By 2012, it had been four years since a movie scheme had gone to victory lane (Kyle Busch‘s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull livery at Darlington Raceway in 2008).
Then, 2012 featured not one, but two, of those cars taking the checkered flag first … out of three movie schemes total all season! That’s one hell of a winning percentage.
Normally, I’d lump a year with this few schemes in with the following year, but there’s a decent amount to say about the success of the liveries in 2012 (and 2013 had six schemes in itself) where it felt better to separate them out.
All three cars also ran within the span of three weeks.
From the Daytona 500 to the end of May, no movie schemes showed up. There was at least one in NASCAR Cup Series races on June 3 (Dover Motor Speedway), June 17 (Michigan International Raceway) and June 24 (Sonoma Raceway).
That was it for the year, but what a June it was.
Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
To kick off the month of June, NASCAR headed to the “Monster Mile” in Delaware.
Jimmie Johnson sported a scheme for the third installment of the Madagascar franchise — this beautifully simple teal-ish car with white block numbers.
Johnson — shocker — dominated at Dover, leading 289 of 400 laps after starting second.
This was also the first of Johnson’s “Build and Grow” schemes, which spotlighted kids’ building kits released by Lowe’s.
I had to look up the big rainbow Afro wig that Jimmie sported before and after the race, because I’ve never seen the movie (rest assured, I’ve seen the first and second, I’m not that uncultured).
Apparently it stems from the “Afro Circus” (?) scene in the movie, but it made for some of the most surreal victory lane photos you’ll ever see. At least Miles got to get in on the fun.
The Dark Knight Rises
Movie schemes snapped a four-year win drought with Johnson’s victory, and two weeks later Dale Earnhardt Jr. snapped his own four-year win drought.
Johnson’s win came one week shy of the four-years-and-one-month mark of the most recent movie car victory, while Junior’s victory came exactly four years and two days after his most recent win. But who’s counting?
First, though, Mountain Dew was partnering with Warner Bros. for the release of The Dark Knight Rises, which included various specialty flavors (“Dark Berry” among them) and a special paint scheme for the Cup race at Michigan.
They held a fan vote between four paint schemes, all four of which made it into a special diecast set that I have somewhere or another:
The three losing schemes had various elements: one was black with Batman (Christian Bale) on the hood, another was silver with Bane (Tom Hardy) on the hood and one shirked the images entirely in favor of a matte black car with minimal logos.
The winning paint job, however, kind of mixed the best of all four options: movie logo on the hood, Batman on the driver’s side and Bane on the passenger side.
Plus, before the race, Earnhardt took to the banks of Michigan alongside a drivable Batmobile, with Batman himself at the wheel. Insanely cool stuff.
Junebug put on a rather unimpressive qualifying run, clocking a time only good enough for 17th.
But then the No. 88 led 95 of 200 laps and scored a long-awaited return to victory lane for Junior Nation and a win for movie schemes everywhere.
This was a little over a year after he’d seemingly set sail to the checkered flag in the 2011 Coca-Cola 600, only to sputter on fuel entering the final corner and see Kevin Harvick take the win instead.
It was also Dale’s only win of 2012, and he went winless the following year before reeling off seven wins across 2014 and 2015.
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Hate to end this article on a down note, I guess, but the third and final movie scheme of 2012 proved far less successful than its June compatriots.
Tomy Drissi hit Sonoma with his car promoting Ice Age: Continental Drift, the fourth (good lord) in the series. The scheme ran just a week after Junior’s win, which was arguably the most momentous win in NASCAR since Trevor Bayne‘s Daytona 500 upset to kick off 2011.
Unfortunately, this scheme couldn’t keep the winning trend alive, starting 41st and finishing 38th.
Next week, Drissi will return to the article series (as he will for a few weeks), as will Johnson, Build and Grow, winning schemes and Dale Jr.
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.