Spade Racing Throwback Weekend AND Uncle Max vs. Repeat Winners: Darlington

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!

Spade Racing Opens a Box of 2021 Donruss Nascar Cards, Pack 7 and 8 of 24+

Join us (well, me) as we/I go through a box of 2021 Donruss Nascar Cards, pack-by-pack, week-by-week.

Pack 7—D-Doubleyouth, Stretching the Truth, and AA Long in the Tooth 

FIRST LOOK: Darrell Waltrip looks so young here, in all his glory at Riversi—wait a minute, look at that newspaper he’s holding.  The Los Angeles Tribune went out of business in 1960!  Talk about Fake News, DW…

TO THE BACK: Yes, Josh Williams “ran high” in the Homestead doubleheader, but his finishes were 20th and 12th.  That’s like bragging about being ahead at halftime in a football game.

SAY WHAT: “Got some gray hair, sure, but it kinda makes me look like Jimmie Johnson.”

RATING: 5 “Boogity”s out of 10

Pack 8—A 90’s Look, By the Book, and Bad Jokes Took

FIRST LOOK: Here we see Ryan Truex with hot tub sponsorship and a “Jazzy” face mask, a tribute to an old soda cup design from the 1990’s thats become something of a vintage meme.  I’m guessing that quite a few hot tub salesmen have poured a little “social courage” into their Jazzy cups of “Sprite”.

TO THE BACK: This is about as boilerplate as you can get to describe a driver.  I guess its better than “He’s the Next Big Thing three years running”.

SAY WHAT: “OK, so far today I’ve heard ‘Found On Road Dead’, ‘Fix or Repair Daily’, even ‘Forget Out Running Dale’, wonder if anyone will give me the old mechanic line of ‘Funding Our Retirement Daily’?”.

RATING: 5 spoilers out of 10

52 Pickup Racing Inks Longterm Deal with Stacy-Pak Vitamins

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (Boogertown, North Carolina)

52 Pickup Racing continues to add to its impressive roster of sponsorship partners, as they are proud to announce that Stacy-Pak Vitamins, the only vitamins good enough for coal magnate J.D. Stacy, will appear on the #52 race car for a number of races over the next three years.

“J.D. Stacy is a name that has a long, storied history in NASCAR Cup competition”, said James Elliott, one of the fifty-two co-owners of 52 Pickup Racing.  “We look forward to being part of the Stacy family, promoting high-quality Stacy-Pak nutritional supplements that give us the energy we need to compete for top-thirty finishes.”

“I’ve tried Stacy-Pak vitamins, and they’re the real deal”, said T.B. Dee, driver of the Stacy-Pak/Monday Cigarettes race car.  “I feel they’ll give us the concentrated nutrients and boost in physical performance we need to compete for top-thirty finishes.  Oh, wait, James already said that.”

While J.D. Stacy was unavailable for comment, T.B. Dee said he was glad to join the Stacy-backed family of drivers.

“Just think of the champions I’m joining—Dale Earnhardt Sr., Terry Labonte, Mark Martin.  Its really something.  Wait—didn’t Mark Martin win a championship in Cup?”

Details about the specific races Stacy-Pak will be sponsoring will be released shortly.

QUOTES: “The thing I like most about the vitamins is how easy to swallow they are.  Other vitamins’ nutritional claims sure are…HARD TO SWALLOW!” —T.B. Dee, driver of the 52 Pickup Racing Monday Cigarettes race car.

“Yes, yes, very funny T.B.” —James Elliott, co-owner of 52 Pickup Racing.

ABOUT 52 PICKUP RACING: 52 Pickup Racing is NASCAR Cup’s newest race team.  Based out of Boogertown North Carolina, the team employs up-and-coming driver T.B. Dee and finally figured out where that smell was coming from in their hauler.

For more information please visit the 52 Pickup Racing website at www.52pickupracing.com

For all media inquiries please contact Moxoc Media at moxoc(at)moxoc.com