DARLINGTON, S.C. — For the reason that 2015 season, NASCAR’s premier collection has honored the legends which have paved the best way within the Cup Sequence with Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway.
That effort continues a decade later as paint schemes of the previous will adorn Subsequent Gen vehicles for 400 miles of racing motion on Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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From Earnhardt to Yarborough, the Cup Sequence storage is lined with colourful schemes and crew shirts alike, paying tribute to drivers and groups who got here earlier than them and have been influential of their want to compete in motorsports — a convention drivers really feel is vital to hold on.
“I adore it. I completely adore it,” Ryan Blaney stated in his Saturday media availability. “I like to see what folks provide you with. Yearly, there’s so many neat schemes from drivers or groups which have impressed lots of people to be within the storage at the moment that get to throw it again. And I really like simply strolling by way of the storage. I actually want we wouldn’t announce it on X, I want you simply present up with it after which folks see it within the storage for the primary time, as a result of that’d be an enormous, neat reveal sort scenario.
“However you stroll across the storage like, ‘Man, I keep in mind that automobile as a child, ‘ or ‘I’ve seen movies from that automobile from the ’70s or ’80s.’ That’s simply actually, actually neat. So it nonetheless may be very particular, and the groups love doing it, and I hope the followers nonetheless take pleasure in it. I do know they do.”
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Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Crew Penske Ford has direct household connections to the 31-year-old this week as they don a throwback scheme to his father, Dave Blaney, and his 2006 Xfinity Sequence win at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Left, Dave Blaney celebrates an Xfinity win in 2006; proper, Ryan Blaney drives a throwback in 2025 to his dad
Recollections from Blaney’s childhood all of a sudden get thrust onto the NASCAR Cup Sequence stage, one thing that’s vital to him and carries vital weight to his household.
“I didn’t actually know we have been doing that,” Blaney stated. “That was sort of a Penske shock to me, so I assumed that was fairly neat.
“Simply neat that I can have the choice to do this. And it meant lots to my dad, a shock to him. I keep in mind that race. Sadly, I wasn’t there, however I used to be watching it on TV, and a few guys are nonetheless strolling across the storage. They have been a part of that group. Trent Owens was the crew chief on that factor. He’s nonetheless round. So it means lots. It’s cool when you’ll be able to throw again to your loved ones.”
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Ryan Blaney isn’t the one driver competing on Sunday to have private connections to his throwback paint scheme. Crew Penske teammate Joey Logano’s No. 22 Ford pays tribute to a different three-time Cup champion, Cale Yarborough.
In 2009, when Logano was only a rookie in Cup competitors, the now 34-year-old three-time title winner had the chance to take laps round Darlington within the passenger seat with Yarborough behind the wheel.
That reminiscence is one Logano remembers fondly as a younger driver seeking to make it within the sport, gathering knowledge from one of the vital profitable drivers to race on Sundays.
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“Yeah, Cale and I sat proper right here at one level,” Logano stated at Darlington on Saturday. “It was a extremely neat expertise to trip with him. You get some suggestions which can be nonetheless helpful at the moment, the laps run round right here, and I imply, finally, cool issue, although, proper? I imply, using within the passenger seat with Cale Yarborough driving you round as a rookie. The good factor. So sort of a full-circle expertise right here for me, interested by that second. Each of us had three championships. It felt just like the timing was proper to honor him and his household.”
The “cool issue” is a crucial sentiment to the drivers within the storage, however for Logano, honoring the historical past of the drivers that made it doable for the drivers we see at the moment is a very powerful side and highlights the success of Throwback Weekend.
“It’s all too vital to do,” Logano stated. “I believe, for me, clearly, this can be a cool issue. I believe we see that, however I believe the half that’s much more significant is that in sports activities, a variety of occasions when an athlete retires, they sort of trip off into the sundown and sadly, get forgotten about pretty shortly.
“I believe Throwback Weekend like this brings again these reminiscences. It’s actually cool for that driver to see their scheme again on the race monitor and a method for us to pay honor to the pioneers of our sport and the individuals who have constructed our sport. I believe that’s what makes this weekend actually particular.”
