2024 NSCA Legends Paint Schemes

[Jacob Craigo]

So, I'm going to split the 2024 showroom into 2 separate threads for a very good reason.... That reason being that I'm making a full 43 car field of historic schemes and NSCA Legend drivers... "Legends" being somewhat loosely used for some drivers, whom have not had a high number of wins (or any wins at all), let alone any championships. Some exclusions are due to some outside factors... Either the drivers are too recent to include (their careers began in 2015 or later), or they're random characters from various webcomics that I shoehorned into the league just to fill a field (or in the case of a lucky few, the whole reason I'm doing this today) and don't want to include, or a driver may just have too similar of a story to one already included in the Legends set.....

.... This all said, of the top 20 drivers on my league's All-Time Winners list, 17 of them are included! And a full 20 of the top 20 on that list! In fact, all but 5 drivers I will be including in the 2024 Legends portion of the league set are race winners. Of the 5 that haven't won any races, three of them I've already included in the 2023 Legends mini-set. The other two are new additions that - while admittedly are thrown in more for convenience due to resources already being made - are still storied in their own right. Now when I say "43" drivers, I really mean 40 since I've once again included Hunter Keero, Jacob Craigo, and Cody Llamas despite it no longer being the decade celebration since I already had their stuff made and didn't just want it to be a one-and-done. Of course these three drivers are still racing in the 2024 season, but I did do some proper separation of their Legends schemes from their regular schemes, including bringing in-line their in-game numbers as well as a couple of other things.


Now then.... As per usual, here's the list of the full credits for the entire 2024 carset ( so that I don't have to copy/paste this in every individual post):
Templates:
-Chevy: FCRD & vadkuz, with Monte Carlo text from Sean Casto/SRD (Modified by me)
-Dodge: FCRD & vadkuz (Modified by me)
-Ford: FCRD & vadkuz (Modified by me)
-Toyota: FCRD, vadkuz, & KevinDesignIt on Twitter
-Pontiac: FCRD, vadkuz, Lefty & BER (Transferred from MENCS19 & BRGen6 templates to NCS22 template by me) (Modified by me)
-Mercedes: FCRD, vadkuz, & NCD Designs (Modified by me)
-Generic: FCRD, vadkuz, NCD Designs, James Hodge & BillA1947 (Modified by me)
Logos: BER, Masgrafx, SRD, Google, ModSquad, SDG, SHD, TN Designs, Stunod, Codemasters, iRacing and Myself
Numbers and Number Sets: BER, Masgrafx, SRD, NNRacing, and Stunod
Car Bases: Myself, Paint-By-RAH, Stunod, and Steven Merzlak
Drivers:
-Original Template: SnG
-Driver Face: CozyCat Studios (Modified and adapted by me)
-Helmet Parts: Lefty, Myself & Bobbyfly
Renders: Myself (unless otherwise stated), Scene modified from James Hodge's work....


And now for the usual introduction......

The National Stock-Car Association is the culmination of over 70 years of American motorsports ranging back all the way to the early post-war days in the late 1940's. Initially, it was the National Racer's Club in the north, the American Stock-Car Association in the south, and the West, the Automobile Racing Group of America. On the Eastern seaboard, it was a massive rivalry between the NRC and ASCA, while ARGA had been dominating the West uncontested. However, in the 1970s, the United States faced a massive oil crisis, seeing a major toll taken on the race teams of all three organizations. This led to the NRC and ASCA merging together, creating the NSCA in 1975. Meanwhile, ARGA barely scraped by and restructured itself into the American Stock-Car Racing Club, or ASCRC for short, and became a starting point for many of today's top stock-car drivers.

With 2024 being it's 49th season since it's inception in 1975 and inaugural season in 1976, the NSCA's top level of competition - the NSCA Cup Series - is amidst a thrilling 2023 season. While not every race has been a barn burner, there has been plenty of action on track! New winners and front runners are now mixing it up with the best of the field. While Hunter Keero currently leads the points with 12 of the 30 races complete (as of posting this), that can still quickly change with how wide-open the new Next-Gen car has made the blanket of those who can win week in and week out. But even with the season reaching it's mid-point, there's still plenty of action heading into 2024.......


