Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s final race paint scheme looks a lot like his first

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
We’d be smiling too if we got to drive a car as good-looking as Junior’s Homestead car. (Getty)
We’d be smiling too if we got to drive a car as good-looking as Junior’s Homestead car. (Getty)

The car Dale Earnhardt Jr. will drive at Homestead in the final scheduled race of his Cup Series career will look familiar to a lot of NASCAR fans.

Junior unveiled the car in a QVC show Wednesday evening. It’s modeled after the Budweiser car he drove when he first got to the Cup Series in the year 2000.

For comparison’s sake, here’s the car Junior drove in the early 2000s when he was driving the No. 8 for his father’s team, Dale Earnhardt Inc.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
[Now’s the time to sign up for Fantasy Football! Join for free]

Axalta is also batting 2-2 when it comes to tribute paint schemes for retiring drivers. In 2015, Jeff Gordon drove a glorious-looking rainbow car at Bristol that paid homage to his dominant days in the 1990s.

Jeff Gordon’s Bristol car in 2015. (Getty)
Jeff Gordon’s Bristol car in 2015. (Getty)

Earnhardt Jr. is driving a tribute car at Darlington too. The throwback car he’ll drive there is sponsored by Nationwide and resembles his AC Delco car that he drove to two Xfinity Series titles.

Junior is retiring from the Cup Series at the end of the 2017 season, though he’s scheduled to drive a few Xfinity Series races in 2018. He’ll be replaced in the No. 88 car at Hendrick Motorsports by Alex Bowman in 2018.

– – – – – – –

Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!