Continuing a tradition of limited esteem, Spade Racing bought, unboxed, and unpacked a sealed box of 2020 Donruss (Panini) Nascar trading cards. Join us as we go through each eight-card pack to find the good, the bad, and the downright weird.
PACK 7—Sam Mayer, a Retirer, and 90’s Fire
We range from the retired (Bill Elliott) to the retiring (Jimmie Johnson) to the young (Joey Logano) to the irritatingly young (Sam Mayer) here. Also worth pointing out that on some of the Optic cards a thin outline is added to the driver’s body/face. This, combined with Danica Patrick’s lime-green firesuit, makes it look like she’s radioactive.
FIRST THING’S FIRST: Always thought Jimmie’s 2019 throwback scheme was both appropriate and slick-looking—call it “approprislick”.
SECOND LOOK: Sam Mayer, a developmental driver in the GMS/Chevy system, gets the Rated Rookie treatment. “Rated Rookie” is one of the most-enduring terms in modern card collecting, along with “gem-mint” and “why do I have all these Todd Van Poppel cards”.
TO THE BACK: Denny Hamlin (or, more accurately, Denny’s crew) is the focus of this “Aero Package” subset. I have no earthly idea why they chose the early-90’s radically tubular color scheme.
FINAL SCORE: 4 spoilers out of 10