The title might be a bit misleading, because there were no movie schemes in 2020.
That was a weird year, obviously, and Hollywood was no exception to being impacted.
No huge movies, besides Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), which would’ve been a contender for sponsoring a car, but it came out before the season.
Still would’ve been cool to see Margot Robbie on the hood of a car — especially after DC blew advertising opportunities with Suicide Squad in 2016. The Invisible Man was another big pre-COVID release; the rest of that year, Tenet was really the only significant theatrical release during the pandemic.
Other than those, what was gonna sponsor a car? Possessor? Da 5 Bloods? Psycho Goreman? Borat Subsequent Moviefilm?
None fit the bill for NASCAR’s fanbase, really. To be fair, the schlock-fest of Money Plane would’ve been a prime choice.
But no, 2020 marked the first year since 1994 (!) to not have a single movie-themed partnership on a paint scheme. So we had to wait.
2021
Spirit Untamed
For four races in 2021, including both halves of the Pocono Raceway doubleheader, Quin Houff picked up Mane ‘n Tail sponsorship — remember them sponsoring Derrike Cope way back in the ’90s? — in association with Spirit Untamed, a reboot of the original Spirit film and spin-off of a Netflix series I didn’t know existed until I wrote these words.
While the original character is apparently the subject of a ton of “hear me outs” among people now, this still grossed a decent amount and got a theatrical release.
It’s got a pretty wild cast for a reboot-spinoff related to a 20-year-old original film: Jake Gyllenhaal, Eiza Gonzalez, Walton Goggins, Julianne Moore, Isabela Merced, McKenna Grace and the late Andre Braugher all voiced characters.
Houff’s car looked pretty good too, memes about his driving ability and the StarCom equipment notwithstanding.
He only finished two of the four races, with the damage clock running out on the scheme’s first appearance at Circuit of the Americas and crashing the car at Nashville Superspeedway. The No. 00 went on to finish 31st and 33rd in the two Pocono races, respectively.
And then StarCom shut down for good at the end of the season. RIP.
The Boss Baby: Family Business
Remember that movie The Boss Baby from 2017?
Not many people do, besides the memes.
Remember the sequel from 2021?
Even fewer people do, and there were no memes.
Corey LaJoie had a few NBC Peacock-related partnerships during his time in the Spire Motorsports No. 7, and the sequel that nobody asked for jumped on board the car for the summer race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Not much to write home about, besides Alec Baldwin’s baby character taking up most of the hood.
Though I’ll give the branding credit for a pretty inventive firesuit design for LaJoie.
The Manson Brothers: Midnight Zombie Massacre
In a situation similar to Brendan Gaughan‘s 2004 The Punisher scheme and JJ Yeley‘s 2019 Slayer scheme, Natalie Decker hit the track at Martinsville Speedway with a blood-spattered paint scheme in October of 2021.
The difference between Decker and Gaughan, as opposed to Yeley, is that they actually got to run their cars. I’m not sure what the whole uproar was over Slayer being on a car, given that Megadeth and Killswitch Engage had also been on cars that year with Tyler Reddick, but the team and/or sponsors got all worked up over the band’s name and blood-spatter designs (God forbid) being on a paint scheme.
The funniest part was that the blood-themed car still ran, just with PODS on the wrap.
Anyway, Decker carried sponsorship from the movie The Manson Brothers: Midnight Zombie Massacre, a wrestling-themed zombie film.
I have the diecast (thanks, Circle B Black Friday sale) and the scheme was pretty awesome, but I still haven’t seen the movie. It’s apparently a pretty fun time and has cameos from wrestlers like Randy Couture, but I’ll add it to the watchlist.
Decker finished 25th in the car. I’ve always loved how all-out the Xfinity Series goes for Halloween.
2022
And, just like that, another year without movie schemes. At least 2020 had the excuse of the COVID impact. 2022 had a bunch of films that could’ve used a scheme or two, so I’ll close this article by talking about some movies that were big missed opportunities.
Top Gun: Maverick is the obvious one here. The biggest film in quite some time, it grossed nearly a billion-and-a-half at the box office, and it was in theaters for about five months. It’s Tom Cruise, it’s Jerry Bruckheimer, who cares if it’s not Days of Thunder 2? Put those planes on a car and go racing.
Other excellent releases didn’t necessarily fit the bill, like Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, A24’s eventual Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All At Once or Damien Chazelle’s celebration of film (and early-Hollywood debauchery) Babylon.
But DC released The Batman, of which many previous iterations had appeared on a car at least once; Bullet Train was a fun summer blockbuster with Brad Pitt; AmbuLAnce came from eternal explosion man Michael Bay; and throw in blockbusters like Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Thor Love and Thunder, Black Adam and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Nothing.
There was literally a documentary about Kyle Busch released in 2022, called Rowdy. Are you telling me Joe Gibbs Racing and M&M’s couldn’t work something out to put that on Busch’s own car?
I’ll stop venting for the time being and let next week’s article — 2023-present — close things out for now.
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.