As we hit the midpoint of the 2010s, 2014 provided NASCAR fans with a few more schemes than the previous year — and a few first-time-in-a-whiles.
The year also marked the return of two cars running schemes promoting the same movie in the same race; the last was in 2009 for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. As for teammates, it had been nine years since two cars from the same stable had promoted the same movie in the same race.
Son of God
For the first time in 10 years, a movie car hit the track for the season-opening weekend at Daytona. Ironically, the last time it happened was also for a religious-themed movie, with Bobby Labonte running his The Passion of the Christ car in the 500 in 2004.
This time around, Blake Koch ran his Son of God car in the Nationwide Series event, starting 11th but finishing 22nd.
Somehow, despite a 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, negative reviews across the board and a lot of people calling it dull, it more than tripled its budget at the box office.
Hercules
One of the more underappreciated schemes, and one of Tomy Drissi‘s better liveries, featured Dwayne Johnson as the iconic Hercules for the 2014 film of the same name at Sonoma Raceway. This was among Rebecca Ferguson’s first film roles, and a year later she made her debut as Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.
Since then, Ferguson has exploded as a movie star, appearing in three of the M:I movies, both Dune films and more.
And as I’ve said before, I’d be intimidated too if I saw The Rock bearing down on me in my rearview mirror. Drissi started 43rd and finished 38th.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Drissi hit the track in another movie car a little over a month later. Another of the more underrated schemes, JGL Racing fielded the No. 93 for Drissi at Watkins Glen International and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Drissi had a couple respectable runs, finishing 20th in the Finger Lakes and 23rd the following week.
The Identical
The late John Wes Townley got in on the movie-scheme action for a few races in the then-Nationwide Series. Honestly, the last year of Nationwide as a title sponsor had quite a few film-themed cars.
The car was mostly Townley’s standard yellow-ish Zaxby’s livery, but the hood was transformed into a graphic for The Identical, some faith-based movie about how Elvis had a twin. Or something.
Townley ran it at Chicagoland Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway, recording a best finish of 18th at the latter-most track.
Dumb and Dumber To
Nine years after Elliott Sadler and Dale Jarrett teamed up to promote Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith at Phoenix Raceway, BK Racing teammates Alex Bowman and JJ Yeley did the same at the same track; the first time it had been done since the Nos. 38 and 88 did in 2005.
Though less elaborate in execution, the Dumb and Dumber To cars were eye-catching nonetheless. The BK cars were decked out in the colors of the famous suits from the original movie and topped off with an isolated headshot of the actors on the hoods.
Then-rookie Alex Bowman‘s No. 23 bore Jim Carrey’s face (and character Lloyd Christmas’ chipped-tooth smile) on the hood.
Teammate JJ Yeley had Jeff Daniels, as his character Harry Dunne, on the front of his Toyota. In the 20 years since the first film, Daniels had racked up awards nominations across three of the four EGOT categories, including an Emmy win for The Newsroom.
Bowman and Yeley also wore matching suit-themed firesuits to the aforementioned suits from the movie, which was the best bonus possible.
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.