..... A new team will be formed through a 3-way merger between Ryals-Corbett Racing, Douglass Racing, and Gantry-Kingsmen Racing. This new three-car team will be known as Pakt 3 Racing (branded as PKT 3 Racing), and will become new OEM Mercedes' first 3-car team in the NSCA Cup Series. Likewise, McLaren Racing is selling their NSCA team to Konnorsport, who look to expand their world-wide racing efforts following a successful foray into Formula 1 and WEC. As always, the fluctuating Driver Market has brought about the usual Silly Season shenanigans, with teams like Bishop Family Racing and others to figure out their driver lineups by the time the 2024 season begins. 2024 looks to continue an upward trend that the series seems to be on, who will we see come out on top?


But before all of that, we begin with a bit of a history lesson.....

#3 | Eric Reinhardt
Team: Burlington Racing
Seasons: 25 (22 Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 1979-2001 (Debuted in 1977)
Starts: 621
Wins: 76 | 1998 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 5 (1982, 1986, 1987, 1990, & 1993)
Top 5s: 135
Top 10s: 196
First Race: 1977 Charlotte 400
Last Race: 2001 Daytona 500

Just like last year, we're starting off with Eric Reinhardt, My league's lore/history is filled with drivers that range from "unique and not based on anyone in particular", such as Randy Carpenter to "Is literally just a stand-in for a real life counterpart with maybe a couple of changed statistics". As you might've guessed by looking at the stats for Eric Reinhardt, he is my Dale Sr. stand-in, and had a pretty similar career, albeit with only 5 championships to his credit compared to Earnhardt's 7. Sadly, existing in a fictional alternate-history world doesn't spare Eric from sharing Dale's fate in the 2001 Daytona 500, a tragedy that NASCAR has been able to prevent from further happening in real life for it's top 3 nationally-touring series......

Schemes:
1. 1984 Wrangler - After winning the 1982 championship, Eric Reinhardt's team owner sold off the team for a quick buck, leaving the young champion to scramble just to stay in the sport he loved. After taking a mid-field ride in 1983 just to remain afloat, he got the call up to join Burlington Racing - owned by former driver Nelson Burlington - and drive the #3 for 1984 onwards. And as they say, the rest was history. 4 more championships, countless wins, and the 1998 Daytona 500 all started here with this scheme.

2. 1995 Goodwrench (All-Star Race) - While the 1992 Winston may have been "One Hot Night" in real life, that honor didn't happen in the NSCA universe until 1995. Thus, Burlington and Reinhardt decided to run a special "reverse" scheme to make it an even more special occasion. Series title sponsor Clayton Cigarettes even joined in by becoming the title sponsor for the race, too. Previously, the race was just called the "Winner's Classic", but in 1995 all the way to 2003, it would be called "The Clayton". Reinhardt would win up finishing in 3rd behind Evan Miller and Wayne Jefferson.

3. 1998 Goodwrench (Daytona 500) - C'mon..... How could I not include this scheme when expanding the number of historic schemes to recreate? We all know the TV call of the finish: "20 years of trying....." With an expansion of the Goodwrench brand that came about late in 1997, GM decided to plaster it across the hood of Eric Reinhardt's #3 car. Unlike Dale, however, it was a hard-fought battle for the win, and there was no caution to race back to.

4. 1998 Coca-Cola (Japan) - After the 1998 season concluded, many of the teams traveled to the land of the rising sun for the 3rd annual exhibition event at the Suzuka Circuit. Unlike previous years, however, Reinhardt would be ditching his famous black and silver for Candy Red and Black instead, as Coca-Cola was the sponsor for his #3 Chevy. Not only that, but he also would be competing against his son, Eric Reinhardt Jr in the #1 car, also sponsored by Coca-Cola. The younger driver would prevail, finishing 7th while the elder Reinhardt would finish 11th.

5. 2000 Goodwrench (Clayton 500) - The first of the two schemes returning from the 2022 set, this one has had it's history explained before.... For the lazy (or forgetful): Eric Reinhardt shares his real-life counterpart's final win at Talladega on October 15th, 2000 - exacty 22 years ago at time of posting. Coming from 18th and charging to the front in only 7 laps was something few could ever do, and Reinhardt was one of the few to pull it off. Taking no prisoners, and giving no quarter, Eric was able to edge out Wayne Foster after getting a push from Trace Legacy in the final run to the line.

