New Netflix Series “The Crew” to Dramatize Tony Raines’ 2003 Season

This weekend will see Spire Motorsports’ usual 77 car temporarily change to number 74.  It is all part of the team’s participation in the filming of “The Crew”, an upcoming Netflix retelling of retired driver Tony Raines’ 2003 Cup Series season. 

Image courtesy Jayski/Spire/Netflix

“When we looked at partnering with Nascar, we didn’t want to have another ‘The Kelleys’ on our hands”, said Netflix executive Alice Sweet.  “So we decided to base everything we did in reality, and our research led us to one conclusion—Tony Raines’ first full season in Cup needed to be dramatized on screen.”

The 74 car will partially replicate the BACE Motorsports Chevy Raines ran in 2003—the fictitious “Fake Steak” logo on the hood was used as actual sponsor Staff America refused to return the producers’ calls.  Furthermore, all information originally released about the show has been revealed to be a ruse.

“Yeah, there’s all that stuff out there about how the show’s going to be about a team owner turning operations over to his daughter who changes everything up”, Sweet said, “but lets be honest—that concept’s been done to death.  What people really want to see is how a former Busch Series powerhouse team upgraded to the premiere series, only to struggle to stay alive both on the track and in their bank accounts.  And Tony Raines means boffo box office, baby.”

Image courtesy
Wikipedia

The first episode is expected to open with Raines working as a spotter for Kurt Busch in more recent times, only to drift off into an extended flashback to his pivotal 2003 season, focusing on his 33rd-place finish at that year’s Daytona 500.  Later episodes will deal with team owner Bill Baumgardner struggling to attract sponsorship, the explosive team meeting after failing to qualify for the Firecracker 400, and the bittersweet reaction to finishing sixth in a late-season race long after Raines had lost out of the Rookie of the Year award.

“There’s so much ‘meat on the bone’ here”, Sweet excitedly explained.  “We can have a ‘floating timeline’ and jump between, say, Raines’ season-closing streak of four-straight top-twenties and his mid-season streak of three-straight finishes outside the top-forty.  Or who’s to say that we don’t introduce a special guest appearance by someone as The Ghost of ASA to remind Tony where he came from—the possibilities are endless.”

When asked for comment about a single season of his journeyman career being turned into a Netflix series, Raines replied “wait—I’m being played by Kevin James?  Have I really put on that much weight?”