You’ve heard of NASCAR’s Silly Season, but how about NASCAR’s Spooky Season?
With the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series in action this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, NASCAR’s most-famous paperclip is going to be all decked out to celebrate Halloween.
Not all Halloween-themed paint schemes are the same, though.
Some teams decide to go the scary route, or the creepy-crawly way, whereas others decide to slap the color orange on their car and call it a day. Then some make the sweetest paint schemes – referring, of course, to candy.
So, you decide: trick… or treat?
Chris Buescher and RFK Racing are bringing a very colorful paint scheme to Martinsville Speedway this Halloween, embracing the candy-filled side of the typically spooky holiday with Nerds Gummy Clusters on the side of the No. 17 Ford Mustang Dark Horse. This scheme will hit the track for the first time on October 31 for NASCAR Cup Series practice and qualifying, so beware, parents: your kids will be hopped up on sugar just looking at this car.
Unfortunately, the NASCAR Cup Series isn’t very festive this weekend. But, don’t worry, because like it always does, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series has delivered.
Garrett Smithley and SS-GreenLight Racing have delivered an incredibly spooky No. 0 Chevrolet Camaro for this weekend’s event at Martinsville Speedway, and it features several ghosts, cobwebs, pumpkins, and a spooky background to top it off… and maybe it made his car faster, he was ninth in practice on Friday.
Justin Allgaier and JR Motorsports have probably won the weekend when it comes to the No. 7 BRANDT Fresh Agriculture Chevrolet Camaro, because, instead of the corn that usually adorns the car, they’ve opted this weekend for candy corn, with an epic white, orange, and yellow paint scheme to back it up.
NASCARCASM is a fan.
Austin Hill is vacating the No. 21 Chevrolet Camaro at season’s end, so naturally it had to be turned into a Spirit Halloween. That’s not really what happened, but Richard Childress Racing and sponsor 1-800-PACK-RAT struck up a cool partnership with the popular Halloween chain store and is bringing a spooky design to Hill’s race car.
When you have a candy company as a major partner, they have to sponsor your car on Halloween; it’s the law. Not really, but Toxic Waste has brought a sweet design to the No. 44 Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet, driven by Brennan Poole in his second-to-last race for the organization. With a toxic spill on his car, maybe it’ll come home damage-free.
Jeremy Clements comes to Martinsville with a… unique Halloween-paint scheme. With sponsor Spartan Waste on board, the No. 51 Chevrolet Camaro shows a back alley scene with a garbage truck that has been possessed and eaten Clements, with his wife Cortney running away screaming. This paint scheme was hand-drawn by Michael Miceli (AKA Race Artist), who does Halloween-themed paint schemes for many teams each season.
Carson Ware has a spooky paint scheme, too, with sponsor LUBRI-LOY sporting the black-and-orange, bat-infested paint scheme on the No. 53 Chevrolet for Joey Gase Motorsports. The paint scheme has everything Halloween on it: cobwebs, bats, jack-o’-lanterns, a spooky background scene. I’m not scared, are you?
Alex Labbe is back in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series this weekend at Martinsville Speedway, and so is the #HallowScheme that DGM Racing runs every single year. Another scheme crafted by Race Artist, this design features a ton of intricate details, including a variety of monsters on race cars!
DGM Racing itself has gained notoriety for running a Halloween-themed paint scheme every season around this time, to the point where this Fall, they’ve busted out the paint scheme bracket with a special Halloween theme.
Anthony Alfredo and DUDE Wipes are always in the festive spirit. Jamie McMurray may not “want his booty to smell like Fall,” but users of DUDE Wipes, especially of the DUMPKIN Spice variety, are likely fans of the crisp freshness. Alfredo also ran this paint scheme last weekend at Talladega.
The NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series ran its event at Martinsville on October 30, so the series had no participants this year. Sad, but excusable, I suppose. But if you want to get technical, we could consider some paint schemes not mentioned above as Halloween-themed.
We’ll call them…
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Harrison Burton‘s No. 24 Dead On Tools Toyota GR Supra has a skull on it. Even though it’s been there year-round when the sponsor is on the car, that still counts, right?
William Sawalich is running double-duty at Martinsville Speedway this weekend, competing in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series events. Get this: both his cars are orange. That can’t be a coincidence.
Joey Gase (No. 55) and Justin Carroll (No. 35) both arrived at Martinsville Speedway this weekend with an all-black base, with fluorescent orange numbers. What could be more Halloween-coded than that?
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series will be racing on Halloween in the National Debt Relief 250 at Martinsville. Coverage will begin at 4:00 PM ET on The CW.
