Since when did Brad Keselowski and RFK Racing become the go-to driver and stable for movie promotions?
This past weekend at Sonoma Raceway, the No. 6 bore the orange-and-yellow colors of Despicable Me 4, which arrives in theaters in the first days of July this year. Plus, driver and team had the last movie scheme before that, with a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 livery at Kansas Speedway last year.
Keselowski finished a middling 13th on Sunday (June 9), but at least we all got some cool photo ops out of it.
The Minions from the franchise have been on a car before (Carl Edwards‘ 2015 Kentucky Speedway Toyota), and Keselowski has run one film scheme prior to this (the one in 2023). But of the three sides to this, RFK (dating back to the Roush Racing days) has the longest history of movie cars. Brad never had any movie cars when he was with Team Penske.
Let’s check them out the Roush/RFK movie schemes.
Michigan International Speedway, 2005: Batman Begins
Saturday, June 18, 2005, brought the first of two Roush schemes for Batman Begins (for my money, still wildly underrated and the primary Nolan Dark Knight trilogy movie I’ll watch to conclusion whenever it’s on) to the track.
This first came in the form of Ricky Craven‘s No. 99 Superchips Silverado in the Paramount Health Insurance 200, where he rolled off 15th but finished 33rd after a crash.
The next day brought the more recognizable scheme of the two — though, for my money, the vastly inferior — in Mark Martin‘s No. 6 Batman Begins Ford, which also started 15th but finished third in the Batman Begins 400.
Darlington Raceway, 2009: Up
Carl Edwards piloted this festive livery at the Lady in Black in ’09, featuring our friends Carl, Russell and Dug from the movie on its flanks.
Edwards started ninth and finished 32nd in one of the better movies schemes to ever hit the track.
Sonoma Raceway, 2010: Toy Story 3
Couldn’t dig up a photo of this one on X (formerly Twitter), but it can be viewed here. It’s definitely among the lowest-effort movie schemes, but at least the colors kind of match the Aflac design (or, at least, Buzz Lightyear’s colors do), as opposed to some of the others around that time.
Edwards started 19th and finished 29th in the car.
Kansas, 2023: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Keselowski started 20th in this race and finished 19th. Not much to write home about performance-wise, but it was the first NASCAR Cup Series movie scheme in nearly two full years, so that was enough to be exciting.
Guardians 3 is also arguably the best of the three entries in the Marvel sub-franchise, though I think I still prefer Vol. 2.
Sonoma, 2024: Despicable Me 4
Those chrome numbers make things look even better.
Jumbo Jerry? Big Jerry? No clue what he’s called, but the mega-sized Minion biting the wheel on the rear wheel well is such a nice touch. The terrified characters running all over the car is evocative of the yellow and orange M&Ms on Kyle Busch‘s cars when he was sponsored by Mars, Incorporated too.
Personal ranking of the six cars:
- Edwards 2009
- Craven
- Martin
- Keselowski 2023
- Keselowski 2024
- Edwards 2010
More movie schemes! I’ll keep saying it and keep saying it. More!
About the author
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and also hosts the "Adam Cheek's Sports Week" podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
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Well I’m going to see despicable me 4 at my local movie theater next month in July.
I agree: more movie schemes! Thanks, Adam, for another awesome Reel Racing article!
That is a Ford truck, not a Silverado