Captain's Corner: Penske throwback schemes honor team's history

Team Penske will participate in this weekend’s NASCAR “Throwback” weekend at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway with an old-school favorite paint scheme and another honoring a sponsor’s century-long involvement in motorsports.

Brad Keselowski’s No. 2 Ford in Sunday night’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race will feature the fan-favorite paint scheme of Miller Genuine Draft, which for Penske driver Rusty Wallace drove to 25 series victories.

It was a car Wallace had nicknamed “Midnight.”

“It’s amazing how many times we get asked each year about running the ‘Midnight’ paint scheme. We ran it at Michigan in 2015, but people love that scheme and so do I,” Keselowski said.

“When you think of Rusty Wallace and Team Penske you think of that black-and-gold Miller Genuine Draft car. It’s going to look great under the lights and even better in Victory Lane.

“You want to win at every track, but Darlington is a special place. The legends of our sport have won here and I want to add my name to that list.”

Joey Logano’s paint scheme on his No. 22 Ford will harken back to Shell’s 2002 acquisition of Pennzoil and celebrates Shell’s 100 years in motorsports.

The paint scheme was used previously by a Lola/Ford for Bobby Rahal’s team in the CART Champ Car Series. Jimmy Vassar also raced that Ford to victory at Auto Club Speedway in the next-to-last race of the 2002 season.

In addition, Logano’s Ford will carry the American Red Cross logo this weekend in support of the ongoing Hurricane Harvey relief efforts happening across Texas and particularly in Houston, the home of Shell.

Shell donated $1 million dollars to the relief efforts on Tuesday and Logano announced on Fox Sports 1’s “Race Hub” that fans could support relief efforts by going HERE.

“The throwback weekend at Darlington is one of the coolest events on our schedule,” Logano said. “It’s awesome to see the whole industry come together and celebrate the history of the sport and build excitement around our oldest speedway race.

“Darlington Raceway is a place where the legends of our sport competed and it was the gateway to NASCAR moving from small dirt tracks to modern-day speedways.”

Neither Keselowski nor Logano owns a win in the Cup series at Darlington.

In eight career starts, Keselowski’s best finish was second in 2015 in a race in which he started from the pole.

Darlington has been a much more difficult track for Logano. In eight career starts, his best finish is fourth, also in 2015. He also has four finishes of 22^nd or worse.