What’s Happening?

With NASCAR’s 2025 throwback weekend looming, Hendrick Motorsports unveiled Chase Elliott’s 2025 throwback scheme. This reveal has caused a stir amongst fans, with many wondering how the team strayed so far away from the original scheme.

A Missed Opportunity?

Since the debut of NASCAR’s throwback weekend at Darlington, throwback paint schemes in NASCAR have become a point of conversation for fans rather than a fun look at the past.

Each year, fans see a NASCAR-based fan favorite, like Kyle Larson’s Kyle Petty Mellow Yello from 2015, and some non-NASCAR fan favorites, like Brad Keslowski’s 1997 Castrol TOM Supra last season.

The non-NASCAR throwbacks, such as those that reference other racing leagues or fantasy retro paint schemes, face minimal scrutiny. Yet, NASCAR fans are always on the lookout for errors in NASCAR-inspired cars.

Take William Byron’s 2024 Jeff Gordon 2009 “Firestorm” scheme, in which fans complained of the inaccuracy of the car’s nose coloring.

HMS even changed the nose by race weekend to a still inaccurate but easier-on-the-eyes look.

Every year, at least one car rolls into Darlington looking like a NASCAR The Game: Inside Line create a car version of an iconic NASCAR scheme. However, it looks like this year’s candidate for worst paint scheme is NASCAR’s most popular driver, Chase Elliott.

Elliott’s scheme, revealed Tuesday, is a throwback to Ken Schrader’s 1994 Hendrick Motorsports’ Kodiak-sponsored No. 25. Schrader drove the No. 25 for HMS from 1988 to 1996 with Kodiak from 1990 to 1994. However, Elliott’s UniFirst-sponsored throwback, as pointed out almost immediately by fans, looks nothing like the No. 25 did in 1994.

Fan Reactions

Anyone who looks at the reference material, Schrader’s car from 1994, has to admit the throwback paint scheme, while not a bad paint scheme in general, is a bad take on the Kodiak car.

Kodiak was one of the most iconic sponsors of the 1990s and had many great paint schemes. Elliott’s attempt is not even the first throwback to the sponsor, as Kyle Larson drove a Kodiak-inspired Chevrolet for Chip Ganassi in the 2019 throwback race.

For reference, the scheme’s underline goes over the tires, not around the bottom of the car. The gray on top of the underline stops well short of the A-pillar, and, of course, the colors are just incorrect.

Now, you might ask, “Wouldn’t a sponsor prefer to have their current colors on the car rather than the referenced sponsor’s colors?” That is a trend amongst throwback schemes; however, last season, UniFirst allowed this change for a Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard throwback.

All things aside, this is rather small in the grand scheme of things; however, as Elliott is NASCAR’s most popular driver, fans are rather upset with this scheme.

Some have even provided their theories as to what happened with this car.

Is it Actually the Worst of All Time?

Now, is this the worst NASCAR throwback scheme ever? Probably not, as most point to Ricky Stenhouse’s 2021 “Tide Throwback,” which it looks like someone didn’t even try to make a good paint scheme, let alone a throwback car, as the worst since the throwback tradition began.

However, for Elliott, the sport’s most popular driver, having your car compared to this car has to sting.

While most are going after Hendrick and even UniFirst for the blame, the car looks okay. While it’s not an accurate representation of Schrader’s car, it is technically still inspired by it, meaning that things could be a lot worse. That doesn’t mean that fans will forget this flop of a throwback scheme anytime soon.

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