Though their importance has been diluted in recent years, the relationship between paint schemes, sponsors, and drivers still plays a key role in a driver’s brand and presentation on and off the racetrack. In modern NASCAR, no sponsor relationship has become more noted than that between Chase Elliott and NAPA Auto Parts. NAPA started their relationship with Elliott as an associate sponsor in one-off races run in the ARCA Menards Series and Truck Series before becoming the primary wrap for Elliott’s two-year stint in the JRM No. 9 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
When it was announced that Chase Elliott would replace the legendary Jeff Gordon following his retirement at the end of the 2015 season, it came as no surprise that NAPA would return to the Cup Series as the primary sponsor for the second-generation driver. With Chase’s new and revamped NAPA paint scheme getting revealed within the last couple of weeks, we here at the Daily Downforce thought it’d be fun to take a look back at some of Chase’s older NAPA schemes and see how they have evolved from humble beginnings to this bold new direction taking the track come 2024.
Here is The Evolution of Chase Elliott’s NAPA Paint Schemes!
Prior to going full-time Cup Racing in 2016, Chase Elliott would make 5 starts in the No. 25 NAPA Auto Parts Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports in 2015. He would make his debut at Martinsville that spring and wrap up this abbreviated campaign in the Southern 500 at Darlington in the fall of that year. You can see Chase’s No. 25 NAPA ride in the picture above. Like the new direction, this scheme was primarily blue with yellow and red accented stripes on the sides, similar to his Xfinity scheme at the time.
As weird as it was to see on the track, the first scheme for the No. 24 car in the post-Gordon era at Hendrick Motorsports actually looks pretty sharp. I like it, at the very least. This is unmistakenly a NAPA car, similar to the schemes Michael Waltrip drove back in the very beginning of his days at DEI (note the stripes on the side). It was a culture shock at the time but I like that they did something different rather than just trying to recreate some of Gordon’s most iconic paint schemes as they did with William Byron in his early stint in the No. 24 car.
There are only a few key differences to note between the 2016 and 2017 No. 24 schemes. Mostly, it’s the same (a largely blue car with stripes down the side and red accents around the number) but this scheme added a little more yellow to the mix. I like the yellow stripes on the side and running up the door to the roof. The only thing I didn’t particularly love about this scheme was the all-yellow bumper. Otherwise, it’s a pretty sweet scheme.
In 2018, with the rebrand from the No. 24 team to the No. 9 ride, we got to see the first version of the NAPA scheme that Chase would run for the next handful of seasons. What I like about this one is the introduction of white as a primary color. It ditched the red and stuck with yellow accents around the number on the quarter panels and this scheme just feels like a reboot to me, which I appreciate. This was the first scheme, in my opinion, in the era of Chase Elliott being HMS’s undisputed top dog.
The 2019 scheme is a more refined version of the 2018 scheme. The main difference here is that the blue on the hood was expanded to cover the whole hood and run down onto the quarter panel. The back end looks more or less the same. The only key difference is that the side skirts for the 2018 version were blue while in the 2019 version, they’re painted white.
They must have really liked the scheme from 2019 because, in 2020, it was virtually unchanged. You don’t see a whole lot of that in NASCAR today. It was nice to see a little bit of consistency with the NAPA car for this brief stretch.
Okay, I know: this is more of a special case. But I had to include it. This scheme is the same as the one above with the change of the neon yellow No. 9. All Hendrick cars ran neon yellow numbers on their door in the 2020 season finale at Phoenix to honor the retiring franchise driver in Jimmie Johnson. I know our friend from Out of the Groove, Eric Estepp likes to harp on the neon yellow being used on Ryan Blaney’s car when he drives Pennzoil colors. The yellow here also clashes with the yellow of the NAPA logo but, I don’t know. It doesn’t bother me as much with this one.
Regardless, this will always be the car over which Chase Elliott hoisted the Bill France Cup for the first time.
For the 2021 NAPA scheme, Chase Elliott basically kept the same scheme as 2019 and 2020 with only slight changes. The biggest change here is the more prominent use of yellow accents on the side. The side skirts in this scheme are yellow and blue as opposed to just white. Other than that, it’s nearly identical. Again, I applaud the consistency!
