Dale Earnhardt Jr. Breaks Silence on Carson Hocevar’s Dale Sr. Darlington Throwback Paint Scheme

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr. has shared his thoughts on Carson Hocevar’s Throwback paint scheme honoring Dale Sr.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Breaks Silence on Carson Hocevar’s Dale Sr. Darlington Throwback Paint Scheme

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carson Hocevar (via imago)

One of the strangest decision NASCAR made for the 2026 season was end of Darlington throwback weekend. It’s no longer mandatory for teams to have throwback scheme for the race week. Some teams though are still using the week to honor racing legends. Spire Motorsports and Carson Hovecar are one of them.

They are set to use the iconic blue and yellow paint scheme used by Dale Eranhardt Sr. in the 1981 season, honoring the seven times Cup Series champion. On the latest episode of his podcast, Dale Ernhardt Jr. shared his thoughts on his No:77 Chevy car and highlighted how it was one of the most underrated cars driven by his dad.

This is my favorite Dale Earnhardt paint scheme. t’s the 1981 car and it gets no love because ’81 was a lost year. The car is underrated. That yellow nose with those old vintage stripes is just, in my opinion, straight bada*s vintage.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on his podcast.

Further talking about the point, he recalled the time his close friend Martin Truex Jr. once using the same scheme. It was a moment that made his mad, cause Bono Manion designed the scheme, making it a blue-nosed car instead of yellow as it should be. Spire hasn’t made the mistake, and Junior is happy about it.

We ran it on Martin Truex’s car at Darlington when he won the championship in the Chance 2 deal. I was so pissed off…He pulls out on the racetrack to do his pace laps, and they’ve got blue tape on the valance. And so, it’s a yellow nose. I don’t know why that’s hilarious to me today that I was so annoyed by that, but I was madder than hell that Bono Manion had put blue tape on valance of the yellow-nosed race car. I wanted yellow.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. added via Dale Jr. Download.

Carson Hocevar shares his thoughts on the paint-scheme

The No:77 Chevy driver is seen as the next Dale Sr. by many. So, the scheme makes a lot of sense. Talking about it, Hocevar admitted that the crew did solid job with the design and making the car as close to the original as possible.

Carson Hocevar
Carson Hocevar (Via @CarsonHocevar/X)

Chili’s always knocks it out of the park with their suit and car designs, and the Marg Machine is no different. Everyone at Chili’s and Spire put in a lot of work to get the car as close to the original as possible, and they did a great job.

Carson Hocevar said.

In the same conversation, he admitted that the race suit for the weekend might be his favorite ever and asserted that it’s privilege for him be part of a moment honoring Dale Sr. He is determined to produce a solid run in the colours.

We’ve had bold suits in the past. but this might be one of my favorites. It’s truly a privilege to honor Dale’s legacy on Alumni Weekend down in Darlington, and hopefully we can give him and all the folks from Chili’s a great run on Sunday.

Carson Hocevar added.

The comments from the star driver are on point, shows the respect he has for Dale Sr. It would be interesting to see if Carson Hocevar can produce a solid run at Darlington, which many in the garage is predicting to a chaos.

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