6. 2001 Goodwrench (Daytona 500) - In 2001, the NSCA community was beginning to see a transition into a new era. With new broadcast partners and the excitement of a new season ahead, the world watched as Eric would finish in 4th in the Bud Shootout.... Unbeknownst to the racing world at the time, this would be the final time he would ever see the checkered flag..... And well all know the reason why. The final ever car Reinhardt would race. Trailing behind his son on the final lap, holding back everyone he could so Eric Jr could try and pass Randy Carpenter for the win. Contact running through turns 3 and 4 sent the #3 head-on into the outside wall, collecting the #36 of Ronald Webb...... (continued in a later driver's story)

 

[Jacob Craigo]

#15 | Jack Metoria
Team: Burlington Racing
Seasons: 15 (14 Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 2001-2015
Starts: 475
Wins: 10 | 2007 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 68
Top 10s: 95
First Race: 2001 Subway 400
Last Race: 2015 Quaker State 400

(continued from Eric Reinhardt's 2001 scheme...) .... The news announced in the early hours of Monday left the racing world in mourning. While there were debates on if the team would continue to press on, the decision was made to at least try. Going forward, however, the car would never look the same as it once did. Jack Metoria, a somewhat unknown driver from California, was brought up from Burlington Racing's National Series program. No one would've faulted him - let alone the team - from having bad runs early on in the season. As the NSCA Cup Series grid rolled into Rockingham just 4 days after the tragic ending to the Daytona 500, no one knew what the future was going to hold. But in the end, the driver move brought success, including the organization's 3rd Daytona 500 in 2007. However, in the 2010-2011 seasons, the team saw behind-the-scenes struggles. With the health of it's owner failing, the team that was once a championship contender would wind up closing at the conclusion of the 2011 Cup Series season. jack Metoria would find a ride elsewhere to continue racing. Unfortunately, he would wind up suffering a career-ending injury during the 2015 Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, a wreck many point to was the final straw in a long line of issues that led to the NSCA never again returning to that track.

Schemes:
2001 Goodwrench v2 - Gone was the (in)famous black and silver #3. In it's place was a ghostly white #15. As Burlington Racing arrived in Rockingham, there were no expectations. No fanfare. Metoria wasn't even expecting to be racing the rest of the 2001 season in Cup. The chassis itself wasn't even one that was initially setup for Rockingham, but instead Charlotte for the All-Star race in May. Qualifying deep in the field, Metoria would work his was through the field to finish in a respectable 16th place at Rockingham. A week later in Las Vegas, he would almost notch his first top 10, finishing 12th......

2001 Goowrench v3 - .... At teams rolled into Atlanta, Burlington Racing brought in their first car that was built specifically for Metoria and not an already prepared chassis. With a new scheme, now a bold red accompanying the white and a slightly tweaked number styling, the team once again would find themselves having to work hard come raceday after another deep-field qualifying effort. However, at the site of what was meant to be the first of only 5 intended part-time starts that year, Jack Metoria would shock the racing world and take his first career win in only his 3rd Cup start, edging out eventual champion Wayne Jefferson in a photo finish.

2003 Goodwrench - As time passed and the racing world healed from the loss of Eric Reinhardt, Metoria and the #15 Burlington Racing team continued to race. Now in the 4th different Goodwrench scheme in just 3 years, Metoria saw his best statistical season while in the #15 car. 4 wins, 18 Top 10s, and a points finish of 4th. However the young driver would also find himself in a spot of trouble, having run-ins with George McReilly, Evan Miller, his teammate Clint Kelly, among others. It was beginning to become clear that he had a bit of an over-inflated ego and a chip on his shoulder. In the following few years, he would get humbled both on and off the track, not scoring any wins from 2004 through 2006.

2007 Shell/Pennzoil - After Goodwrench's curtain call at the end of the 2006 season, Jack Metoria had a new sponsor for 2007, and the expectation of winning was immediately felt across the whole team. And in the first race of the season, the 2007 Daytona 500, the team did just that, in yet another thrilling photo finish. However, this would wind up being Metoria's penultimate win with Burlington Racing, as the team overall begain to see a downturn in performance that year.

