Recently I got a sealed box of 2019 Donruss Racing Cards—24 packs, 8 cards per pack. Join me as I go through the entire case, pack-by-pack, to see what awaited me. (Click any picture to enlarge)
PACK 1 OF 24: Patrick, Reddick, and a Petty Hat-Trick
OVERVIEW: We kick things off with a pretty good combo of drivers—even if we get 2 less cards per pack than last year *grumble*. A few current stars, some legends, and even a few rising stars as well. And Danica.
SPECIAL SPECIAL: Dale Jr. gets the ICONS treatment, rendered in “Yo! MTV Raps” font for some reason.
IN FOCUS: So the issue with making physical trading cards is the long lead time to get them designed, copy-written, proofed, printed, finished, sealed, packaged, and distributed. That’s how you wind up with cards for Danica Patrick, someone who raced a grand total of one race last year. Yeah, she ran in the Indy 500 as well, but I don’t think all seven IndyCar fans will mind all that much.
SPOTLIGHT: Donruss heavily hyped its “OPTIC” line of reflective cards this year—included in that line are these “Illusion” cards like the one here for Kevin Harvick. While I guess “Illusion” is a good description for how the card looks, its kind of a bad idea to have a picture of a driver with a word like “Illusion” in front of him—might as well just have it say “Phoney”, “Fake”, or “Dillon Brother”.
SCORE: 7 tapered spacers out of 10