NSCA Cup Series Showroom

[jacobc62]

#98 | RJ Bishop
Team: Bishop Family Racing
Rookie Season: 2017
Starts: 165
Wins: 1 | 2019 Daytona 500 Champion
Top 5s: 7
Top 10s: 25


Compared to 2021, RJ Bishop's 2022 season was absolutely a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, the team as a whole wouldn't budge from it's usual upper-tier backmarker status with Theodore Cox's 38th place points finish. That said, RJ did finish in 28th and even earned a couple of top 5s on the road courses - Including a 2nd place at Circuit of the Americas! Kroger and South Point will remain a familiar sight on RJ's #98 Dodge for the 2023 season. Do note that the Kroger scheme will see 6 variants throughout the season with different products on the 1/4 panels.

 

[jacobc62]

#04 | Steffie Plaxco
Team: Axiom Racing Union
Rookie Season: 2020
Starts: 55
Wins: 0
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 1

Due to Stunod's admins deleting both my 2020 and 2021 threads from the showroom (part of the reason why I continued/renamed this thread to be a more all-in-one), I don't have anything to go off of Steffie's history other than her actual stats, which were abysmal compared to what I was remembering..... 12 DNFs out of 25 races in her rookie season should've seen her get the boot even just midway into the season - especially considering that one of her former teammates got the boot for just causing chaos in the Daytona 500 alone - but somehow she retained her seat for 2021.... Thankfully of the 30 races that year, she only had 2 DNFs! However, money would talk and Calvin Richards brought the big bucks of Menard's with him to Wolfpack Racing and would replace Steffie in the #83 for 2022, leaving Steffie without a seat for the season. After a year out of the driver's seat, Steffie Plaxco returns to the Cup Series grid, replacing Joshua Michaels in the #04 ARU Pontiac as Michaels steps away to be an advisor for the team. LG Electronics also returns to the Cup Series as a sponsor, being adorned on the car alongside Aaron's.

 

[jacobc62]

#36 | Eddie Kline
Team: Douglass Racing
Active Seasons: 1995-2006 (Debuted in 1992)
Starts: 389
Wins: 1

Eddie Kline Jr. was one of the many journeyman drivers that appeared between the early 90s and mid 2000s. Early on in his career, he established himself as one of, if not the only person to show nothing but sportsmanship to his fellow competitors. If you were to wreck him, accidentally or not, he wouldn't get in your face and get into a verbal (or physical) confrontation. He'd get up to you, and talk it out right then and there. Give him an honest recounting of events and own up to what happened, even if you still feel like it may have not been your fault at the time? He'll shake your hand and call it even. Try and weasel your way out of any responsibility for the incident or just blow off the conversation entirely? He'll walk away, but the next few times you race him, he'll humble you on the track real quick without even making any contact. Eddie would be killed in a crash during a tire test at Kentucky Speedway in early 2006. In 2009, NSCA honored Eddie's memory by renaming the sportsmanship award given out at the annual post-season banquet after him.

Schemes:
2005 Dollar General - 2005 was Eddie's best statistical season across all categories. At Bristol - one of the hardest tracks to get a win at - Eddie managed to finally break through and get his first career win with what many people claim will be the "cleanest race-winning car to ever grace victory line, for all-time" for Bristol. This would wind up being his only win that year, and tragically, his only career win as well....

2006 ABF U-Pack Moving - 2006 saw a big change for Douglass Racing as Dollar General had begun downsizing their involvement with the sport as a whole, thus the team needed to find a new sponsor, which they did with ABF. The early 2006 season was nowhere close to being as great as it was the year prior. It also didn't help that Eddie suffered a bruised collar bone following a crash during the race at Las Vegas early on into the year. Unlike in real-life, where nearly every track the top 3 NASCAR national touring series raced at had the SAFER barrier lining the corners and select walls at tracks by the end of 2004, NSCA had a much slower roll-out of the barriers at it's tracks, with SMI being especially behind on the installations. 367 days after his victory at Bristol Motor Speedway, Eddie Kline would partake in a tire test at Kentucky Speedway - one of the several tracks that still had unprotected walls as late as 2006 - that was closed to the public and only open to select media members. During the test Eddie's car would spin into the outside retaining wall of turns 1 & 2, and it was announced that he died on impact. As a result of the accident, NSCA did speed up the process of installing SAFER Barriers and took legal action against SMI due to their lack of speed on getting the barriers installed on their tracks, creating a rift between the two companies that is still felt to this day, even though both organizations have since continued to work together. In a tragic case of irony & coincidence, the next race for the Cup Series - the 7th of the season - was to held at Bristol Motor Speedway.

 

[jacobc62]

#57 | Harold MerGranger
Team: Queen City Racing
Rookie Season: 2000 (Debuted in 1999)
Starts: 546
Wins: 4
Top 5s: 47
Top 10s: 82

This isn't Harold MerGranger's first time in a Cup car, but it will be the first time he's been in a Cup car since 2016. In 1999, MerGranger made his Cup Series debut on a part-time basis, but went full-time starting in 2000. Due to funding issues, however, he wasn't able to run every race that season. Thankfully, the team secured enough funding to run the full season starting in 2001. However, the team was a backmarker, and Harold wanted a chance to compete closer at the front, so in 2005, he switched to Hendrick Motorsports. However, it was clear that not all of the equipment was equal at the time, and in many races, MerGranger was the odd man out when it came to running in great cars. He was able to overcome this, still earning 3 wins over the course of his 6 year tenure with the team. In 2011, he would switch again to a new team - one that was typically a mid-pack car - as his contract with Hendrick ended, and he wasn't able to secure an extension or a ride at any other, better opportunities. He would still out perform the equipment, eventually giving the team their first win in 2014. Unfortunately, an injury early on into the 2015 season saw him sit out for a majority of it, and by 2016, he only made a few starts before having to find a ride in the National Series. For 2023, he's back! After sacking their previous drivers - Alex Miller and Chase Marks - following a combined 24 DNQs in 2022, Queen City Racing needed new drivers. Those drivers? Dylan Maddox and Harold MerGranger. Unlike Maddox, who has prior backing from his time at Factory Dodge Autosport, a sponsor was needed for MerGranger. Luckily for the team, UPS was dropped by English Motorsports after only a single season, so the team was able to secure a full-season sponsorship from the delivery company.