2011 Budweiser - In 2011, Shell/Pennzoil left the team and in came Budweiser. As mentioned earlier, this would wind up being Burlington Racing's final year as an organization due to a variety of factors, the main one being the owner's health failing. Despite this, Jack Metoria would get one last clutch win with the team - his 8th career win overall - late in the season. A last hurah before everyone went their separate ways. For Metoria, he would move on to another team and race there until his career ending crash in 2015, with Budweiser following him to that team.

 

[Jacob Craigo]

#56 | Elana Mullen
Team: Prince Racing
Seasons: 11 (None Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 1981-1989 (Debuted in 1979)
Starts: 192
Wins: 3 | 1985 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 18
Top 10s: 26
First Race: 1979 Atlanta 500
Last Race: 1989 Talladega Winn Dixie 500

Elana Mullen wasn't the first female driver to participate in a Cup Series event.... Hell, she wasn't even the first female driver to win a race! However, that hasn't stopped many of today's female drivers from naming Elana Mullen and her story as what inspired them to become a racecar driver. Elana didn't come from South-Centeral Nowhere though. Born as Elana Krenic in 1957, Her father was a mechanic for one of the NRC's open-wheel series teams. Having been around racing pretty much all her life because of this, Elana eventually began racing in her late teens. It wasn't easy, after all this is 1970's America we're talking about. Elana had to practically fight for every opportunity she got early on in her career. Once she entered in the Sportsman division, however, things changed. She began to win races and consistently run up front each race. After a couple of years, she tried to break through into the Cup Series, with limited success. She did have to take a break in 1980, however, as by this point, she had met Zachary Mullen (who competed in NHRA drag racing), married him, and together had a child - John Mullen, whom would go on to have success in the Cup Series himself..... Afterwards, while Elana wouldn't compete in every race each season, she would race what was more or less considered full-time from 1981 through to 1988. While she would run in the back half of the top 10 in most races, it seemed like that's where she would stay. After all, this is the same time period in which Eric Reinhardt, Homer Parsley, Chandler Riles, and a slew of other more dominant and successful drivers were all competing as well. No one would've thought that Elana would win a race in her career, even though she clearly had the talent to race. She would eventually break through, winning the 1985 Daytona 500. Over the course of the next couple of seasons, she was able to earn another two victories. Unfortunately, Elana would be killed in a crash at Talladega in 1989, cutting short what many would've considered a successful career.....

Schemes:
1985 7-Eleven - In 1985's season-opening Daytona 500, Elana Mullen would become the first female driver to win the biggest event in all of stock-car racing, and to this day is the only female driver to have done so. Today, a multitude of female drivers compete on a weekly basis, and as mentioned earlier, attribute Elana Mullen as the reason they started racing. Elana's son, John Mullen, would not only become a Cup Series driver himself, but also managed to get his own Daytona 500 victory, and a Cup Series championship to boot during his career. While it is generally agreed that while Elana might not have ever been a champion of the sport herself, it is agreed that she does have something a lot of other drivers don't: A legacy in the sport that is continued even to this day..... The scheme presented for her in the Legends sub-set is the one she drove for most of the 1985 season, including that Daytona 500 victory.

 

[Jacob Craigo]

#42 | Jerry Walker
Team: Chuck Rinsci Racing
Seasons: 33 (32 Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 1977-2008 (Debuted in 1976)
Starts: 936
Wins: 0 (Best Finish: 2nd)
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 273
Top 10s: 362
First Race: 1976 Wilkes County 400
Last Race: 2008 Ford 400

While he never had any victories in the Cup Series, Jerry Walker does have the longest career of any driver in Cup Series History, which earned him a spot in the Legend Drivers section. As you can imagine, he drove for a plethora of teams, and even at times was a teammate to a few other Legends drivers that will be mentioned here! Despite having drove for several teams throughout the 1990s, Jerry Walker had picked up a lucrative sponsorship deal with the Coors Brewing Company, which made him a very sought-after driver despite his usual not-quite-top-10 finishes. In 1998, he would wind up at WADCO Racing, driving the at-the-time infamous #42 Chevy, the flagship car for the organization. However, in late 2000 Chuck Rinsci of Endurance and Champcar fame stepped in and bought a majority stake of the team, thus transforming it into "Chuck Rinsci Racing With Mickey Wraites". It was there that Walker would race until his retirement.

