began driving the No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW-sponsored Dodge Intrepid. 2001 Rookie Andy Houston would take his place in the McDonald's car except he would drive with the No. 96 instead of No. 94.
I absolutely loved this car as a kid, and considering Bill Elliott was my favorite driver at the time, this made me love him even more. He made somewhat of a comeback in the Early 2000's and actually came close to Winston Cup championship during the 2003 season.
4. Ernie Irvan/Ken Schrader's #36 M&M's car:In 1998, NASCAR legend Ernie Irvan joined MB2 Motorsports to drive the No. 36 Skittles Pontiac car. Irvan continued driving the No. 36 for MB2 in 1999, but with a different sponsor: M&M Mars (parent corporation of Skittles) decided to emblazon the popular M&Ms characters on the car. In 2000, Ken Schrader took his place in the M&M's-sponsored Pontiac Grand Prix.
This is definitely one of the most iconic sponsorships and paint schemes in NASCAR and I loved watching this car race as a kid. It was also one of my favorite cars to play with.
3. Dale Earnhardt's Goodwrench Service Plus in a white square car:During the 1999 and 2000 seasons, Dale Earnhardt drove a black #3 car with the words Goodwrench Service Plus in a white square on his hood. He won both the Goody's Headache Powder 500 and Winston 500 during the 1999 season with this car.
I absolutely loved this car as a kid and considering my mother was a big Dale Earnhardt fan, she loved this car as well.
2. Jeff Gordon's #24 DuPont blue and scarlet flames car:For the 2001 season, Jeff Gordon got a completely new paint job for his Dupont layout scheme on his car. Instead of having a rainbow on his car, he had scarlet flames with the rest of the car blue.
I thought this new sponsorship looked so cool as a kid and it's definitely one of the the most unique and iconic paint schemes in NASCAR. It gave Jeff Gordon a whole new identity and it won over a new fan.
1. Dale Earnhardt's black #3 Goodwrench Service Plus car:And of course, this paint scheme got the number one spot on my list. I mean, how could it not?
This is definitely the most iconic sponsorship and paint scheme in all of NASCAR and one of the longest driven cars in the sport's history. Whether you loved him or hated him, you feared for your driver's chances of winning a race when this car was on the track. This car is definitely one of the most iconic things in sports along with the black New York Yankees cap.
The day we no longer saw this car on the track was a weird, awful, and tragic day for sports.
Well, that concludes what I think are the Top 10 best NASCAR paint schemes in the sport's history. Please let me know what your Top 10 favorite NASCAR paint schemes are and leave your thoughts on the article. Thanks for reading!