 

[jacobc62]

#5 | Samuel Henson Jr.
Team: Hendrick Motorsports
Rookie Season: 2022
Starts: 32
Wins: 0
Top 5s: 0
Top 10s: 3

A year ago, I talked about how Samuel Henson Jr. was the first driver born in the 21st century to join the Cup Series. I also touched on how he raced for Eric Reinhardt Jr's team - at the time known as 2nd Chance Motorsports - and how Henson earned his racing experience with sim racing almost as much as he did with real life racing. Well, as it turns out that this new hot prospect didn't really amount to much in the grand scheme of things thus far. While his teammates were all championship threats at various points in the season and all finished in the top 10 in points, Henson Jr. would finish a dismal 26th. Now, you could theoretically say that was due to him driving a 4th Hendrick entry in the only season where a 4th entry for teams was allowed in recent memory. You could also just chock it up to bad luck in a rookie season. However, it was to the point where it seemed Hendrick Motorsports was going to ask John Mullen to reconsider retirement for another season and cut ties with Henson. Luckily for Sam, that didn't happen, and thus he will once again be behind the wheel of the #5 HMS Chevy. UniFirst and Microsoft will continue their sponsorship of Henson, and Axalta jumps aboard after Mullen's retirement.

 

[jacobc62]

#18 | Colin Fletcher
Team: Team PepsiCo Racing
Active Seasons: 1998-2013 (Debuted in 1997)
Starts: 563
Wins: 1 | 2008 Daytona 500 Champion

When it comes to all of the various types of tracks on the NSCA Cup Series circuit, Colin Fletcher certainly fit the "jack of all trades, master of none" archetype. No matter the team, no matter the equipment he was win, he would able to wheel his cars to consistent top 20 finishes week in and week out, with plenty of top 10s and even several top 5s to boot! After winning the 1995 CART championship, Fletcher made the switch to stock-car racing in the late 1990s and in 2003 would be the first driver to attempt the Indianapolis-Charlotte Double. However, that attempt would be cut short as he was injured in a wreck during the Indy 500 and wasn't able to race in the Coke 600 (or the race a week later). In 2007 he would try the Double again, this time completing both races and 1090.5 of the 1100 total miles. After 2013, he would retire, and began racing at local bullrings across the country.

Schemes:
2008 Pepsi - Kicking off the 2008 season, Colin Fletcher would earn his one and only Cup Series win in the biggest race of the season, the 50th running of the Daytona 500. The first race with the new COT car at a superspeedway saw close action, and a new style of racing called "tandem" drafting, though with as bumpy as the surface of Daytona was at the time, fans wouldn't see just how powerful Tandem Drafting was until Talladega later that year. In any case, Colin Fletcher was able to push Steven Phillips up to the front, only to then take the lead for himself coming off of turn 4 on the final lap.

2012 Pepsi - Rewinding just a step, Team PepsiCo had signed Colin to drive the team's flagship entry in 2006, the #18 Pepsi car, which Colin would drive until his retirement in 2013. The team had at one point 4 full-time entries at the peak of their running in the NSCA Cup Series - 2 of the other 3 we've already seen with Hunter Keero and Randy Carpenter - but by 2012, the team was in their twilight years and only had 3 entries. Whether that was due to the company beginning to slowly phase out of the sport, or from them spreading themselves too thin between their own race team and a partnership with Hendrick Motorsports.... No one truly knows. Critics of the team say that the environment within the team got too corporateized, an antithesis of what Pepsi's branding was usually about. In any case, I didn't really have anything for Colin's 2012 season here, so I figured I would give a slight bit of backstory/context as to why PepsiCo is no longer a thing in-universe. If anyone would like, I can always give some backstory to some of the teams that appear in the carset.

 

[jacobc62]

#82 | Brett Kenningberg
Team: Wolfpack Racing
Rookie Season: 2023 Rookie of the Year Contender

There's three things Brett Kenningberg loves: Chris Pratt movies, the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet (and by extension, Top Gun), and driving fast racecars. That last one he's been decent at despite being a relatively new driver in the NSCA scene, and with Fuli Hill's sudden departure from the Wolfpack Racing #82 entry, the team needed to fill that seat. Initially, the team was going to have Jason Williams drive the car - as evidenced by the fact that I still had him in the car for the teaser set as that was released prior to Brett's signing (though I for some reason labeled Jason as "Joshua" instead in the preview image, oops) - but sponsors stepped in and blocked the signing, and as a result Jason was set aside as a reserve driver instead. Why did sponsors prevent Wolfpack from signing Jason? No one knows. In any case, Brett Kenningberg was then given the opportunity to drive the team's flagship car, and the sponsors agreed to it. Those sponsors by the way? Walmart and Cheddar's.

