As we continue into the back half of the previous decade, 2016 and 2017 mark the final true years of blockbuster promotion.
We’ll get to ’17 next week, but this time around it’ll be a short overview of 2016’s few cars.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Things got started in a hurry about a month into the season, when the first true social media campaign revolving around movie cars — and, to be honest, probably the only one to date — centered around half of the Hendrick Motorsports stable.
Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were tabbed to drive Batman and Superman-themed schemes at California Speedway in March to promote Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a few days ahead of its release date.
Pretty sure this came as the first — mostly negative — reviews for the movie rolled in.
Can’t say I’m a fan of the movie either, but I appreciated the effort behind DC Comics, Warner Bros. and Hendrick Motorsports all teaming up to promote the movie.
Johnson’s No. 48 bore the blue, red and yellow of Superman’s suit, complete with this carbon fiber-esque texture.
Junior had a black-and-gray livery to emulate Batman’s suit.
Neither driver qualified particularly well (Johnson 19th, Junior 27th), but Sunday was when it mattered. Kevin Harvick dominated, but Johnson managed to lead 25 laps and crossed the finish line first.
This was back when Fontana’s trophy — the classic station wagon and trailer backed by a surfboard and sunset — was similar to Dover, when diecasts of the car for that race would already be locked and loaded to be put on the trophy. So Johnson donned a Superman cape in victory lane, and the scheme that he’d just won in was sitting on the trophy. Made for a great photo op.
Also, loved the gimmicks his team did, which included wearing capes before the race.
Captain America: Civil War
Two months later, there arose a massive missed opportunity for promoting the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
At Talladega, Kyle Busch‘s No. 18 Skittles Toyota was decked out in red and green, which didn’t quite fit Captain America: Civil War.
It would’ve been much cooler if the Joe Gibbs Racing stable of Busch, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards had two cars for each side — Team Cap (Captain America, Falcon, Ant-Man, Winter Soldier, Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch) and Team Iron Man (Iron Man, Black Widow, Black Panther, Vision and War Machine).
It also would’ve been fitting for Kenseth’s car to have a flying character — Falcon or Iron Man — on board, since the No. 20 blew over down the backstretch. He wasn’t the only car to go upside down that race: Chris Buescher barrel-rolled there earlier in the race, and Harvick nearly rolled over into the catch fence on the final lap.
Busch stayed in the mix and out of the chaos, finishing second.
Big missed chance for some widespread promotion for the movie, but the car certainly stood out.
The two movie-and-scheme combinations were kind of the opposite of each other: a good pair of schemes for a bad film, and a subpar scheme for a good movie.
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.