#8/#88 | Eric Reinhardt Jr.
Teams: Eric Reinhardt Inc. & All-Star Motorsports
Seasons: 19 (17 full-time)
Active Seasons: 2000-2016 (Debuted in 1998)
Starts: 596
Wins: 27 | 2-time Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
First Race: 1998 UAW-GM Quality 500
Last Race: 2016 Ford Ecoboost 400
Son of the legendary Eric Reinhardt, and the third-generation in the line of racers in the Reinhardt family, Eric Jr. has much to live up to. Following his father's death in the 2001 Daytona 500, Eric seemed almost lost in his way. But after coming back to Daytona in July and edging out teammate Cole Donnovan in what was then known as the Pepsi 400, Eric Jr seemed to begin healing mentally. It was Jr's first win since Atlanta the previous fall, and his first top 5 of the 2001 season after his 2nd place finish at Daytona in February. On the fanbase side of things, many of Sr's fans came to follow Jr as well, supporting him as much as they did the elder Reinhardt.
Schemes:
2001 Budweiser - The course of the 2001 season was a mixture of triumph and tragedy. The sport lost it's biggest star at the time, but almost lost in the sea of news that followed the 2001 Daytona 500 was that a son had lost his father. It took a while for Eric Reinhardt Jr to move past it, even after his victory when the NSCA returned to Daytona in July. But once he regained traction, he moved forward, and moved forward quickly.
2004 Budweiser (Daytona 500) - Reinhardt Jr. picked up several wins throughout the early-mid 2000s, and this included the 2004 Daytona 500, where he led 34 of the 200 laps. Driving a special paint scheme, Eric was able to capitalize on what was a race of attrition, where only 18 of the 43 drivers finished the event, and only 6 of those were on the lead lap.
2007 Budweiser - Unfortunately, many good things come and pass, and this included Eric Jr.'s time at the team his father had founded. Behind the scenes, things took a turn for the downhill. Eric Reinhardt Inc. was facing serious financial issues, even with some big names sponsorship-wise backing the team. After a difference in opinion on how to save the team with his team owner and step-mother, Eric left the team to try and find his own way, landing at Chuck Rinsci Racing for 2008.
2009 Amp Energy - Eric's tenure at CRR would be short lived, however, as All-Star Motorsports would pick up Jr for 2009, and where he would remain until he retired from full-time racing after the 2016 season. His first year at All-Star wouldn't be all that great. Whether it was due to a lack of self confidence, not-so-great equipment, bad crew chief decisions, or just pure bad luck, Jr would find himself outside the top 20 in points at season's end that year while his teammates would finish 2-3-4.
2010 National Guard - Between 2009 and 2010, several changes were made at All-Star to try and get all 4 teams to fire on all cylinders, and to the team's credit, it almost worked. While the team as a whole took a few steps back in terms of performance, it was Jr's team that saw forward progress despite this, finishing 14th in points and just barely missing the Chase. Over the course of the next 3 years afterwards, the #88 team continued to make steps forward.
2013 Diet Mountain Dew - Following the 2011 season, PepsiCo began yet another restructuring of the Amp Energy brand, which included bringing it back under the Mountain Dew fold like it was initially prior to 2006, and as a result, Eric Jr. saw the number of races with the Amp Energy logo on the hood cut down to just a few races. In it's place, Diet Dew was adorned on the now silver and green Chevy driven by the third generation driver, becoming yet another driver (kinda) in a long list of those who have driven the Dew colors proper. Despite 2013 being yet another winless season - his 4th of the 5 seasons he had raced at All-Star Motorsports up to that point - it would wind up being the closest he would come to winning a championship while in the #88.
2001 Eric Jr. - 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 Eric Reinhardt Inc. was one of those teams, a creative use of the Budweiser name font was used to instead display Eric Jr.'s name on the car in Budweiser's place. Due to criticism over people feeling the logo was "too close" to looking like Bud's, the team switched to using Jr's personal branding in 2003, and switched it again in 2005 to just the team branding.
