Hickory, NC – He did not win in it, but every Nascar fan remembers the Dale Earnhardt’s Day-Glo Red Paint schedule with Taz from the Looney Tunes.
For the 2000 Daytona 500, the Earnhardt team closed its traditional black Goodwrench Plus schedule, painted the car red and hit Taz on the hood of his Chevrolet Monte Carlo. At the time, the popular and irregular cartoon character was part of a GM Goodwrench advertisement campaign. A trail blower in Nascar -Merchandising, there were soon Earnhardt -hats and dikes with Taz where his loyal fans came.
The sevenfold Winston Cup champion rode well in the TAZ car in Daytona that day, which was in fourth place to go with about 30 laps and even exchanged some red paint with his son in Budweiser no. 8 of the Rookie. But an incident with Jimmy Spencer with about 10 laps to push the intimidator to the center of the peloton and go in the middle of the peloton. The Taz -Body was cut from Chassis No. 58 and the toy company Hasbro acquired it, minced meat in small pieces and included those parts in the circle of the winner that were sold.
Earnhardt died a year later, tragically on the Daytona 500 2001 in a wreck that the sport changed, and the Taz car was never seen again.
Until this last weekend.
The ZMAX Cars-Tour-a Late Modelstock Car Touring series that is co-ownership of Dale Earnhardt Jr.-Hijield one of the biggest races of the season on the historic Hickory Motor Speedway in West-North Carolina. The throwback classic, invoiced as the “biggest night in sidewalk in the late model racing history”, the richest wallet ever had for the Cars Tour: $ 50,000 for the winner of the late model Stock Race and $ 30,000 for the winner of the Pro Late Model Race.
And the extra layer of coolness and nostalgia for the event is that drivers were encouraged to honor previous legends of the sport and memorable cars with Throwback paint schemes. Conner Jones, for example, drove a white No. 48 car with a Lowe’s advertisement on it as a nod to Jimmie Johnson. Blayne Harrison and Dawson Sutton both had Darrell Waltrip schemes on their cars. There were also tribute to Jeff Gordon, Alan Kulwicki, Rusty Wallace, David Pearson and Steve Park, among other things.
Doug Barnes Jr. Always knew that if he had the chance to compete in this race, there was only one schedule that he wanted his car to have: the Taz.
“I have looked at this race and saw everyone’s throwbacks, and I said:” If I do one, I will do the Tasmanian diabolical car. “It has been at the top of my list.” That has just been my favorite car. “
So there the Taz was on Hickory Motor Speedway this weekend. The race was pushed on Sunday for rain, but Barnes walked well and finished fifth in the late model stock competition.
A 27-year-old from Harford County, Maryland who drives Lee Pulliam performance, Barnes does not have many memories of watching Earnhardt race when he was a child, but became a fan through the merchandise.
“I don’t know if it was the datients who put me on them, but I could tell you all the paint schedules of Dale Earnhardt,” said Barnes. “I had my favorites and I have always been a junior fan.”
If there were meshes to continue in a racing car with an Earnhardt Paint schedule, Barnes was not aware of it.
“Sometimes it is better to ask forgiveness than permission,” Barnes said laughing. “I put it to Dale Jr., and he said it looked cool. When I sent it to him, it was already halfway, so it was a bit about that there was no back. I had seen people do Earnhardt schemes in the past, so I thought it was a bit. They can bring it together.”
For Barnes, fifth place was his third top five of the year in the Cars Tour and seventh in the top 10 of the 10 races.
This time the TAZ car will not be chopped in small collecting objects for a toy company. Barnes said, however, that he is planning to cut the door and let his team and crew sign before he hangs it in his garage in Florida.
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