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Reel Racing: A Smattering of TV-Themed Paint Schemes

I realized that, in four-plus years of doing this column, I really haven’t talked about many TV-themed liveries that have graced the Toyotas, Dodges, Plymouths and everything in between in NASCAR.

This will by no means be an exhaustive list, especially since some of them are spread out across multiple years, drivers and promotional sources (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Cartoon Network, etc. among them), but we’ll throw a few out there.

Tony StewartThe Glades

I’ll start off with one that’s always stuck with me and is one of my favorites here. Tony Stewart piloted this Chevrolet at Kansas Speedway in 2011. The Glades was, apparently, a crime drama that lasted a few years on A&E and had this random one-off promo … in the Midwest, rather than, like, Daytona International Speedway.

You know, where the Everglades actually are.

I wrote about places in the ‘Glades for another outlet, and that place is kinda scary — planes go down there, and it seems very feasible that one could disappear and never be found or heard from again out there.

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Nonetheless, kick-ass scheme. Simple: white background featuring an orange with a bullet hole in it and blood pooling out of it. Effective.

Corey LaJoieThe Crew, Scooby-Doo

Though things have cropped up this year regarding Corey LaJoie’s on-track driving, this was back when Spire Motorsports was a fledgling organization that was getting backing from things all over the place. The Boss Baby sequel movie? Sure, why not?

The NASCAR-themed Netflix sitcom The Crew, starring Kevin James? Makes sense.

I did get to ask Kevin James a question during a virtual presser way back when this series first premiered, and Reed Sorenson drove a car wrapped like the one in the show for on-track shots.

And let’s also not forget that LaJoie drove a Scooby-Doo-themed car designed like the Mystery Machine back in 2019, when he drove for Go Fas Racing.

Brian VickersScooby-Doo

This is probably my favorite here, simply because of how much of an oddity it was. I’m sure there’s a backstory, but why was Scooby on Vickers’ car at Bristol Motor Speedway in the 2005 Sharpie 500?

More fascinatingly, why has this scheme essentially been lost to time? To my best understanding, photos of it are literally only found via CIA Stock Photo.

And yet — somehow — this thing got a diecast made of it: Winner’s Circle, 1:64 scale, 2005. I’ve got it somewhere around my place. Great scheme, but a completely bizarro circumstance.

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Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart — Peanuts

Joe Cool? On a NASCAR? Hell yeah, brother.

Simple scheme with multiple variations of Snoopy on Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 — Joe Cool on the hood, the Flying Ace on the sides. I’m not sure if this was actually promoting a special — I don’t think so — but it’s tied to a TV and comic copyright and worked really well.

Stewart doubled up on the Peanuts theme, racing day- and night-themed versions of the scheme. Personally, that’s one of the most fun scheme designs in NASCAR — dual liveries for races under the sun or under the lights.

Others, which I won’t dive into as much here, include Looney Tunes, the Muppets, TMNT and the fleet of seven or so SpongeBob cars and trucks that ran at Kansas in 2015. Special mention to the two-tone TMNT truck John Hunter Nemechek ran.

Cartoon Network cars included Steve Grissom‘s Flintstones machine, Wally Dallenbach Jr.’s Powerpuff Girls car, Lake Speed‘s Tom & Jerry livery and — my favorite — Robert Pressley‘s Scooby-Doo No. 29 that famously took a twisty airborne tumble at Daytona.

He should’ve been sponsored by Twister, which came out the year prior, instead.

Follow @adamncheek

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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Deacon Blues

Thanks, Adam, these schemes were fun to be reminded of – here’s to Joe Cool!