Every 2025 NASCAR Throwback Weekend Paint Scheme
What’s Happening? Darlington’s Spring Throwback weekend is one of the highest-regarded modern traditions in NASCAR. Once, and sometimes twice a season,…
Gifts for NASCAR Fans
Following a somewhat disappointing showing from NASCAR’s teams in 2025, sources tell the Daily Downforce that NASCAR will not host its annual throwback weekend during Darlington Raceway’s spring race weekend.
Last spring, when the NASCAR Cup Series rolled into Darlington Raceway for its annual throwback weekend, only 19 of the 38 cars entered into the 2025 Goodyear 400 were sporting a throwback paint scheme.
In the past, a majority of teams had made an effort to have at least one throwback car in the race.
During the 2025 throwback race, there were several notable teams not participating in the throwback festivities, including Richard Childress Racing, 23XI Racing, and Trackhouse Racing.
Furthermore, some fans found the inspirational choices of the team’s fielding throwback paint schemes rather odd.
That’s not to say that there weren’t some fan favorites like Denny Hamlin’s throwback to Carl Edwards, John Hunter Nemechek’s throwback to his father, or Cody Ware’s throwback to Ward Burton.
Nonetheless, aside from the fan favorites, some paint schemes raised a few questions amongst the fanbase, including Team Penske and Austin Cindric’s Dale Earnhardt-inspired No. 2, and, most prominent of all, Chase Elliott’s now infamous throwback to Ken Schrader’s 1994 Kodiak No. 25.
To add insult to injury, many fans pointed out that the NASCAR Xfinity Series had stolen the show that weekend, with 26 of the series’ 38 entries sporting many unique throwbacks, including some wild transformations of their usual sponsors’ branding.
Fans left that 2025 throwback feeling slightly confused, wondering if the event had run its course or if the proverbial well of iconic paint schemes had run dry.
Now, with the 2026 season just around the corner, multiple industry sources tell the Daily Downforce that NASCAR and Darlington Raceway may have taken note of the reaction to last year’s event and are not planning to host the usual throwback festivities during the track’s spring 2026 race weekend.
Now, it is important to note that neither NASCAR nor Darlington has confirmed these rumors.
After all, rumors are just rumors, and making such a drastic change would likely cause a stir amongst the fan base.
What’s Happening? Darlington’s Spring Throwback weekend is one of the highest-regarded modern traditions in NASCAR. Once, and sometimes twice a season,…
While the excitement for throwback weekend may have declined since Darlington first hosted the event in 2015, the race weekend’s festivities often mark a must-watch weekend for diehard fans of the sport.
Beyond the attention throwback weekend brings, some of the event’s best paint schemes are now iconic looks and perhaps some of the best-selling die-cast in recent NASCAR history.
In addition to the race fan’s side of the weekend, the excitement surrounding throwback races has allowed smaller teams across the three NASCAR National Series to attract sponsors and even build on the excitement by hosting paint scheme contests online in the buildup to the race weekend.
Factoring in all the positives of having a NASCAR throwback weekend, deciding to cancel the event and host a normal race weekend this spring at Darlington would likely require some input from NASCAR teams.
But, looking beyond the positives, last year’s event might have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
If NASCAR is planning on not hosting a throwback weekend in 2026, then fans will likely look back at the 2025 event as the catalyst for this change.
While fans had their favorites across the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series garages, most of the negativity was directed towards one specific paint scheme in the Cup Series, Chase Elliott’s throwback to Ken Schrader.
Many fans saw this car as proof of NASCAR throwback weekends’ diminishing returns.
Throughout the race weekend, fans online pointed out that the paint scheme barely followed the groundwork of Schrader’s original Kodiak scheme, including the car’s color palette, the location of different shapes within the design, and even the font used for Elliott’s No. 9.
The discussion surrounding this paint scheme led to a confession from Elliott that he is among those in the industry who feel the throwback weekend has run its course.
During that weekend, Elliott, the winner of NASCAR‘s most popular driver award eight straight years in a row, told the media that he thought the event lost its luster “about four or five years ago.”
The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series champion then went on to say that he doesn’t want to “be a downer” but, “if we kept going down the road, we’re going to be throwing it back to me in like 2018.”
“At some point, I think we 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.” — Chase Elliott (2025)
Though these comments sparked another war of words online amongst fans, if throwback weekend does not return in 2026, it’s easy to assume that more industry members than just Elliott felt the event was at its end.
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