(ignore the fact that the #88 cars still have the Hendrick logo on them, they were updated after I rendered them)
Teams: Eric Reinhardt Inc. & All-Star Motorsports
Seasons: 19 (17 full-time)
Active Seasons: 2000-2016 (Debuted in 1998)
Starts: 596
Wins: 27 | 2-time Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
First Race: 1998 UAW-GM Quality 500
Last Race: 2016 Ford Ecoboost 400
Son of the legendary Eric Reinhardt, and the third-generation in the line of racers in the Reinhardt family, Eric Jr. has much to live up to. Following his father's death in the 2001 Daytona 500, Eric seemed almost lost in his way. But after coming back to Daytona in July and edging out teammate Cole Donnovan in what was then known as the Pepsi 400, Eric Jr seemed to begin healing mentally. It was Jr's first win since Atlanta the previous fall, and his first top 5 of the 2001 season after his 2nd place finish at Daytona in February. On the fanbase side of things, many of Sr's fans came to follow Jr as well, supporting him as much as they did the elder Reinhardt.
Schemes:
2001 Budweiser - The course of the 2001 season was a mixture of triumph and tragedy. The sport lost it's biggest star at the time, but almost lost in the sea of news that followed the 2001 Daytona 500 was that a son had lost his father. It took a while for Eric Reinhardt Jr to move past it, even after his victory when the NSCA returned to Daytona in July. But once he regained traction, he moved forward, and moved forward quickly.
2004 Budweiser (Daytona 500) - Reinhardt Jr. picked up several wins throughout the early-mid 2000s, and this included the 2004 Daytona 500, where he led 34 of the 200 laps. Driving a special paint scheme, Eric was able to capitalize on what was a race of attrition, where only 18 of the 43 drivers finished the event, and only 6 of those were on the lead lap.
2007 Budweiser - Unfortunately, many good things come and pass, and this included Eric Jr.'s time at the team his father had founded. Behind the scenes, things took a turn for the downhill. Eric Reinhardt Inc. was facing serious financial issues, even with some big names sponsorship-wise backing the team. After a difference in opinion on how to save the team with his team owner and step-mother, Eric left the team to try and find his own way, landing at Chuck Rinsci Racing for 2008.
2009 Amp Energy - Eric's tenure at CRR would be short lived, however, as All-Star Motorsports would pick up Jr for 2009, and where he would remain until he retired from full-time racing after the 2016 season. His first year at All-Star wouldn't be all that great. Whether it was due to a lack of self confidence, not-so-great equipment, bad crew chief decisions, or just pure bad luck, Jr would find himself outside the top 20 in points at season's end that year while his teammates would finish 2-3-4.
2010 National Guard - Between 2009 and 2010, several changes were made at All-Star to try and get all 4 teams to fire on all cylinders, and to the team's credit, it almost worked. While the team as a whole took a few steps back in terms of performance, it was Jr's team that saw forward progress despite this, finishing 14th in points and just barely missing the Chase. Over the course of the next 3 years afterwards, the #88 team continued to make steps forward.
2013 Diet Mountain Dew - Following the 2011 season, PepsiCo began yet another restructuring of the Amp Energy brand, which included bringing it back under the Mountain Dew fold like it was initially prior to 2006, and as a result, Eric Jr. saw the number of races with the Amp Energy logo on the hood cut down to just a few races. In it's place, Diet Dew was adorned on the now silver and green Chevy driven by the third generation driver, becoming yet another driver (kinda) in a long list of those who have driven the Dew colors proper. Despite 2013 being yet another winless season - his 4th of the 5 seasons he had raced at All-Star Motorsports up to that point - it would wind up being the closest he would come to winning a championship while in the #88.
2001 Eric Jr. - 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 Eric Reinhardt Inc. was one of those teams, a creative use of the Budweiser name font was used to instead display Eric Jr.'s name on the car in Budweiser's place. Due to criticism over people feeling the logo was "too close" to looking like Bud's, the team switched to using Jr's personal branding in 2003, and switched it again in 2005 to just the team branding.
(ignore the fact that the #88 cars still have the Hendrick logo on them, they were updated after I rendered them)