Okay, so with essentially the same paint scheme for the last three or four years, NAPA decided to shake things up some with their scheme for 2022. Now, they didn’t go crazy or anything. The front hood looks the same and white is still prominently used. With the number shift, they expanded the blue from the rear quarter panel and the yellow accents are larger. It’s also important to note the two yellow arrows pointing at the No. 9, a feature we’ll see carried over for the paint schemes still to come. One of the biggest changes this go-around is that the roof is blue and the No. 9 on the roof is white outlined with yellow accents.
With the 2023 scheme, we start to see some of the white that had become a hallmark of the No. 9 NAPA scheme since the team’s rebrand in 2018 start to get eaten away. This scheme is mostly blue (a sign of things to come?) and instead of two arrows pointing at the No. 9 on the door, there is just a single one emboldened. The roof in this scheme is also half-white, and half-blue, with a yellow roof number. I’m not too crazy about the roof number being yellow but at least it’s NAPA yellow rather than neon.
All of that brings us to the newly-revealed No. 9 NAPA ride for 2024. Honestly, I’m not sure how to feel about it. It’s different for sure. The blue which crept in, becoming a larger presence in the last couple of paint schemes is the primary color for this one. The stripes on the sides are all white, the only yellow being the arrow pointing to the 9, the NAPA logo (obviously), and the yellow roof number. It doesn’t look awful but, of the blue schemes, I prefer the ones from Elliott’s No. 24/25 era, personally.
That’ll do it for this run-down of Chase Elliott NAPA Schemes through the ages. What are your favorites? Be sure to let us know on all of our social media outlets. Also, keep it right here at DailyDownforce.com for all the latest news, silly season rumors, and driver discussions as we gear up for The Clash in 2024!
Former Joe Gibbs Racing Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart has filed a new response slamming JGR as part of an ongoing lawsuit brought against the former Daytona 500 Champion by his former employer.
What’s Happening? Joe Gibbs Racing has filed a lawsuit against former competition director Chris Gabehart, alleging he took confidential team information…
Gabehart departed Joe Gibbs Racing this past offseason following eight seasons as a Crew Chief and one as the team’s Competition Director, while serving as an unofficial Crew Chief for Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 team.
This move surprised fans, as, under his tenure in 2026, the team scored 13 wins, 47 top fives, 69 top tens, and placed three cars in the Playoffs, with two in the Championship Four.
Nonetheless, with his future still in the air, JGR sued Gabehart last week, claiming he “embarked on a brazen scheme to steal JGR’s most sensitive information and use it for the benefit of a direct competitor in NASCAR.”
While the industry veteran responded to the allegations last week in a post to social media, he expanded his side of the story in a scathing response filed Wednesday afternoon.
In his response, Gabehart claims that in 2025, he became discontented with his role at JGR “and other aspects of how JGR’s race teams were being run.”
Expanding on this opinion, Gabehart stated first that his duties at JGR as Competition Director were “materially inconsistent with my reasonable expectations when I accepted the position,” going on to say that the structure at JGR was “dysfunctional.”
“I was promised a COO-type role overseeing all competitive operations with autonomy to lead. Instead, I found myself constantly intertwined with Coach Gibbs, senior JGR executives, and family members when making even routine competition decisions—a dysfunctional organizational structure that I could not continue in.” — Chris Gabehart
Ironically, since his departure, Joe Gibbs confirmed during an interview with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio on February 12, that the team now uses a committee approach for the Competition Director duties.
What’s Happening? Team Owner Joe Gibbs broke down the new structure of JGR in the aftermath of the departure of former…
Gabehart then turned his barrel at the No. 54 team, a car driven by Gibbs’ grandson Ty Gibbs, and a team that Gabehart served as the substitute Crew Chief of during the 2025 season, before returning the reins to the team’s official shot caller, Tyler Allen.
The long-time Crew Chief said that in his opinion, the No. 54 team is not held to the same standards as other teams in the organization, saying, “It was my view that the No. 54 car should be managed and held accountable in the same manner as the organization’s other cars.”
He even alleged that Joe Gibbs directly oversaw his grandson’s team and “pressured” Gabehart to take over as Crew Chief early on during his time as JGR’s Competition Director.
