HICKORY, N.C. — He didn’t win in it, however each NASCAR fan remembers Dale Earnhardt’s day-glo purple paint scheme that featured Taz from the Looney Tunes.
For the 2000 Daytona 500, Earnhardt’s staff ditched his conventional black Goodwrench Plus scheme, painted the automobile purple and slapped Taz on the hood of his Chevrolet Monte Carlo. The favored and erratic cartoon character was a part of a GM Goodwrench advert marketing campaign on the time. A trailblazer in NASCAR merchandising, there have been quickly Earnhardt hats and diecasts that includes Taz that his loyal followers flocked to.
The seven-time Winston Cup champion drove properly within the Taz automobile at Daytona that day, operating in fourth with about 30 laps to go and even traded some purple paint together with his son within the rookie’s Budweiser No. 8. However an incident with Jimmy Spencer with about 10 laps to go pushed the Intimidator to the center of the pack and Earnhardt wound up ending twenty first. The Taz physique was lower off Chassis No. 58 and the toy firm Hasbro acquired it, chopped it up into little items, and included these elements within the Winner’s Circle diecasts that have been bought.
Earnhardt died a yr later, tragically on the 2001 Daytona 500 in a wreck that modified the game, and the Taz automobile was by no means seen once more.
Till this previous weekend.
The zMAX CARS Tour — a late mannequin inventory automobile touring sequence that’s co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. — held one among its largest races of the season this previous weekend on the historic Hickory Motor Speedway in western North Carolina. The Throwback Basic, billed because the “largest night time in pavement late mannequin racing historical past,” boasted the richest purse ever for the CARS Tour: $50,000 for the winner of the late mannequin inventory race and $30,000 for the winner of the professional late mannequin race.
And the additional layer of coolness and nostalgia to the occasion is that drivers have been inspired to honor previous legends of the game and memorable automobiles with throwback paint schemes. For instance, Conner Jones drove a white No. 48 automobile with a Lowe’s advert on it as a nod to Jimmie Johnson. Blayne Harrison and Dawson Sutton each had Darrell Waltrip schemes on their automobiles. There have been additionally tributes to Jeff Gordon, Alan Kulwicki, Rusty Wallace, David Pearson and Steve Park, amongst others.
Doug Barnes Jr. all the time knew that if he obtained the chance to compete on this race, there was just one scheme he needed his automobile to have: the Taz.
“I’ve watched this race and seen everybody else’s throwbacks, and I mentioned, ‘If I’m going to do one, I’m going to do the Tasmanian Satan automobile.’ It’s been on the highest of my listing. Then we went to (the Dominion Raceway in Virginia) a pair weeks in the past and adjusted the automobile to purple, so then it was cheaper to do it that manner,” Barnes advised SB Nation. “That’s simply been my favourite automobile ever.”
So, there the Taz was this weekend at Hickory Motor Speedway. The race obtained pushed to Sunday due to rain, however Barnes ran properly in it, ending fifth within the late mannequin inventory competitors.
A 27-year-old from Harford County, Maryland that drives for Lee Pulliam Efficiency, Barnes doesn’t have lots of reminiscences of watching Earnhardt race when he was a child, however grew to become a fan by means of the merchandise.
“I don’t know if it was the diecasts that turned me on to them, however I might inform you all of Dale Earnhardt’s paint schemes,” Barnes mentioned. “I had my favorites, and all the time been a fan of Junior too.”
If there have been any loopholes to undergo to run in a racecar with a Earnhardt paint scheme, Barnes wasn’t conscious of them.
“Generally it’s higher to say sorry than permission,” Barnes mentioned with amusing. “I did textual content it to Dale Jr., and he mentioned it seemed cool. Once I texted it to him, it was already midway wrapped, so, it was form of on the level that there was no going again. I had seen individuals do Earnhardt schemes up to now, so I didn’t determine I used to be going to be breaking any legal guidelines. It turned out nice. Everyone preferred it, Junior preferred it — I hope he thought it was cool, throwing it again to his dad. I feel loads about them. Pleased we might pull it collectively.”
For Barnes, the fifth-place end was his third top-five of the yr within the CARS Tour and seventh within the top-10 out of 10 races.
This time, the Taz automobile received’t be chopped up into little collectibles for a toy firm. Nonetheless, Barnes mentioned he plans to chop the door off and have his staff and crew signal it earlier than hanging it in his storage in Florida.