 

[jacobc62]

#99 | William Montoya
Team: Ryals-Corbett Racing
Rookie Season: 2020
Starts: 55
Wins: 0
Top 5s: 2
Top 10s: 4

Ah, William Montoya..... Another victim of the Red Bull junior driver program...... After being signed to Red Bull Racing for the Cup Series in 2020, Montoya found himself dropped after only a single season. When Ricki Fawxson moved from Factory Dodge Autosport to Craigo Autosport for the 2021 season, William quickly secured that seat for himself. However, when Factory Dodge downsized to a single car operation for 2022, they stuck with their flagship #19 car, leaving Montoya out of a ride last year. Now, for 2023, he's another driver returning to the grid. With Austin Spencer exiting the sport and his team being sold to returning team owners Bryce Ryals and Kyle Corbett, they needed a driver to race the #99 car, and Montoya got the seat. Longtime partner of RCR, Fifth Third Bank, will be primary sponsor for the car, along with new sponsors in the form of Best Water Technology and Midas.

Fun Fact, by the way.... Ryals-Corbett Racing will technically be competing against itself in 2023! In an ironic twist of coincidence, when Ryals and Corbett sold their original team following their championship winning run in 2019, they had sold it to Red Bull - the very team that dropped Montoya just a year after RCR became RBR!

 

[jacobc62]

#95 | Fred McReilly
Team: McReilly Racing
Rookie Season: 2023 Rookie of the Year Contender

Nephew of George McReilly, Fred McReilly is looking to make his Cup Series debut in 2023, on a part-time basis driving for his family's team. While it's not known if this will turn into a full-time effort for everyone involved, or if it's to help Fred gain experience while also doing a soft audition for one of the other teams on the Cup Series grid, what is known is that George McReilly isn't involved with this move, which is odd considering how involved he was in Fred's junior series career so far. While it doesn't appear that the team will have a sponsor for most of the races they'll be attempting, GoPro will be aboard the #95 Dodge that Fred will attempt the Daytona 500 in.

 

[jacobc62]

#6 | George McReilly
Team: McReilly Racing
Active Seasons: 1991-2014
Starts: 798
Wins: 0

Speaking of George McReilly..... Another journeyman driver in the series, George never found victory lane in the Cup Series. Unlike some of the other non-winners that are part of the Legends sub-set of cars, however, he does hold a multitude of top 5s, the most of all drivers that you will see in the entire carset. He also is the most dominant driver of all time in the National Series, winning 5 championships and over 100 races in that series. A stern man, he drove for several teams during the 1990s, and at every one of them never got along with his teammates....... Or his own team..... It wasn't until he was released from Burlington Racing late in 2000 that he was forced to work on his people skills, as instead of trying to find a new ride, he would open his own team.

Schemes:
2002 Viagra & Pfizer - After making only 20 starts (attempting 26 races) on a partial schedule between the remaining races of 2000 and the entirety of 2001, McReilly Racing went full-time starting in 2002, with a lucrative sponsorship deal from Pfizer, advertising Viagra, Pfizer's line of erectile dysfunction treatment. However, when Pfizer came under fire due to an investigation from the FDA involving Viagra part way through the season, Pfizer for the duration replaced the Viagra decals on the #6 Dodge that George McReilly drove with generic Pfizer branding. After the investigation was concluded, the Viagra logos returned.

2006 AAA - After 2005, the deal with Pfizer ended, and the pharmaceutical company decided not to renew their sponsorship. MRR then turned to other companies to fund the 2006 season and beyond. The American Automobile Association, or AAA, signed on what was initially a 5-year contract to be the primary sponsor for the #6 team. However, after 2007, and with the expected results not being there like the team hoped, AAA left the team after only 2 years. After floundering for another two years after that, the team dipped down to the National Series, where they were able to build up an exceptional platform.

 

[jacobc62]

#90 | Brajan Stojanović
Team: RTD Motorsports
Rookie Season: 2023 Rookie of the Year Contender

The final rookie of the 2023 carset, Brajan Stojanović will step into the #90 Toyota as Eugene Demax steps away from the driver's seat to focus full-time on team ownership. One of the few drivers not from the United States to have risen up the ranks of American stock-car racing, Brajan has several accolades to his name, and looks to show what he can do behind the wheel of a Cup Series car. With Mountain Dew moving over to sponsor teammate Cody Haner, that just leaves Sport Clips and Sirius XM as sponsors of the Serbian driver.

 

[jacobc62]

#12 | Ian Wallace
Team: Team Penske
Rookie Season: 2022
Starts: 32
Wins: 1
Top 5s: 4
Top 10s: 8

I don't know what it is with rookies drivers winning at the Charlotte Roval, but in the three years that it was used, two of them were won by rookies. In 2020, it was Ricki Fawxson, then driving for Factory Dodge Autosport. Last year, it was Ian Wallace. The difference being, however, is that Ian being a rookie is only a formality, seeing as how he's not only a champion of the National Series, but also a V8 Supercars champion, a series that races exclusively on road courses and has similar cars to what the NSCA races. Regardless, Ian will continue to race in Team Penske's #12 car, and looks to improve on his 15th place point finish. After some sponsorship shuffling, Discount Tire becomes Wallace's primary sponsor, with Pennzoil moving over from the #22. Shell continues to promote their V-Power branding of fuels as well. In addition to the normal scheme, Pennzoil will also have a throwback scheme to the 25th anniversary since a similar livery was used in the old Japanese Super GT series.....

