OK, kids, our favorite season within the NASCAR season has finally arrived.
It’s time for Christmas in April!
Or, as it’s more commonly called, Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway.
Somehow, some way, NASCAR’s annual celebration of the past has already arrived.
That means a parade of retro paint schemes have been unveiled online over the past week.
Now it’s time to judge them.
And like each season in the decade since we started this whole tradition, some are good. Some are bad. And some are exquisite.
Let’s start with the good.
The Good
"Mr. Excitement" returns to The Lady in Black. 🏁
— Haas Factory Team (@HaasFactoryTeam) March 27, 2025
Cole Custer's throwback scheme for Darlington Raceway pays homage to Jimmy Spencer's iconic No. 41 car from the early 2000s. @ColeCuster X @Haas_Automation @TooToughToTame X @FordPerformance pic.twitter.com/vXmA5wZ5vu
Now, no one was asking for this Jimmy Spencer throwback. But sometimes, you appreciate something more when you weren’t expecting to get it.
Target has been out of the sports for years now, but good on Haas Factory Team for tailoring the Haas logos to make it look like Cole Custer will be sponsored by Target come race day.
Alpha Prime Racing knocked this Kodak scheme out of the park. I can’t recall this being done at any point in the last decade, which is surprising. So many have been done to death, so to see an iconic 1990s scheme like this get some track time again is nice.
Also, props to APR for announcing the scheme in the form of an old magazine advertisement. Bonus points for effort.
The Bad
So … yeah.
Last year my whipping boy was DeWalt for its incredibly low-effort throwback scheme for Christopher Bell when it had a deep bench of possible schemes to use.
Congratulations, UniFirst. It’s your turn.
This is odd, because Chase Elliott‘s throwback schemes are usually bangers, and even last year UniFirst went all out to pay tribute to Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 2014 Daytona 500 win.
But this tribute to Ken Schrader’s 1994 Kodiak car? It’s a swing and a miss.
It’s fine. It has the number. It has the colors.
But I couldn’t have picked the scheme Jimmie Johnson earned Hendrick Motorsports’ 200th win in out of a lineup.
The Exquisite
Hendrick felt the need to remind us in the best possible way that it’s been 10 years since Jeff Gordon retired from full-time racing.
Has a throwback paint scheme ever made you realize your own mortality?
No? Just me?
I’m fully prepared for this to be the only car during Throwback Weekend to complete the checklist of colors, sponsor and number.
I have no idea what NightOwl is, but it looks damn good on RSS Racing’s No. 28.
There really haven’t been too many Ricky Rudd throwbacks since 2014, but this is a cool choice.
Now, I’m glad the throwback racing is taking place during the day, but I admit I would like to see this one run under the lights.
Daniel McFadin is a 10-year veteran of the NASCAR media corp. He wrote for NBC Sports from 2015 to October 2020. He currently works full time for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and is lead reporter and an editor for Frontstretch. He is also host of the NASCAR podcast "Dropping the Hammer with Daniel McFadin" presented by Democrat-Gazette.
You can email him at danielmcfadin@gmail.com.