EDITOR’S NOTE: Uncle Max graciously gave back his spot this week, picks are listed below
Welcome to the first-ever SPRING Darlington Throwback Race Weekend! Here at Spade Racing we’re honoring one of the oddest special paint schemes of all-time—the infamous “Kyle Petty Protest Car” from Dover in 1996.
Why did this car exist?
Well, short version is “Felix Sabates had a short temper”.
Long version is that Kyle Petty had been penalized for rough driving after punting the always-puntable Ted Musgrave in the 1996 World 600. The five-lap penalty infuriated Petty’s car owner Felix Sabates, who lit into Nascar officials, claiming that Dale Earnhardt would have never been penalized for wrecking another driver. Nascar responded to Sabates’ suggestion by penalizing Petty ANOTHER two laps. Sabates turned in his “hard card”, and claimed he wouldn’t attend any more races (which never happened by the way). In protest of Nascar’s supposed favoritism, Sabates ordered the usually rainbow-colored 42 Coors Light car to be painted black and white with silver and red accents—a near-replica of Dale Earnhardt’s iconic GM Goodwrench paint scheme—for the following race at Dover. Petty, for his part, disavowed having anything to do with the protest, and the awkwardness of the situation arguably contributed to him leaving SABCO to form his own race team the following year. (Much of this information comes from this highly-informative video from nascarman History).
A rare instance of a paint scheme being inspired by a temper-tantrum, we honor this iconic look this weekend. Oh, and by the way, Sabates (a native Cuban), ordered the following inscription to be placed on the car: “TODO ES JUSTO EN AMOR Y CARRERAS”—all is fair in love and racing. So for Spade Racing, it only seemed fair to carry the inscription of “TODO ES JUSTO EN VERDAD AMOR EN LA ESTUPIDEZ”—all is fair in true love and stupidity.
Friday Night TRUCK SERIES (1 win) LiftKits4Less 200: Ben Rhodes—with a win under my belt, I can finally go a litttttle “off the board”.
Saturday Afternoon XFINITY SERIES Steakhouse Elite 200: AJ Allmendinger—no longer a longshot on an oval (egg-shaped or not).
Sunday CUP SERIES Goodyear 400. Repeat winner—Kyle Busch. FAVORITE (1 win): Brad Keselowski—Penske power showing as the schedule heats up. NEXT FAVORITE: Kevin Harvick—teetering between “slow start” and “rough season”. DARK HORSE (2 wins): Matt DiBenedetto—pretty cool way to get the Wood Bros. 100th win!