 

[jacobc62]

#99 | Dan Newford
Team: Copeland Racing
Active Seasons: 2004-2015 (Debuted in 2002, started full-time effort in 200
Starts: 433 | 2-time Daytona 500 Champion
Wins: 33


Mavis Daniel Newford came from a wealthy family, but did everything in his power to earn anything he owned rather than just relying on the fortune he was born into. After a rift formed between Dan and his parents as a result of this, he set off on his own to prove himself in the world of motorsports. Initially set on a course for Indycar, Dan was then brought into the fold of stock-car racing when Andrew Copeland - founder of Copeland Racing - was convinced by his driver at the time to take a chance on Dan. Put into the developmental pipeline, Daniel hit the ground running, though it wasn't smooth sailing. Daniel may have been charismatic, but he did have a temper, which would flash every now and then in the worst ways. In 2002, Dan would make 2 starts for his Cup Series debut racing for a smaller team that had an alliance with Copeland Racing, but he wouldn't get his big break until late into the 2003 season. The same driver that had convinced Copeland to sign Dan in the first place was let go from the team, and with Dan being the only other driver in the pipeline to have the experience in a Cup car, he was put into the car for the remainder of the season. As they say, the rest is history, and Dan Newford would race for Copeland Racing all the way until his sudden retirement at the end of the 2015 season.

Schemes:
2007 Office Depot - After a bit of a rotating cast of sponsorship throughout his first few seasons, Dan Newford landed a nice near-full season long sponsor in the form of Office Depot in 2007, a partnership that would last until 2011. 2007 also saw one of the most ballsiest moves attempted by a driver in Cup Series history, as on the final lap of the race at Kansas Speedway, Newford dove into turn 3 full-throttle past eventual winner Cody Llamas, attempting what many called a "video game move" at the time to win the race. Unfortunately, the move didn't work, and Newford slammed the wall in turn 4, resulting in a 3rd place finish. In 2009, Dan Newford won his first of two Daytona 500 victories.

2011 Aflac - In 2011, Office Depot left Copeland Racing for another team, however the team's other main sponsor - Aflac - stepped up to sponsor most of the season. That same year, Dan Newford became the first driver in All-Star Race history to win the event after being lapped earlier in the race due to a penalty. During the victory celebration, Newford spun his car into the grass on Charlotte's front stretch, hitting a drainage ditch and tearing the front end of his car completely off. He joked in Victory Lane later on how he wasn't intending on also becoming the second driver in ASR history that needed their car to be towed to Victory Lane. In 2013 - Aflac's last year as the primary sponsor - Newford kicked off the season with another Daytona 500 victory.

2014 Arris - 2014 saw massive changes for the Copeland Racing. They had switched away from Ford to Toyota. The car became a bright orange thanks to new primary sponsor Arris. The team as a whole also saw it's best opportunity to bring home a championship with Dan Newford. They came close, finishing 5th in standings. In 2015, Newford was once again in the fight for a championship, but in the last race of the season, was wrecked late into the race. The following January, he announced his immediate and sudden retirement from racing. To this day, no one knows exactly why Dan retired. In fact, unlike most drivers who say they're retiring only to either race in local series or on a limited basis, Newford seemed to completely go cold turkey to the racing world.....

Thank you everyone who viewed, liked, and commented on this carset showroom thread throughout it's 2 year existence. With it being already into the back half of 2023, there should be some stuff related to 2024 coming in the next few months or so. Hopefully..... Maybe...... It might not be for a little while, however. After all, I still got a season to run with these drivers!

 

[jacobc62]

Oh goody, Another season with a midway driver change, my favorite! /sarcasm

#44 | Cody Goforth
Team: Pathfinder Racing
Rookie Season: 2023 Rookie of the Year Contender

After being a team that wasn't known for hiring rookie drivers very often, Pathfinder Racing seems to be in a bit of a crisis when it comes to their future direction. 3 rookies in the span of 2 years isn't a great look, but Max O'Quinn hasn't been far off his teammates (most of the time), and Amie Walsh impressed during her time in the car. Speaking of Amie, she abruptly called it quits after only 7 races into the 2023 season, thus PFR's 3rd rookie driver Cody Goforth. As a result of the driver change, the team sees a shift in sponsorship as well. Gone are Nurtec ODT and Bojangles, and in come the US Army and Michelina's. Target and DXC Technology remain aboard the #44 with Goforth's foray into the Cup Series.

 

[jacobc62]

Alrighty, so before this thread gets nixed due to a lack of activity, I might as well begin posting stuff I've been working on for the past couple of months in tandem with running the 2023 season. And by "stuff" I really mean a full 43 car field of historic schemes and NSCA Legend drivers... "Legends" being somewhat loosely used for some drivers, whom have not had a high number of wins (or any wins at all), let alone any championships. Some exclusions are due to some outside factors... Either the drivers are too recent to include (their careers began in 2015 or later), or they're random characters from various webcomics that I shoehorned into the league just to fill a field (or in the case of a lucky few, the whole reason I'm doing this today) and don't want to include, or a driver may just have too similar of a story to one already included in the Legends set.....

.... This all said, of the top 20 drivers on my league's All-Time Winners list, 17 of them are included! And a full 20 of the top 20 on that list! In fact, all but 5 drivers I will be including in the 2024 Legends portion of the league set are race winners. Of the 5 that haven't won any races, three of them I've already included in the 2023 Legends mini-set. The other two are new additions that - while admittedly are thrown in more for convenience due to resources already being made - are still storied in their own right. Now when I say "43" drivers, I really mean 40 since I've once again included Hunter Keero, Jacob Craigo, and Cody Llamas despite it no longer being the decade celebration since I already had their stuff made and didn't just want it to be a one-and-done. Of course these three drivers are still racing in the 2024 season, but I did do some proper separation of their Legends schemes from their regular schemes, including bringing in-line their in-game numbers as well as a couple of other things.