“Beginning early in the 2025 season, Coach Gibbs repeatedly pressured me to take over as crew chief of the No. 54 car. I consistently declined, explaining that as Competition Director, I did not believe this was the right move, that it would undermine the long-term development of the team, and that I did not want to be crew chief of the No. 54 or any other car.” — Chris Gabehart
Gabehart even explained how he took over for Tyler Allen before returning duties to the team’s original Crew Chief:
“Despite my objections, Coach Gibbs and ownership continued pressing, and I eventually conceded to the pressure by first helping the No. 54 team more behind the scenes and then, beginning on June 28, 2025, by publicly serving as the crew chief and calling the races on Sundays for nine consecutive races before returning those duties to the original crew chief, Tyler Allen, against the strong desires of ownership, when I made it clear that I did not want to serve as a crew chief for the long term.” — Chris Gabehart
During Gabehart’s tenure with the No. 54 team, which per his account began with the summer race at EchoPark Speedway and concluded after nine races with the Playoff cutoff race at Daytona, the team scored two top fives, four top tens, and tallied an average finish of 14.3. The team also won the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge Tournament during this stretch of races.
Furthermore, at the start of that stretch, JGR initially claimed that Gabehart was not the Crew Chief and was a race strategist for the No. 54 team, though this may have been for one race.
In the 17 races prior to Gabehart’s time as the No. 54’s Crew Chief, with Allen on the box, the team had just two top fives, three top tens, and a 19.4 average finish.
But despite this improvement, the team failed to make the Playoffs, with Gabehart focused on his role as Competition Director. However, he notes in his filing that it is his opinion that the “differential treatment” of Gibbs’ team undermined my position as Competition Director.”
He even touted that Gibbs had a different meeting attendance standard than other JGR team members.
“I also identified specific examples of the No. 54 team’s differential treatment that undermined my position as Competition Director. For example, key personnel decisions were made without my counsel or input despite my role as Competition Director; and critically the No. 54 driver was not held to the same meeting attendance standards as others on the team.” — Chris Gabehart
Ultimately, the real bitterness in this filing is found later on, when Gabehart alleges the lawsuit isn’t about stolen information, rather, as he puts it, “it is about punishing a former employee for daring to leave.”
What’s Happening? Joe Gibbs Racing alleged that former competition director Chris Gabehart took a wide range of confidential team information regarding…
Gabehart also addressed the origin of the lawsuit in his filing, backing up a claim in his social media post last week that Spire Motorsports, now a co-defendant in this lawsuit, is willing to let a forensic examiner look through their information to confirm Gabehart did not take “sensitive information” from the team.
JGR alleges that he used several methods to take setup information from JGR, including an allegation that he synchronized his personal Google Drive account with a JGR-issued laptop to supply it to a rival team, known to be Spire Motorsports.
In Wednesday’s filing, Gabehart provided a letter from attorneys at the law firm Robinson, Bradshaw & Hinson claiming that Spire, which now employs him as their Chief Motorsports Officer, is willing to allow a neutral forensic examiner to look through Spire materials to “confirm that no JGR information was transmitted to or used by Spire.”
Tuesday night, JGR filed a new document of its own, which requested the court grant a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to prevent Gabehart from working at Spire in a similar role to his job at JGR for the next 18 months and require Spire to return any information to JGR.
Nonetheless, this filing, alongside one from JGR Tuesday night, shows there are no signs of this lawsuit slowing down, with Gabehart’s accusations making this one of the most bitter breakups in recent NASCAR history.
What’s Happening? Joe Gibbs Racing has added to its lawsuit filed against former Crew Chief and Competition Director Chris Gabehart, filing…
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NASCAR’s 2026 All-Star format has fans going from “hell yeah” to “what the hell” in record time. With a 350-lap, three-segment race at Dover Motor Speedway and no Open or LCQ, the exhibition’s identity suddenly feels very different — and not everyone is thrilled about it.
The new structure locks in recent winners, past champions, and a fan vote — leaving limited spots available through the segments. It’s structured. It’s legitimate. But it trades exclusivity and simple, high-stakes transfer battles for something that feels more procedural than electric. For many fans, the All-Star race used to mean night racing, short bursts, bold strategy, and desperation. Now, with a longer format and no true “win-and-you’re-in” showdown, Jaret believes it risks feeling like an obligation rather than a spectacle.
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NASCAR’s All-Star shakeup, a growing legal fight in the garage, and major early-season momentum swings have all collided at once. With COTA up next, the timing couldn’t be more dramatic, and the ripple effects might be bigger than they first appear.
This isn’t just about one exhibition race or one court filing. It’s about direction, leverage, and momentum at a critical point in the season. The format decisions affect the show. The lawsuit could affect how teams operate. And COTA might start separating early contenders from everyone else.
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