Photos courtesy of Smyle Media Gallery, Circle Sport - Leavine Family Racing and Richard Childress Racing.
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WELCOME, N.C. -- Michael McDowell and the Circle Sport - Leavine Family Racing organization will honor Richard Childress with a throwback paint scheme similar to that used by the longtime NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team owner during the 1973 racing season.
The scheme will be run during this year's Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 4 (6 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The Darlington throwback program debuted last year and was a huge hit among fans and teams at the legendary track.
"Obviously to run Richard's paint scheme and honor him for his upcoming Hall of Fame induction and our alliance with him and having Thrivent Financial on there is going to be really cool," McDowell said. "It's an exciting weekend. It's fun to see all the guys in all the old shirts and hats. I saw my firesuit, it's really cool, very vintage."
Childress, a six-time champion in the Sprint Cup Series as an owner with driver Dale Earnhardt, will be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January 2017. His Richard Childress Racing organization currently has 105 wins in the series and fields three full-time Sprint Cup teams for drivers Austin Dillon , Paul Menard and Ryan Newman . CSLFR currently has a technical alliance with RCR.
While the 1973 Chevrolet was primarily white with blue accents, Childress, an owner/driver before stepping aside to focus solely on ownership, did compete with a similar entry that had red features. And those colors, team officials said, worked well with primary sponsor Thrivent Financial.
McDowell, with 197 career starts in the Sprint Cup Series, shares driving duties in the No. 95 Chevrolet with RCR XFINITY Series driver Ty Dillon . He said he is looking forward to running the throwback scheme and seeing what other teams come up with for the event.
"I think more than anything what the Darlington race weekend does ... it jogs everyone's memory," McDowell said. "The guys in the sport like Richard and others that have been here so long. Just walking around and listening to all the stories is really cool. I think that's what Darlington does for everybody, it makes them reminisce not just about the good ol' days but hearing fun stories and sharing memories.
"It kind of re-ignites your passion of how you got started and why you got started."
Childress began his NASCAR career in 1969 and made 285 starts before stepping out of the car in 1981.
Long before teams began wrapping cars, Childress said he often painted his own entries, a process that often took "a couple of days."
"I'd paint them myself. I'd tape it out like I thought I wanted it, and if I didn't like it, I'd move the tape a little bit," he said. "I still remember all the cars. You might forget about it for a while but then you see something and it brings it all back.
"I never accomplished that much as a driver so to see them come back today (with this scheme), it's really neat. I had one of my best finishes at Darlington (fourth in '73). To see it run again is so cool."