Now then.... As per usual, here's the list of the full credits for the entire 2024 carset ( so that I don't have to copy/paste this in every individual post:
Templates:
-Chevy: FCRD & vadkuz, with Monte Carlo text from Sean Casto/SRD (Modified by me)
-Dodge: FCRD & vadkuz (Modified by me)
-Ford: FCRD & vadkuz (Modified by me)
-Toyota: FCRD, vadkuz, & KevinDesignIt on Twitter
-Pontiac: FCRD, vadkuz, Lefty & BER (Transferred from MENCS19 & BRGen6 templates to NCS22 template by me) (Modified by me)
-Mercedes: FCRD, vadkuz, & NCD Designs (Modified by me)
-Generic: FCRD, vadkuz, NCD Designs, James Hodge & BillA1947 (Modified by me)
Logos: BER, Masgrafx, SRD, Google, ModSquad, SDG, SHD, TN Designs, Stunod, Codemasters, iRacing and Myself
Numbers and Number Sets: BER, Masgrafx, SRD, NNRacing, and Stunod
Car Bases: Myself, Paint-By-RAH, Stunod, and Steven Merzlak
Drivers:
-Original Template: SnG
-Driver Face: CozyCat Studios (Modified and adapted by me)
-Helmet Parts: Lefty, Myself & Bobbyfly
Renders: Myself (unless otherwise stated), Scene modified from James Hodge's work....


And now for the usual introduction......

The National Stock-Car Association is the culmination of over 70 years of American motorsports ranging back all the way to the early post-war days in the late 1940's. Initially, it was the National Racer's Club in the north, the American Stock-Car Association in the south, and the West, the Automobile Racing Group of America. On the Eastern seaboard, it was a massive rivalry between the NRC and ASCA, while ARGA had been dominating the West uncontested. However, in the 1970s, the United States faced a massive oil crisis, seeing a major toll taken on the race teams of all three organizations. This led to the NRC and ASCA merging together, creating the NSCA in 1975. Meanwhile, ARGA barely scraped by and restructured itself into the American Stock-Car Racing Club, or ASCRC for short, and became a starting point for many of today's top stock-car drivers.

With 2024 being it's 49th season since it's inception in 1975 and inaugural season in 1976, the NSCA's top level of competition - the NSCA Cup Series - is amidst a thrilling 2023 season. While not every race has been a barn burner, there has been plenty of action on track! New winners and front runners are now mixing it up with the best of the field. While Hunter Keero currently leads the points with 12 of the 30 races complete (as of posting this), that can still quickly change with how wide-open the new Next-Gen car has made the blanket of those who can win week in and week out. But even with the season reaching it's mid-point, there's still plenty of action heading into 2024.......


..... A new team will be formed through a 3-way merger between Ryals-Corbett Racing, Douglass Racing, and Gantry-Kingsmen Racing. This new three-car team will be known as Pakt 3 Racing (branded as PKT 3 Racing), and will become new OEM Mercedes' first 3-car team in the NSCA Cup Series. Likewise, McLaren Racing is selling their NSCA team to Konnorsport, who look to expand their world-wide racing efforts following a successful foray into Formula 1 and WEC. As always, the fluctuating Driver Market has brought about the usual Silly Season shenanigans, with teams like Bishop Family Racing and others to figure out their driver lineups by the time the 2024 season begins. 2024 looks to continue an upward trend that the series seems to be on, who will we see come out on top?


But before all of that, we begin with a bit of a history lesson.....

#3 | Eric Reinhardt
Team: Burlington Racing
Seasons: 25 (22 Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 1979-2001 (Debuted in 1977)
Starts: 621
Wins: 76 | 1998 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 5 (1982, 1986, 1987, 1990, & 1993 )
Top 5s: 135
Top 10s: 196
First Race: 1977 Charlotte 400
Last Race: 2001 Daytona 500

Just like last year, we're starting off with Eric Reinhardt, My league's lore/history is filled with drivers that range from "unique and not based on anyone in particular", such as Randy Carpenter to "Is literally just a stand-in for a real life counterpart with maybe a couple of changed statistics". As you might've guessed by looking at the stats for Eric Reinhardt, he is my Dale Sr. stand-in, and had a pretty similar career, albeit with only 5 championships to his credit compared to Earnhardt's 7. Sadly, existing in a fictional alternate-history world doesn't spare Eric from sharing Dale's fate in the 2001 Daytona 500, a tragedy that NASCAR has been able to prevent from further happening in real life for it's top 3 nationally-touring series......

Schemes:
1. 1984 Wrangler - After winning the 1982 championship, Eric Reinhardt's team owner sold off the team for a quick buck, leaving the young champion to scramble just to stay in the sport he loved. After taking a mid-field ride in 1983 just to remain afloat, he got the call up to join Burlington Racing - owned by former driver Nelson Burlington - and drive the #3 for 1984 onwards. And as they say, the rest was history. 4 more championships, countless wins, and the 1998 Daytona 500 all started here with this scheme.

2. 1995 Goodwrench (All-Star Race) - While the 1992 Winston may have been "One Hot Night" in real life, that honor didn't happen in the NSCA universe until 1995. Thus, Burlington and Reinhardt decided to run a special "reverse" scheme to make it an even more special occasion. Series title sponsor Clayton Cigarettes even joined in by becoming the title sponsor for the race, too. Previously, the race was just called the "Winner's Classic", but in 1995 all the way to 2003, it would be called "The Clayton". Reinhardt would win up finishing in 3rd behind Evan Miller and Wayne Jefferson.

3. 1998 Goodwrench (Daytona 500) - C'mon..... How could I not include this scheme when expanding the number of historic schemes to recreate? We all know the TV call of the finish: "20 years of trying....." With an expansion of the Goodwrench brand that came about late in 1997, GM decided to plaster it across the hood of Eric Reinhardt's #3 car. Unlike Dale, however, it was a hard-fought battle for the win, and there was no caution to race back to.