Schemes:
2001 Coors Light - In addition to the mouthful of a team name, the CRR also switched to the new Dodge platform for 2001, and Walker's sponsor switched their branding on the #42 car from Coors to Coors Light. With it, a new metallic silver scheme was unveiled, immediately dubbed the Silver Bullet. However, despite the build up of excitement for the season, it started as a hellscape, especially for Jerry Walker. Just like in real life with Sterling Marlin, Walker's and Eric Reinhardt's car made the smallest bit of contact in turns 3 and 4 of the Daytona 500, which may have contributed to Reinhardt's fatal wreck. And just like with Marlin again, Walker faced many of the same problems in the following weeks - including but not limited to death threats - to the point where Eric Reinhardt Jr had to step in and tell the fans to stop. Despite all of the negativity surrounding the early part of the 2001 season, the team - and Walker - soldiered on.

2003 Target - In 2003, Jerry saw a change in sponsorship as Coors moved to a teammate. Target jumped aboard the #42, a partnership that would last beyond the rest of Jerry's career. For Walker, 2003 was his best statistical season, with 11 top 5s and 16 top 10s. However, about the only stat block where he wasn't at his best was his points finish, which was 16th. Normally, his finishes of roughly 11th-20th would allow him to sneak into the top 10 in points sometimes, but the consistency shown by many of the top drivers that year relegated him down further than he would've liked.

2008 Target - In his later years of racing, many fans had noticed that Walker was edging closer to the near-mythical count of 1000 starts, a feat no other driver had come anywhere close to. Much of the NSCA community - fans, competitors, and even Walker himself - wanted to see him reach the milestone, but unfortunately Jerry's increased age and declining health all but forced him to retire from racing at the age of 64 at the end of the 2008 season. To date, no driver is anywhere near touching Walker's record of starts. The next closest driver would be Randy Carpenter, who has 88 less starts at 848.

2001 Chuck Rinsci Racing - As the world entered the 21st century, and the NSCA was thrust into the forefront of American culture, naturally it saw a rise in merchandise and licensing deals for it to appear in other aspects that shaped how fans interacted with the sport. Enter the realm of video games. As developers and publishers such as Papyrus and EA Sports started to delve into making NSCA racing games, the obvious appeal to kids made it clear that if you wanted to sell a game to everybody, you couldn't have any tobacco or alcohol branding in your game, thus game publishers (and die-cast car creators) had to work with teams that had "adult" products as sponsors to create alternative, kid-friendly/censored cars to avoid any potential issues. As Chuck Rinsci Racing was one such team, they opted to just have the team logo replace the Coors branding for their 2001 #42 car (and later the 2003 #41 car).

 

[Jacob Craigo]

#6 | George McReilly
Team: McReilly Racing
Seasons: 24 (22 Full-Time)
Active Seasons: 1991-2014
Starts: 798
Wins: 0 (Best Finish: 2nd)
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 417
Top 10s: 528
First Race: 1991 Daytona 500
Last Race: 2014 Ford Ecoboost 400

One of the many journeyman drivers in the Legends set, George McReilly never found victory lane in the Cup Series. Unlike some of the other non-winners that are part of the Legends sub-set of cars, however, he does hold a multitude of top 5s, more than most if not all of the drivers that you will see in the entire carset. He also is the most dominant driver of all time in the National Series, winning 5 championships and over 100 races in that series. A stern man, he drove for several teams during the 1990s, and at every one of them never got along with his teammates....... Or his own team..... It wasn't until he was released from Burlington Racing late in 2000 that he was forced to work on his people skills, as instead of trying to find a new ride, he would open his own team.

Schemes:
2002 Viagra - After making only 20 starts (attempting 26 races) on a partial schedule between the remaining races of 2000 and the entirety of 2001, McReilly Racing went full-time starting in 2002, with a lucrative sponsorship deal from Pfizer, advertising Viagra, Pfizer's line of erectile dysfunction treatment. Ever since the announcement, many jokes had arisen due to the partnership, even some are still made to this day.....

2002 Pfizer - However, mid-way through the 2002 season, Pfizer came under fire due to an investigation from the FDA involving Viagra. Pfizer for the duration of the investigation replaced the Viagra decals on the #6 Dodge that George McReilly drove with generic Pfizer branding. After the investigation was concluded, the Viagra logos returned.

