It only feels right that a week after a couple friends and I headed to an anniversary re-release showing of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, I write about the year that the movie had four schemes on NASCAR Cup cars across three races and four drivers in 2005.
That year had fewer films represented than the two preceding turns of the calendar, but four of the six movies had at least two schemes each — and many of them in different events, as opposed to all in the same race.
2005 also gave us our first Cup Series race-winning paint job, courtesy of none other than Jeff Gordon. Who else better from that era to do it?
Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith
Before we get to the coup de grace of this article, first we need to visit Phoenix Raceway in late April.
For the eighth race of the season, Robert Yates Racing became the first team to take the mantle of movie-promoter in 2005. Dale Jarrett and Elliott Sadler ran dueling — literally — Revenge of the Sith schemes in the desert, both backed by M&Ms. Mars did a ton of promotion for the movie, and I have vivid memories of the M&Ms and, at the risk of dating myself, the Kudos bars with Star Wars boxes.
Jarrett had a lighter-themed car with blue drop shadows on the No. 88, with UPS taking a backseat to the candy. Jarrett’s car was Jedi-themed, with the green M&M having Princess Leia’s hair on the driver’s side; the yellow M&M with a C-3P0 on the passenger side; and the red M&M with Anakin Skywalker’s garb and a lightsaber on the rear bumper with “Join the Jedi” beside him.
Sadler’s car took on a deep burgundy flair for its Dark Side and Sith branding. The red M&M is wearing stormtrooper gear on the driver’s side; the blue M&M wears Boba Fett’s helmet on the passenger side; and the yellow M&M wields a red lightsaber while wearing Darth Vader’s helmet on the rear bumper, with “Go to the Dark Side” emblazoned beside him.
Not quite sure why Fett, Leia and stormtroopers are big parts of these schemes, since none of them show up in the movie, but they’re fun cars. Sadler finished 11th, while Jarrett came home 23rd. Both started outside the top 30.
One week later, the Cup Series headed to Talladega Superspeedway, and Gordon put on a clinic. The No. 24 led 139 laps and won the race, repeating from the year prior but not repeating getting pelted with beer cars after the checkered flag flew.
More importantly, though, Gordon’s domination came in another car promoting Revenge of the Sith and one of NASCAR’s greatest drivers became the very first to roll a Cup Series movie scheme into victory lane (after starting second, no less).
Kevin Harvick was the first to win in a movie scheme, period, when he took a Looney Tunes: Back in Action Craftsman Truck Series machine into victory lane at Phoenix in 2003. However, Gordon dominated the race, and his Star Wars scheme is often cited as a favorite of many, so it’s far more notable for a bunch of reasons.
I loved the DuPont flames scheme growing up and still do, but those Pepsi liveries always looked awesome. Yoda on the hood was just a cherry on top for the film.
However, another two weeks later, Kyle Busch ran my personal favorite Revenge of the Sith car and easily one of my favorite movie schemes, period, at the then-Richmond International Raceway.
Darth Vader graced the hood with a Mustafar backdrop, while C-3PO and R2-D2 landed on the trunk lid. Amid a landscape of Mustafar lava on the sides, Mace Windu and a clone trooper (maybe executing Order 66, maybe not) are pictured on the driver’s side, while Yoda and Chewbacca are on the passenger panels. Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi flank a Kellogg’s logo on the rear bumper, lightsabers at the ready atop Busch’s rookie stripes.
This would’ve looked great in victory lane, but alas, Busch finished fifth after starting 10th. Still looked awesome under the lights.
The Longest Yard
That Talladega race that Gordon won also featured another movie scheme, one overshadowed in terms of driver prevalence, finishing position and general pop culture — all three aspects.
But Kasey Kahne‘s black-and-yellow car promoting the Adam Sandler vehicle The Longest Yard still looked good, too. Like I’ve said, I never hated a single Evernham Motorsports scheme. Every single one looked good. The font always looked amazing.
The simple scheme, with a mix of prison bars, barbed wire and footballs subtly incorporated, started 19th and finished 24th.
Kahne was caught up in the Big One on lap 134, which turned 26 cars into a veritable parking lot in the infield.
Madagascar
Dual Joe Gibbs Racing movie cars are becoming a theme at this point. First Small Soldiers, then Jurassic Park III, then Shrek 2 and then Madagascar. Whereas most of those were close in time or in the same race, say hello to three different races across two drivers across one movie.
First up, Tony Stewart, who piloted the movie-sponsored No. 20 in the All-Star Race in May of 2005. Stewart finished 17th after starting 17th and crashing.
Not a huge fan of that scheme, but Bobby Labonte‘s car from Pocono Raceway a few weeks later looked so much better.
We get a bunch of the characters, the island landscape on the flanks of the car and everything. That was in June; five months and one day later, and two days before the movie released on home media and was available in Blockbusters everywhere, Labonte ran it again in Phoenix’s fall event.
He had better luck with the latter; Labonte started seventh but finished 26th after a crash at the Tricky Triangle. The No. 18 started and finished fifth at Phoenix five months down the road.
Batman Begins
Bit of a split one here, as Batman Begins had two schemes that ran two months apart but at the same track.
First, in June, Ricky Craven was in the midst of his only full-time Truck Series campaign when the first movie starring Christian Bale as the Dark Knight jumped on board his No. 99 truck at Michigan International Speedway.
Craven started 15th and was running second, but crashed just past the three-quarter mark of the race when he slowed around the lapped truck of Ted Musgrave. Brandon Whitt was also running in the top five and piled into the back of Craven, ruining both trucks’ days.
Just over two months later, Mark Martin had decidedly better luck with the No. 6, as the movie sponsored another Roush Racing Ford machine (though Craven’s was a much better-looking and movie-apt livery).
Martin led 46 laps after starting 13th, finishing second. Unlike Craven, Martin didn’t get rear-ended while running P2 and brought the car home clean.
Herbie Fully Loaded
In late June, Herbie the Love Bug hit the track at Sonoma Raceway. Jarrett’s No. 88 took the form of the white Volkswagen with the red, white and blue stripe. Sort of.
I’ve found photos of the car both white and cream-colored, and the official diecast was white. I’m assuming something was changed heading into the race or something. Either way, it’s a little irreverent having a No. 88 car with an enormous No. 53 also on the car near the door numbers and on the hood.
Jarrett started 30th, but finished a solid fifth with the car in another 2005 Yates movie scheme.
The following week, Daytona International Speedway’s summer race marked another two-movie-scheme event. One of them was Scott Riggs‘ No. 10, which bore a similar scheme promoting the Lindsay Lohan starrer.
Riggs’ numbers were more stylized, and he both started and finished outside the top 30.
Similar to Labonte and the Madagascar car running at Phoenix, Riggs ran the Herbie car again in October to promote Herbie‘s home video release.
Bad News Bears
The remake of the 1976 Walter Matthau classic starred Billy Bob Thornton and graced Jeremy Mayfield‘s No. 19 Evernham Dodge at the Daytona summer race, joining Riggs’ Herbie car on the Floridian banks.
Mayfield had a better night than Riggs, finishing 12th, in probably my favorite movie scheme of the year besides the Star Wars cars. I’m biased because I love baseball, but still.
We’ll have a whole laundry list of movie cars next week for 2006.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, 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.