4. 1998 Coca-Cola (Japan) - After the 1998 season concluded, many of the teams traveled to the land of the rising sun for the 3rd annual exhibition event at the Suzuka Circuit. Unlike previous years, however, Reinhardt would be ditching his famous black and silver for Candy Red and Black instead, as Coca-Cola was the sponsor for his #3 Chevy. Not only that, but he also would be competing against his son, Eric Reinhardt Jr in the #1 car, also sponsored by Coca-Cola. The younger driver would prevail, finishing 7th while the elder Reinhardt would finish 11th.

5. 2000 Goodwrench (Clayton 500) - The first of the two schemes returning from the 2022 set, this one has had it's history explained before.... For the lazy (or forgetful): Eric Reinhardt shares his real-life counterpart's final win at Talladega on October 15th, 2000 - exacty 22 years ago at time of posting. Coming from 18th and charging to the front in only 7 laps was something few could ever do, and Reinhardt was one of the few to pull it off. Taking no prisoners, and giving no quarter, Eric was able to edge out Wayne Foster after getting a push from Trace Legacy in the final run to the line.

6. 2001 Goodwrench (Daytona 500) - In 2001, the NSCA community was beginning to see a transition into a new era. With new broadcast partners and the excitement of a new season ahead, the world watched as Eric would finish in 4th in the Bud Shootout.... Unbeknownst to the racing world at the time, this would be the final time he would ever see the checkered flag..... And well all know the reason why. The final ever car Reinhardt would race. Trailing behind his son on the final lap, holding back everyone he could so Eric Jr could try and pass Randy Carpenter for the win. Contact running through turns 3 and 4 sent the #3 head-on into the outside wall, collecting the #36 of Ronald Webb...... (continued in a later driver's story)

 

[jacobc62]

#15 | Jack Metoria
Team: Burlington Racing
Seasons: 15 (14 Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 2001-2015
Starts: 475
Wins: 10 | 2007 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 68
Top 10s: 95
First Race: 2001 Subway 400
Last Race: 2015 Quaker State 400

(continued from Eric Reinhardt's 2001 scheme...) .... The news announced in the early hours of Monday left the racing world in mourning. While there were debates on if the team would continue to press on, the decision was made to at least try. Going forward, however, the car would never look the same as it once did. Jack Metoria, a somewhat unknown driver from California, was brought up from Burlington Racing's National Series program. No one would've faulted him - let alone the team - from having bad runs early on in the season. As the NSCA Cup Series grid rolled into Rockingham just 4 days after the tragic ending to the Daytona 500, no one knew what the future was going to hold. But in the end, the driver move brought success, including the organization's 3rd Daytona 500 in 2007. However, in the 2010-2011 seasons, the team saw behind-the-scenes struggles. With the health of it's owner failing, the team that was once a championship contender would wind up closing at the conclusion of the 2011 Cup Series season. jack Metoria would find a ride elsewhere to continue racing. Unfortunately, he would wind up suffering a career-ending injury during the 2015 Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, a wreck many point to was the final straw in a long line of issues that led to the NSCA never again returning to that track.

Schemes:
2001 Goodwrench v2 - Gone was the (in)famous black and silver #3. In it's place was a ghostly white #15. As Burlington Racing arrived in Rockingham, there were no expectations. No fanfare. Metoria wasn't even expecting to be racing the rest of the 2001 season in Cup. The chassis itself wasn't even one that was initially setup for Rockingham, but instead Charlotte for the All-Star race in May. Qualifying deep in the field, Metoria would work his was through the field to finish in a respectable 16th place at Rockingham. A week later in Las Vegas, he would almost notch his first top 10, finishing 12th......

2001 Goowrench v3 - .... At teams rolled into Atlanta, Burlington Racing brought in their first car that was built specifically for Metoria and not an already prepared chassis. With a new scheme, now a bold red accompanying the white and a slightly tweaked number styling, the team once again would find themselves having to work hard come raceday after another deep-field qualifying effort. However, at the site of what was meant to be the first of only 5 intended part-time starts that year, Jack Metoria would shock the racing world and take his first career win in only his 3rd Cup start, edging out eventual champion Wayne Jefferson in a photo finish.

2003 Goodwrench - As time passed and the racing world healed from the loss of Eric Reinhardt, Metoria and the #15 Burlington Racing team continued to race. Now in the 4th different Goodwrench scheme in just 3 years, Metoria saw his best statistical season while in the #15 car. 4 wins, 18 Top 10s, and a points finish of 4th. However the young driver would also find himself in a spot of trouble, having run-ins with George McReilly, Evan Miller, his teammate Clint Kelly, among others. It was beginning to become clear that he had a bit of an over-inflated ego and a chip on his shoulder. In the following few years, he would get humbled both on and off the track, not scoring any wins from 2004 through 2006.

2007 Shell/Pennzoil - After Goodwrench's curtain call at the end of the 2006 season, Jack Metoria had a new sponsor for 2007, and the expectation of winning was immediately felt across the whole team. And in the first race of the season, the 2007 Daytona 500, the team did just that, in yet another thrilling photo finish. However, this would wind up being Metoria's penultimate win with Burlington Racing, as the team overall begain to see a downturn in performance that year.

2011 Budweiser - In 2011, Shell/Pennzoil left the team and in came Budweiser. As mentioned earlier, this would wind up being Burlington Racing's final year as an organization due to a variety of factors, the main one being the owner's health failing. Despite this, Jack Metoria would get one last clutch win with the team - his 8th career win overall - late in the season. A last hurah before everyone went their separate ways. For Metoria, he would move on to another team and race there until his career ending crash in 2015, with Budweiser following him to that team.