2006 AAA - After 2005, the deal with Pfizer ended, and the pharmaceutical company decided not to renew their sponsorship. The team then turned to other companies to fund the 2006 season and beyond. The American Automobile Association, or AAA, signed on what was initially a 5-year contract to be the primary sponsor for the #6 team. However, after 2007, and with the expected results not being there like the team hoped, AAA left the team after only 2 years. After floundering for another two years after that, the team dipped down to the National Series, where they were able to build up an exceptional platform.

2002 George McReilly - As the world entered the 21st century, and the NSCA was thrust into the forefront of American culture, naturally it saw a rise in merchandise and licensing deals for it to appear in other aspects that shaped how fans interacted with the sport. Enter the realm of video games. As developers and publishers such as Papyrus and EA Sports started to delve into making NSCA racing games, the obvious appeal to kids made it clear that if you wanted to sell a game to everybody, you couldn't have any tobacco or alcohol branding in your game, thus game publishers (and die-cast car creators) had to work with teams that had "adult" products as sponsors to create alternative, kid-friendly/censored cars to avoid any potential issues. As McReilly Racing was one such team, they opted to replace not just the Viagra branding but also the Pfizer branding with George's name. In 2003, the team did switch to using Pfizer's logos on all kid-friendly mediums, though on packaging text and when the car was talked about in video games, it was still referred to as the "George McReilly" car.

 

[Jacob Craigo]

#91 | Marc Ivenetti
Team: Junior Robertson & Associates
Seasons: 1 (None full-time)
Active Seasons: None (Debuted in 1976)
Starts: 1
Wins: 1 | 1976 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
First Race: 1976 Daytona 500
Last Race: 1976 Daytona 500

It was 1975. The American Stock-Car Association and the National Racer's Club sporting bodies had just announced an immediate merger to form the NSCA. At the conclusion of the 1975 season, the NRC American Open Wheel series would be spun off into it's own league - the Indy Racing League - as many loyalists who either outright hated stock-car racing, or otherwise didn't want a sanctioning body that focused primarily on stock-car racing to run an open wheel series. This was for a variety of reasons, ranging from not wanting to be number 2 to a "lesser" series all the way to fearing that their type of racing would be killed off by the NSCA or worse sold off to the goons running Formula 1. Thus, the sanctioning body that would eventually turn into worldwide phenom Indycar was born. One prominent racing family that took up racing in the NRC AOW series were the Ivenettis. Born to Italian immigrants and racing under the Italian flag, Marc Ivenetti fell in love with racing at a young age, and would break through into the lower divisions of the NRC ladder shortly afterwards. Unlike most of the others who competed, Marc was more open-minded when it came to different forms of motorsports, even making a few starts in the ASCA Sportsman division during off-weekends from his primary focus. When the NSCA and IRL were formed, Marc was pressured to "choose sides" as it were, and eventually agreed to go full-time as an Indycar driver.

Schemes:
1976 Holly Farms (Daytona 500) - When signing the agreement to race in the Indy Racing League, however, Marc made it clear he wanted to at the very least show some goodwill to the stock-car community as a send off before committing to his open wheel duties, stating that he fully intended on racing in the 1976 Daytona 500. Now something you need to know about Marc was that he was a wheelman. If it had 4 wheels, he could win in it, it didn't matter if it was a brick or a literal airplane. Well by golly, somehow in the end, in what would wind up being his only career start, Marc Ivenetti won that inaugural Cup Series race on a cold February morning. He would spend the next 4 years racing in the IRL before moving on to Formula 1, where he would go on to win back-to-back championships in 1982 and 1983 before eventually returning to the States in 1987 to focus on Indycar racing.

 

[Jacob Craigo]

#8/#88 | Eric Reinhardt Jr.
Teams: Eric Reinhardt Inc. & All-Star Motorsports
Seasons: 19 (17 full-time)
Active Seasons: 2000-2016 (Debuted in 1998)
Starts: 596
Wins: 27 | 2-time Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 0
Top 5s: 1
Top 10s: 1
First Race: 1998 UAW-GM Quality 500
Last Race: 2016 Ford Ecoboost 400

Son of the legendary Eric Reinhardt, and the third-generation in the line of racers in the Reinhardt family, Eric Jr. has much to live up to. Following his father's death in the 2001 Daytona 500, Eric seemed almost lost in his way. But after coming back to Daytona in July and edging out teammate Cole Donnovan in what was then known as the Pepsi 400, Eric Jr seemed to begin healing mentally. It was Jr's first win since Atlanta the previous fall, and his first top 5 of the 2001 season after his 2nd place finish at Daytona in February. On the fanbase side of things, many of Sr's fans came to follow Jr as well, supporting him as much as they did the elder Reinhardt.

