One of the most awaited weekends in NASCAR will soon arrive. The spring visit to the Darlington Raceway is annually celebrated as Throwback Weekend. Drivers decorate their cars with schemes from yesteryear to remember NASCAR’s glorious past. Recently, Chase Elliott lifted the covers on how his No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro will look this time.
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Surprisingly, fans were too displeased with the scheme. The car will be sponsored by UniFirst and pay homage to the No. 25 Kodiak Chevrolet that the iconic Ken Schrader ran for Hendrick Motorsports in 1994.
The problem is that nobody could quite figure this out unless it was mentioned explicitly. That’s not the outcome a team would hope for on Throwback Weekend.
Famous YouTuber Eric Estepp wrote about the scheme on X, “I literally saw the Elliott car and wondered what on earth it was supposed to be throwing it back to. Wild they missed it that bad.” Fans rallied under his post to express their dissatisfaction. One comment said, “Calling it meh is offensive to meh things.”
I literally saw the Elliott car and wondered what on earth it was supposed to be throwing it back to.
Wild they missed it that bad. https://t.co/4YPUSbX2k8
— Eric Estepp (@EricEstepp17) March 25, 2025
Another declared, “Honestly? I am less than impressed, honestly.” Schrader drove for Hendrick from 1988 to 1996. He earned four wins and 17 pole position starts during this time. In 1994, he finished fourth on the points table with nine top-5 and 18 top-10 finishes. These records did nothing to mellow down the backlash.
One fan noted, “This is… disappointing. Could have been great, but UniFirst won’t change their colors. They also missed on the layout too. Bad all around.” The colors are likely final and cannot be changed any longer. However, a fan had a solution. They wrote, “Ooof that’s god awful. Burn it.”
Jeff Gordon stands behind Elliott after a slow start to 2025
Elliott must have thought that he would easily reach victory lane in the 2025 Cup Series season after winning the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium last month. But the first six races of the year haven’t exactly gone according to plan. He sits sixth on the points table, last among his teammates. Also, he has led only two laps since the season began.
Gordon, the vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, expects a lot more from Elliott, just like fans do. He spoke about the same after the 18th-place finish at Homestead-Miami last Sunday.
He said, “If you’re not achieving what you want to achieve, then you know you’ve got to go to work. And you know that you’re not meeting expectations.”
“So those guys have high expectations, Alan [Gustafson], Chase. It’s not unusual for them to get down a little bit on, ‘Hey, this isn’t good enough?’ But I’ve seen them react really well and positively to that too.”
He believes that the No. 9 team has what it takes to turn things around. The most immediate opportunity for that will come at Martinsville this weekend.
