Throwback Schemes Were A Hit At The Finale at the Fairgrounds

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Throwback Schemes Were A Hit At The Finale at the Fairgrounds

By: Pete MacDonald

Earlier on this season NASCAR thought as a tribute to the history of the Southern 500 which was returning to its original Labor Day date that it would be a good idea to incorporate some “old school” or “throwback” paint schemes into the race. It turned out to be a huge success in which everybody from the drivers and teams to Good Year and media types participated.

Fast forward to the beginning of September when it was announced that this year would be the Finale at the Fairgrounds for Super DIRT Week some teams thought as a send off to the Moody Mile at the New York State Fairgrounds they would do the same thing.

It turned out to be a lot neater than expected. I felt like a kid again on Wednesday watching these cars take to the race track.

The Henke-Baldwin Racing team was big on this as both of their cars featured an old school look. Jimmy Phelps’# 98h was re-lettered as Maynard Troyer’s #6 Mud Buss while teammate Matt Sheppard had his #9 h to match his father Stu’s #999 from when he was a modified competitor. Phelps would have the most success winning the 358 Modified Salute to the Troops 150 on Saturday.

The Gypsum Express team of Pat Ward, Larry Wight and Billy Decker participated as well with the #42p of Pat Ward having his number lettered up to look like his father Bud’s retro number. Larry Wight’s #99 Big-Block was done up as one to match the original Gypsum Express sponsored ride which was campaigned by Roger Phelps. Billy Decker’s Big-Block was done up as the “BugChaser” #91 which was owned by Randy Ross in the late 1990s had to be one of my three favorites throughout the week. It was probably one of if not the closest to the original.

Ryan Godown had Xtreme Graphics do up his #26 358 Modified as a tribute to one of Godown’s former car owners Gregg Schatzel who passed away in 2009. The car was a throwback to Godown’s original White, Orange, and Blue colors which he frequented throughout the late 90s and early 2000s.

My favorite “retro” scheme of the week was the #1 of Justin Haers. Justin’s car paid tribute to the late Doug Hoffman’s 1996 Syracuse winning car. It was about as spot on as you can get and clean yet simply lettered. Just like it did back then, the car had sponsorship from Phelps Cement Products which is run by Justin’s father.

When Jimmy Horton landed the ride in the Halmar #14j vacated by Alan Johnson, one of the first conversations was with Ronnie Johnson, son of Modified Legend Jack Johnson about renumbering the car to Jack’s trademark #12a. Ronnie had no issue with it and the car was re-lettered on Saturday morning.

Speaking of the Halmar team, when it was announced that Dave Blaney was returning to the Moody Mile for the first time in a long time they went to work on a “retro” scheme as well. The scheme paid tribute to the Smith Bros. #74 that Blaney had used for a good amount of years when he would match race Tony Stewart at race tracks across the north east including Lebanon Valley and New Egypt Speedways.

Then there was Robbie Bellinger who last season ran a “throwback” scheme going back to the Barcomb Racing #11a, that car returned as part of the program this season.

And last but not least there was Danny Johnson who’s #27j features the “old school” look every time it touches the race track.

What did you think about the “throwback” schemes at Syracuse? Let us know over on the Racers Guide discussion forums. I can be e-mailed at racersguide@gmail.com or found on Twitte @PMacDonald51. Thanks for reading!

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