Schemes:
2001 Budweiser - The course of the 2001 season was a mixture of triumph and tragedy. The sport lost it's biggest star at the time, but almost lost in the sea of news that followed the 2001 Daytona 500 was that a son had lost his father. It took a while for Eric Reinhardt Jr to move past it, even after his victory when the NSCA returned to Daytona in July. But once he regained traction, he moved forward, and moved forward quickly.

2004 Budweiser (Daytona 500) - Reinhardt Jr. picked up several wins throughout the early-mid 2000s, and this included the 2004 Daytona 500, where he led 34 of the 200 laps. Driving a special paint scheme, Eric was able to capitalize on what was a race of attrition, where only 18 of the 43 drivers finished the event, and only 6 of those were on the lead lap.

2007 Budweiser - Unfortunately, many good things come and pass, and this included Eric Jr.'s time at the team his father had founded. Behind the scenes, things took a turn for the downhill. Eric Reinhardt Inc. was facing serious financial issues, even with some big names sponsorship-wise backing the team. After a difference in opinion on how to save the team with his team owner and step-mother, Eric left the team to try and find his own way, landing at Chuck Rinsci Racing for 2008.

2009 Amp Energy - Eric's tenure at CRR would be short lived, however, as All-Star Motorsports would pick up Jr for 2009, and where he would remain until he retired from full-time racing after the 2016 season. His first year at All-Star wouldn't be all that great. Whether it was due to a lack of self confidence, not-so-great equipment, bad crew chief decisions, or just pure bad luck, Jr would find himself outside the top 20 in points at season's end that year while his teammates would finish 2-3-4.

2010 National Guard - Between 2009 and 2010, several changes were made at All-Star to try and get all 4 teams to fire on all cylinders, and to the team's credit, it almost worked. While the team as a whole took a few steps back in terms of performance, it was Jr's team that saw forward progress despite this, finishing 14th in points and just barely missing the Chase. Over the course of the next 3 years afterwards, the #88 team continued to make steps forward.

2013 Diet Mountain Dew - Following the 2011 season, PepsiCo began yet another restructuring of the Amp Energy brand, which included bringing it back under the Mountain Dew fold like it was initially prior to 2006, and as a result, Eric Jr. saw the number of races with the Amp Energy logo on the hood cut down to just a few races. In it's place, Diet Dew was adorned on the now silver and green Chevy driven by the third generation driver, becoming yet another driver (kinda) in a long list of those who have driven the Dew colors proper. Despite 2013 being yet another winless season - his 4th of the 5 seasons he had raced at All-Star Motorsports up to that point - it would wind up being the closest he would come to winning a championship while in the #88.

2001 Eric Jr. - As the world entered the 21st century, and the NSCA was thrust into the forefront of American culture, naturally it saw a rise in merchandise and licensing deals for it to appear in other aspects that shaped how fans interacted with the sport. Enter the realm of video games. As developers and publishers such as Papyrus and EA Sports started to delve into making NSCA racing games, the obvious appeal to kids made it clear that if you wanted to sell a game to everybody, you couldn't have any tobacco or alcohol branding in your game, thus game publishers (and die-cast car creators) had to work with teams that had "adult" products as sponsors to create alternative, kid-friendly/censored cars to avoid any potential issues. As Eric Reinhardt Inc. was one of those teams, a creative use of the Budweiser name font was used to instead display Eric Jr.'s name on the car in Budweiser's place. Due to criticism over people feeling the logo was "too close" to looking like Bud's, the team switched to using Jr's personal branding in 2003, and switched it again in 2005 to just the team branding.

