7. Jamie’s jaw, Tyler raw, and breakin’ the law(?)
OVERVIEW: Nice mix of the slightly-old and new in this set, though one has to wonder what went through the minds of Donuss/Panini when they selected that picture of Tyler Reddick. He looks sick to his stomach in that shot—maybe he just caught a glimpse of some of Greg Biffle’s “security footage”?
BACK OF THE CARD BONUS: Steel-jawed Jamie McMurray gets some nice compliments on his card, at least that was the intent. “Second-most top-10 finishes of his career”? “finished seventh”? Talk about damning with faint praise, guys.
PICK OF THE PACK: Race King Jimmie Johnson gets the individually numbered treatment here, and this card was easy as pi. Sorry.
FINAL RATING: 6 stage wins out of 10
8. Cale, Dale, and alluding to a fail
OVERVIEW: A pretty great selection of former drivers with three Cup champions and a darn fine racer in Harry Gant to boot. No idea why Donruss/Panini chose to make their “CLASSICS” series cards look like the infamous Billy Ripken, um, “Ford Face” card of the late-80’s.
BACK OF THE CARD BONUS: A nice reminder on the back of the Dale Jr. card of just how lacking he was in the qualifying department. Just another connection between Dale Jr. and Matt Kenseth, who entered the sport together, left full-time racing together, and have equally insufferable fanbases.
PICK OF THE PACK: There’s always going to be some “common cards” in any set. Case in point: Michael Annett. I don’t know how you can call “six top-10 finishes during the regular season” a “successful return”, but what do I know?
FINAL RATING: 7 trophies out of 10