“Gorgeous”: Hailie Deegan Honoring Dale Earnhardt in Darlington Drops NASCAR Fans’ Jaws

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season is just a gift that keeps on giving. After the edge-of-the-seat, thrilling photo finish at Kansas Speedway last weekend, the community will now be treated to the Official throwback weekend at Darlington Raceway this Sunday. This is the one event where teams and drivers pay respect and homage to the greats of the sport with unique paint schemes. It’s not just the Cup Series drivers; everyone, from the Truck to Xfinity, contributes to this tradition.

Till now, Kyle Larson’s special scheme celebrating Terry Labonte’s contribution to NASCAR has been seen as the outright winner. However, now that Hailie Deegan has announced the throwback scheme for her #15 car, fans might have to reconsider their choice. Hailie Deegan will pay homage to Dale Earnhardt Sr. and so her car will look similar to the Wrangler No. 15 that Earnhardt used in 1982!

A throwback scheme and an NGO collaboration for Hailie Deegan at the Darlington weekend

After winning his first NASCAR Cup Series title in 1980, the Intimidator had a fallout with his team owner, Jim Stacy, after his takeover. This saw him miss out on the majority of the 1981 season. The Intimidator drove the #15 Blue and Yellow Wrangler Jeans-sponsored Ford Thunderbird for Bud Moore Engineering in two seasons from 1982 to 1983 before making his permanent move to the #3 Chevrolet at Richard Childress Racing. Interestingly, this was also his only full-time season competing in a Ford race car in his career.

The AM Racing driver will roll out a special version of the #15 Ford car, paying homage to NASCAR’s great Dale Earnhardt Sr. Deegan will compete in the Xfinity race at Darlington, as she is driving in the Xfinity series full-time this season, signing a contract with AM Racing in October of last year.

The 22-year-old went to FS1’s NASCAR Race Hub on Wednesday to unveil her car for the race. It was after a lengthy discussion that her team finally approved of going ahead with Dale Earnhardt’s 1982 season throwback scheme for this weekend at Darlington. Sharing the idea behind her paint scheme, Deegan via X said, “No. 15 Ford, I think it looks great. Super super excited to announce that and I just think it  came out amazing. I mean with it being the 15 and me number 15. Me and my team owner are texting back and forth on it. Some ideas and when he sent out one, I was like we gotta go with that one.”

Interesting fact: Did you know that Dale Earnhardt Sr’s #15 Ford had a car cover made from 14-ounce heavy-duty denim? That time Wrangler Jeans sponsored Earnhardt, and it was the same material used for men’s Wrangler jeans. The car cover was padded and extremely heavy. So it required two crew members to take it off the car.

However, this isn’t the first time the #15 Blue and Yellow Wrangler made a comeback at Darlington. In 2022, Justin Allgaier, who drove for JR Motorsports, ran with the same paint scheme at Darlington Raceway. His No. 7 Chevy was sponsored by Hellmann’s Mayonnaise.

But coming back to Deegan, she has competed in 10 Xfinity Series races this season and has yet to earn a top-10 or top-five finish. She is currently in 26th place and dropped two spots from last week. Before joining the Xfinity series, Deegan competed in the Truck Series full-time in 2022 and earned two top-five finishes that year. As soon as AM Racing shared the visuals of the No. 15 Ford car colored blue and yellow via their social handles, fans were just left in awe of how good the throwback scheme looked.

Hailie Deegan’s tribute to the legend just won everyone’s hearts!

Trending

Tony Stewart’s Wife Leah Pruett Pens a Heartfelt Message for Husband After His Unwavering Support for His Family

“We Are Not Morning People”- Travel Woes Hit Home for Kyle Busch & Wife Samantha Leaving Son Brexton Grinning

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Offers a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity to His Loyal Fanbase as He Gears Up for His Return With Budweiser

Rick Hendrick’s Alliance Rumored to Save Chevy Prodigy Who Crashed Kyle Busch’s Party

JRM Prodigy & Kelley Earnhardt’s Son Earn Major Backing as Dale Jr.’s Loyal Partners Announce 2025 Return

Deegan has slowly but surely started to make progress in her rookie Xfinity season. She even registered her career-best P12 finish at Talladega. A fan wished her the very best for her race and hoped for a similar winning result that Dale Sr managed at Darlington back in 1982. They even came up with a new term that the NASCAR community can use when Deegan finally outshines everyone at the tracks.

“Car looks amazing 👏👏👏 can’t wait to see her race it and hopefully she can get some of that Earnhardt Mojo and get it to victory Lane 🏁🏁💙💛💙💛#badasshailied,” an X user wrote.

While there were a few in the comments who weren’t aware of Dale Sr driving a Ford race car in his career, others were thrilled to see the Bud Moore Ford car make a return to NASCAR events. “Awesome paint scheme! Back when Dale drove the Bud Moore Ford!” A fan wrote in the comments. Many fans were just sold on the visual aspect of the paint scheme and chimed in with their response. “Man that’s gorgeous.” Another fan added, “What an awesome looking throwback 😍 😎”.

Despite all her efforts, Deegan, for some reason, has not been able to deliver a big result so far in 12 starts. However, now that she has drawn inspiration from Dale Sr, a fan wants to see a huge change in terms of her race finish. “Now do that scheme justice! No half-as\*sing riding around in 25th. Let’s see some real dang results! Anything less than top 10 will be disappointing. Hell, if it was Dale Sr., no less than a win. Let’s do this!!!”

Darlington Raceway is a treacherous racing venue and a hard one to tame. It has a narrow racing surface, combined with an egg-shaped course. So, it will be interesting to see how the rookie driver tackles these challenges in her No. 15 AM Racing Ford.