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William Byron's retro 'Days of Thunder' ride is the best paint scheme of the NASCAR season
A few years ago, NASCAR went back to its roots, embracing retro paint schemes for a throwback celebration held every Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway. The annual blast from the past was an immediate hit with drivers and fans alike, proving to be one of the illest, coolest, raddest, and grooviest—depending on your era of choice—stops on the Monster Energy Cup Series calendar. For the throwback weekend's fifth year, NASCAR's big guns have rolled out some seriously solid liveries, but none better than William Byron's #24 City Chevrolet, an incredible tip of the visor to Cole Trickle's iconic Days of Thunder whip. Let's drop the hammer, shall we?
Not only the best paint scheme on the grid this year, Byron's lemon-lime beauty is probably the best in the brief history of Darlington throwbacks, effortlessly adapting Trickle's wall-hugging swagger to the modern Chevy bodywork. Ryan Newman's #6 Oscar Mayer Mustang and Chase Elliot's touching tribute to his dad certainly give the ol' two-four a run for the checkers, but you really can't argue with Byron's epic echo of stock-car Top Gun.
You can catch Byron's Trickle tribute, not to mention the rest of NASCAR's retro rides, on display for the 70th running of the Bojangles 500 on Sunday, September 1st at 6 p.m. In the meantime, we eagerly await the announcement of a Days of Thunder reboot, which feels about as inevitable as a Martin Truex Jr. - Kyle Busch 1-2 at Watkins Glen this weekend.