NASCAR Cup Darlington
Chase Elliott says "we've rode the horse to death" with Throwback Weekend
Has Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway finally run its course?
Nick DeGroot
Edited: Apr 19, 2025, 3:00 PM
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Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford
Photo by: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images
Throwback Weekend, officially established at Darlington in 2015, has been used as a way to honor the history of NASCAR through special paint schemes and liveries inspired by the sport's past. It's expanded to include everything from 'throwback' commentators in the booth and old-school logos on the Goodyear tires.
Some years have had themes, focusing on specific decades, but most years, teams and drivers just did whatever they liked. While many honor the history of NASCAR, others take on a more personal nature or branch out into throwbacks to race cars outside of stock car racing. Drivers have even joined in on the fun with wigs and mustaches to match the driver they were paying tribute to. But it seems like with every year that passes, fewer and fewer teams are taking part.
However, with half of the Cup Series field (19 of 38 entries) choosing not to participate this weekend, is it time to end the tradition?
Throwback Nascar logo
Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images
NASCAR's 'Most Popular Driver' seems to think so. Speaking in a Saturday media availability, Chase Elliott admitted: “I thought I lost it (its luster) about four or five years ago, so I was way too early to that conversation, I think."
However, Elliott and the entirety of Hendrick Motorsports (HMS) are participating this year with the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion running a paint scheme that pays tribute to Kenny Schrader's 1994 HMS Chevrolet.
"Not to be a downer -- I joked about this years ago, but if we kept going down the road, we're going to be throwing it back to me in 2018," continued Elliott. "At some point, I think we've got to chill on it a little bit. I think we've rode the horse to death, and we tend to do that a little bit too much.”
Speaking in his own media session, Denny Hamlin touched on pressure from sponsors unwilling to change their branding and how that is leading to a decline in throwbacks schemes throughout the field. “Yeah, I mean I think it sounds good in theory, but you know truthfully, these guys are trying to find a reason to get a return on their investment," explained Hamlin. "So, when you kind of change their logo or maybe change their colors and stuff, it doesn't really line up with what they want. It's just a sponsor-driven sport. I mean, I’m watching the Xfinity Series cars and I’m like, ‘they're awesome!’ Because they don't have this many sponsors, they can kind of do whatever they want to do. It's cool to see from their standpoint, but yeah on the Cup side it's going to be really tough going forward.”
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