Hendrick Motorsports’ Paint Schemes Witness Sharp Decline as 2024 Unveils Fail to Win Over Loyal Fanbase

Picking a favorite NASCAR driver is not a mammoth task for a racing enthusiast. While many focus on the driver’s past statistics and the potency to prove his worth, for others it is based on the relatability of the driver with the larger mass. However, the parameters to choose a favorite car livery are anything but a cakewalk. Many might find NASCAR liveries a simple design on the car, but for an avid enthusiast, it makes up the identity of the driver and his position in the racing community. The same can be asserted for the Hendrick Motorsports drivers.

Apart from invincible racing talent, one of the significant markers of their identities is their firesuits that flaunt the names of their sponsors and their idiosyncratic car designs. Owing to this, the winningest organization in the NASCAR paddock unveiled the paint schemes for the 2024 Cup Series. However, it seems that the unveiled looks of the cars failed to strike a chord among the fans, as they expressed their disappointment on social media sites.

Chase Elliott’s new paint schemes face the wrath of the fans

Whether it was Jeff Gordon’s Rainbow Du Pont Car or Kyle Busch’s Yellow M&M Car, the combination of eye-catching colors and unique decals, has become an indispensable part of the racing world. Moreover, these designs have transcended beyond the simple purpose of making the car and the owner recognizable but also a canvas for advertising billboards of corporate logos and sponsorships, as a part of marketing and their longstanding partnership with the drivers.

Walking in the same footsteps, Hendrick Motorsports, ahead of the 2024 season unveiled the car designs for the drivers, marked with the color schemes and the brands’ logos. Whether it was the combination of blue, white, and yellow for Chase Elliott’s Napa Auto Parts design or Alex Bowman’s Ally paint design, the recent curtain raising failed to enthrall HMS fans.

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Unlike the past years, when the #9 Chevrolet flaunted the NAPA livery on a white base, which had also been part of the championship season, 2024 is set to be different. Instead of the white base, the car would be flaunting the iconic blue on the car as the primary base. While many supported the new look of the car, other Elliott fans expressed their dissatisfaction over the livery.

A similar response was visible with Llumar’s paint scheme for the #9 car. The car is draped in a vibrant red color with the #9 standing out in a teal color, which will be seen for two races in Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway. The red color echoed the paint scheme of his father Bill Elliott, but failed to entice the racing audience. Many considered the teal color as an ‘eye sore’.

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Alex Bowman’s plum livery proves to be an ‘unidentifiable mess’

It was not just Chase Elliott, who found on the shorter end of the stick because of the fresh paint schemes, but also his other three teammates. With its Ally paint scheme, Hendrick Motorsports and Alex Bowman raised the curtains on its #48 Chevrolet Camaro. Designed by the famed Graphic Designer Sean Bull, who once worked with BMW and Red Bull, the car flaunted a plum color with a ‘digital camo’ look, along with the name of the sponsor and the number in a white accent.

The designer expressed his excitement about his new creation, “It was an approach from Ally. They reached out to me, and they wanted to get sort of an artist with a different perspective involved for this year’s car. To have Ally come to me and be like, ‘Look, we’ve got a blank canvas for you. These are our colors. Go ahead. We want to see what you’ve got.’ So to have that was amazing. You don’t often get that in any form of motorsport, and I’ve found the chance. I got to go to Miami with Ally and see the cars there. There’s so much more openness in NASCAR and the schemes.”

However, the design failed to excite the NASCAR fandom. Many commented, “It’s gotten worse every year since 2021.” Another fan wrote, “I’m usually a big fan of Sean‘s work, but this does nothing for me. Much like drivers‘ helmets these days, an unidentifiable mess of shapes and colors.”

Kyle Larson and William Byron’s car liveries become the laughing stock for fans

Facing the wrath of the racing community along with many insiders were William Byron and Kyle Larson. The #5 Chevrolet car revealed its paint scheme for the Coca-Cola 600. Commemorating Larson’s Indy 500 run, the car flaunts its customary blue-white design, along with McLaren’s papaya color as the borders for the car number.

Catching a glimpse of the car, fans considered it as the ‘redesign’ of Scott Dixon’s car.

Speaking of the #24 of William Byron’s livery designs with Axalta and Raptor, a similar sentiment was visible. The Raptor livery sports a distinct yellowish-green hue that eventually bleeds to white, along with a claw decal. On the other hand, the Raptor paint scheme witnessed the return of the iconic ‘Flames of Independence’ for the 2024 scheme. 

The design also included the name of the sponsor written in black hues, marked with funky lines, which resembled whiskers. The unveiling of the two new designs left the NASCAR fans livid. 

Many commented, “What the hell is the blackout on the quarters for? It looks like the artist was trying to cover a bad tattoo and just blacked it out. Kill the flames; that was Jeff’s thing. Why not give Byron a scheme he can make his own? This one is already famous for being horrible.”

“If y’all make the Axalta letters on the quarter panels black to match the hood and get rid of that ugly black shape over the back, the scheme would be so much better… free advice.”

Although the Hendrick Motorsports liveries failed to make a mark among NASCAR fans, all eyes would be on the four drivers and their performance in the 2024 season. It will be interesting to see, whether all four drivers be able to reinforce the hallowed position of the organization in the NASCAR paddock.

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