 

[jacobc62]

#56 | Elana Mullen
Team: Prince Racing
Seasons: 11 (None Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 1981-1989 (Debuted in 1979)
Starts: 192
Wins: 3 | 1985 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 18
Top 10s: 26
First Race: 1979 Atlanta 500
Last Race: 1989 Talladega Winn Dixie 500

Elana Mullen wasn't the first female driver to participate in a Cup Series event.... Hell, she wasn't even the first female driver to win a race! However, that hasn't stopped many of today's female drivers from naming Elana Mullen and her story as what inspired them to become a racecar driver. Elana didn't come from South-Centeral Nowhere though. Born as Elana Krenic in 1957, Her father was a mechanic for one of the NRC's open-wheel series teams. Having been around racing pretty much all her life because of this, Elana eventually began racing in her late teens. It wasn't easy, after all this is 1970's America we're talking about. Elana had to practically fight for every opportunity she got early on in her career. Once she entered in the Sportsman division, however, things changed. She began to win races and consistently run up front each race. After a couple of years, she tried to break through into the Cup Series, with limited success. She did have to take a break in 1980, however, as by this point, she had met Zachary Mullen (who competed in NHRA drag racing), married him, and together had a child - John Mullen, whom would go on to have success in the Cup Series himself..... Afterwards, while Elana wouldn't compete in every race each season, she would race what was more or less considered full-time from 1981 through to 1988. While she would run in the back half of the top 10 in most races, it seemed like that's where she would stay. After all, this is the same time period in which Eric Reinhardt, Homer Parsley, Chandler Riles, and a slew of other more dominant and successful drivers were all competing as well. No one would've thought that Elana would win a race in her career, even though she clearly had the talent to race. She would eventually break through, winning the 1985 Daytona 500. Over the course of the next couple of seasons, she was able to earn another two victories. Unfortunately, Elana would be killed in a crash at Talladega in 1989, cutting short what many would've considered a successful career.....

Schemes:
1985 7-Eleven - In 1985's season-opening Daytona 500, Elana Mullen would become the first female driver to win the biggest event in all of stock-car racing, and to this day is the only female driver to have done so. Today, a multitude of female drivers compete on a weekly basis, and as mentioned earlier, attribute Elana Mullen as the reason they started racing. Elana's son, John Mullen, would not only become a Cup Series driver himself, but also managed to get his own Daytona 500 victory, and a Cup Series championship to boot during his career. While it is generally agreed that while Elana might not have ever been a champion of the sport herself, it is agreed that she does have something a lot of other drivers don't: A legacy in the sport that is continued even to this day..... The scheme presented for her in the Legends sub-set is the one she drove for most of the 1985 season, including that Daytona 500 victory.

 

[jacobc62]

#42 | Jerry Walker
Team: Chuck Rinsci Racing
Seasons: 33 (32 Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 1977-2008 (Debuted in 1976)
Starts: 936
Wins: 0 (Best Finish: 2nd)
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 273
Top 10s: 362
First Race: 1976 Wilkes County 400
Last Race: 2008 Ford 400

While he never had any victories in the Cup Series, Jerry Walker does have the longest career of any driver in Cup Series History, which earned him a spot in the Legend Drivers section. As you can imagine, he drove for a plethora of teams, and even at times was a teammate to a few other Legends drivers that will be mentioned here! Despite having drove for several teams throughout the 1990s, Jerry Walker had picked up a lucrative sponsorship deal with the Coors Brewing Company, which made him a very sought-after driver despite his usual not-quite-top-10 finishes. In 1998, he would wind up at WADCO Racing, driving the at-the-time infamous #42 Chevy, the flagship car for the organization. However, in late 2000 Chuck Rinsci of Endurance and Champcar fame stepped in and bought a majority stake of the team, thus transforming it into "Chuck Rinsci Racing With Mickey Wraites". It was there that Walker would race until his retirement.

Schemes:
2001 Coors Light - In addition to the mouthful of a team name, the CRR also switched to the new Dodge platform for 2001, and Walker's sponsor switched their branding on the #42 car from Coors to Coors Light. With it, a new metallic silver scheme was unveiled, immediately dubbed the Silver Bullet. However, despite the build up of excitement for the season, it started as a hellscape, especially for Jerry Walker. Just like in real life with Sterling Marlin, Walker's and Eric Reinhardt's car made the smallest bit of contact in turns 3 and 4 of the Daytona 500, which may have contributed to Reinhardt's fatal wreck. And just like with Marlin again, Walker faced many of the same problems in the following weeks - including but not limited to death threats - to the point where Eric Reinhardt Jr had to step in and tell the fans to stop. Despite all of the negativity surrounding the early part of the 2001 season, the team - and Walker - soldiered on.

2003 Target - In 2003, Jerry saw a change in sponsorship as Coors moved to a teammate. Target jumped aboard the #42, a partnership that would last beyond the rest of Jerry's career. For Walker, 2003 was his best statistical season, with 11 top 5s and 16 top 10s. However, about the only stat block where he wasn't at his best was his points finish, which was 16th. Normally, his finishes of roughly 11th-20th would allow him to sneak into the top 10 in points sometimes, but the consistency shown by many of the top drivers that year relegated him down further than he would've liked.

2008 Target - In his later years of racing, many fans had noticed that Walker was edging closer to the near-mythical count of 1000 starts, a feat no other driver had come anywhere close to. Much of the NSCA community - fans, competitors, and even Walker himself - wanted to see him reach the milestone, but unfortunately Jerry's increased age and declining health all but forced him to retire from racing at the age of 64 at the end of the 2008 season. To date, no driver is anywhere near touching Walker's record of starts. The next closest driver would be Randy Carpenter, who has 88 less starts at 848.

2001 Chuck Rinsci Racing - As the world entered the 21st century, and the NSCA was thrust into the forefront of American culture, naturally it saw a rise in merchandise and licensing deals for it to appear in other aspects that shaped how fans interacted with the sport. Enter the realm of video games. As developers and publishers such as Papyrus and EA Sports started to delve into making NSCA racing games, the obvious appeal to kids made it clear that if you wanted to sell a game to everybody, you couldn't have any tobacco or alcohol branding in your game, thus game publishers (and die-cast car creators) had to work with teams that had "adult" products as sponsors to create alternative, kid-friendly/censored cars to avoid any potential issues. As Chuck Rinsci Racing was one such team, they opted to just have the team logo replace the Coors branding for their 2001 #42 car (and later the 2003 #41 car).

 

[jacobc62]

#6 | George McReilly
Team: McReilly Racing
Seasons: 24 (22 Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 1991-2014
Starts: 798
Wins: 0 (Best Finish: 2nd)
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 417
Top 10s: 528
First Race: 1991 Daytona 500
Last Race: 2014 Ford Ecoboost 400

One of the many journeyman drivers in the Legends set, George McReilly never found victory lane in the Cup Series. Unlike some of the other non-winners that are part of the Legends sub-set of cars, however, he does hold a multitude of top 5s, more than most if not all of the drivers that you will see in the entire carset. He also is the most dominant driver of all time in the National Series, winning 5 championships and over 100 races in that series. A stern man, he drove for several teams during the 1990s, and at every one of them never got along with his teammates....... Or his own team..... It wasn't until he was released from Burlington Racing late in 2000 that he was forced to work on his people skills, as instead of trying to find a new ride, he would open his own team.

Schemes:
2002 Viagra - After making only 20 starts (attempting 26 races) on a partial schedule between the remaining races of 2000 and the entirety of 2001, McReilly Racing went full-time starting in 2002, with a lucrative sponsorship deal from Pfizer, advertising Viagra, Pfizer's line of erectile dysfunction treatment. Ever since the announcement, many jokes had arisen due to the partnership, even some are still made to this day.....

2002 Pfizer - However, mid-way through the 2002 season, Pfizer came under fire due to an investigation from the FDA involving Viagra. Pfizer for the duration of the investigation replaced the Viagra decals on the #6 Dodge that George McReilly drove with generic Pfizer branding. After the investigation was concluded, the Viagra logos returned.

2006 AAA - After 2005, the deal with Pfizer ended, and the pharmaceutical company decided not to renew their sponsorship. The team then turned to other companies to fund the 2006 season and beyond. The American Automobile Association, or AAA, signed on what was initially a 5-year contract to be the primary sponsor for the #6 team. However, after 2007, and with the expected results not being there like the team hoped, AAA left the team after only 2 years. After floundering for another two years after that, the team dipped down to the National Series, where they were able to build up an exceptional platform.

2002 George McReilly - As the world entered the 21st century, and the NSCA was thrust into the forefront of American culture, naturally it saw a rise in merchandise and licensing deals for it to appear in other aspects that shaped how fans interacted with the sport. Enter the realm of video games. As developers and publishers such as Papyrus and EA Sports started to delve into making NSCA racing games, the obvious appeal to kids made it clear that if you wanted to sell a game to everybody, you couldn't have any tobacco or alcohol branding in your game, thus game publishers (and die-cast car creators) had to work with teams that had "adult" products as sponsors to create alternative, kid-friendly/censored cars to avoid any potential issues. As McReilly Racing was one such team, they opted to replace not just the Viagra branding but also the Pfizer branding with George's name. In 2003, the team did switch to using Pfizer's logos on all kid-friendly mediums, though on packaging text and when the car was talked about in video games, it was still referred to as the "George McReilly" car.

 

[jacobc62]

#91 | Marc Ivenetti
Team: Junior Robertson & Associates
Seasons: 1 (None full-time)
Active Seasons: None (Debuted in 1976)
Starts: 1
Wins: 1 | 1976 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
First Race: 1976 Daytona 500
Last Race: 1976 Daytona 500

It was 1975. The American Stock-Car Association and the National Racer's Club sporting bodies had just announced an immediate merger to form the NSCA. At the conclusion of the 1975 season, the NRC American Open Wheel series would be spun off into it's own league - the Indy Racing League - as many loyalists who either outright hated stock-car racing, or otherwise didn't want a sanctioning body that focused primarily on stock-car racing to run an open wheel series. This was for a variety of reasons, ranging from not wanting to be number 2 to a "lesser" series all the way to fearing that their type of racing would be killed off by the NSCA or worse sold off to the goons running Formula 1. Thus, the sanctioning body that would eventually turn into worldwide phenom Indycar was born. One prominent racing family that took up racing in the NRC AOW series were the Ivenettis. Born to Italian immigrants and racing under the Italian flag, Marc Ivenetti fell in love with racing at a young age, and would break through into the lower divisions of the NRC ladder shortly afterwards. Unlike most of the others who competed, Marc was more open-minded when it came to different forms of motorsports, even making a few starts in the ASCA Sportsman division during off-weekends from his primary focus. When the NSCA and IRL were formed, Marc was pressured to "choose sides" as it were, and eventually agreed to go full-time as an Indycar driver.

Schemes:
1976 Holly Farms (Daytona 500) - When signing the agreement to race in the Indy Racing League, however, Marc made it clear he wanted to at the very least show some goodwill to the stock-car community as a send off before committing to his open wheel duties, stating that he fully intended on racing in the 1976 Daytona 500. Now something you need to know about Marc was that he was a wheelman. If it had 4 wheels, he could win in it, it didn't matter if it was a brick or a literal airplane. Well by golly, somehow in the end, in what would wind up being his only career start, Marc Ivenetti won that inaugural Cup Series race on a cold February morning. He would spend the next 4 years racing in the IRL before moving on to Formula 1, where he would go on to win back-to-back championships in 1982 and 1983 before eventually returning to the States in 1987 to focus on Indycar racing.