(ignore the fact that the #88 cars still have the Hendrick logo on them, they were updated after I rendered them)

 

[Jacob Craigo]

#56 | John Mullen
Team: Wolfpack Racing
Seasons: 21 (20 full-time)
Active Seasons: 2002-2016, 2018-2022 (Debuted in 2001)
Starts: 688
Wins: 18 | 2011 Daytona 500 Champion
Championships: 1 (2017)
Top 5s: 87
Top 10s: 131
First Race: 2001 Daytona 500
Last Race: 2022 Hooter 500

Son of the late Elana Mullen, John started his NSCA days for Ying Yang Racing in the late 1990s in the Truck Series. Out performing in the equipment, he caught the eye of Dillon Grayson, a former crew chief of Prince Racing, who went on to form his own team in 1999 - Wolfpack Racing. In 2000, Grayson hired Mullen to race for him in the National Series, with a part-time jump to Cup happening just the next year with a debut in the 2001 Daytona 500. In 2002, John went full-time with Wolfpack..... And as they say, the rest is history. Unfortunately, the team would begin to struggle financially in 2005 following the death of the team's founder, and after the 2005 season John moved on to different and (arguably better) opportunities. In 2008, the team was on the verge of shutting down and out be bought out by Blastham Motorsports, which then shut down only two years later itself. The tale of Wolfpack Racing is a tragic one, with many highs and lows, but it was where the career of one of the NSCA's modern day legends started, and that can never be tarnished by everything else surrounding the organization.

Schemes:
2002 Circle K - When Wolfpack Racing started out in the Cup Series, John obviously would need a sponsor. When Circle K stepped up, they thought it would last a while, but unfortunately, it only lasted a single season. The reasons behind the split were never made public, but it's rumored that one party didn't like how the other handled things, and the story on what things were being handled or which party disliked who changed from source to source. It looked like a decent partnership from the outside though, and it did give the team the opportunity to attract larger and better partners......

2003 Coca-Cola - And attract a bigger partner Wolfpack did! Coca-Cola would come aboard the #56 Dodge for 2003 and 2004, despite Pepsi being the "official soft drink of the NSCA" at the time. At the time, fans would joke about how John was the "kid-friendly" version of Eric Reinhardt Jr., being that they both drove candy-red colored cars with a beverage sponsor on it, due to Eric having Budweiser (Beer) while John ran with Coca-Cola (Soda).

2003 Goodyear - Coke wasn't the only sponsor for John to nab in 2003. Goodyear also decided to expand it's partnership with the NSCA by sponsoring John for the 2003 season. Unlike Coke, this would only last the one year. This wouldn't be the last time an NSCA partner would sponsor John, though. The team also saw a couple of associate sponsors leave, though despite this, the organization thought nothing of it at the time.

2004 Coca-Cola - Despite starting 2004 on a high note with several good finishes, the season fell apart as the Cup Series rolled into the summer months. Tragically, the owner and founder of the team - Dillon Grayson - would also pass away after suffering from cardiac arrest in early October. This left the team under the reigns on William Grayson, Dillon's son. Without his mentor and now having to fight to be heard within the team that brought him up to Cup, John's season closed out as his worst career points finish - 27th. Following the end of the year, Coke cut back to only an associate sponsor, and the team saw even more sponsors leave entirely.

2005 EA Sports - Going into 2005, it became clear that Dodge had started to reduce manufacturer support to Wolfpack in favor of other teams. The organization was hurting badly...... Thankfully for them, they found a new sponsor.... Unfortunately, it was Electronic Arts.... EA needed a new method to advertise to the motorsport market, seeing as how they had just lost the licenses to both Indycar and Formula 1 over the past couple of years, and really only had the NSCA left. Thus, they jumped aboard the #56, and later in the year would advertise that year's game on it: NSCA 06: Chase for the Cup (though the 2024 Legends version is from earlier in the season). It was a bad year for everyone involved, continuing a further spiral downward that eventually killed the team.

 

[Jacob Craigo]

Surprise! It's been... a month since I last posted! The Legends set is complete, BTW, I'm just gonna take my time releasing these though. The set shall also come around at some point in the near future!

#20 | Evan Miller
Team: Jan Tammus Racing
Seasons: 16 (15 full-time)
Active Seasons: 1996-2010 (Debuted in 1995)
Starts: 526
Wins: 71
Championships: 2 (2005, 2006)
Top 5s: 278
Top 10s: 397
First Race: 1995 New England 300
Last Race: 2010 Ford 400

In 1989 and 1990, Jan Tammus led the San Fransisco 49ers to back-to-back Super Bowls. In 1992, he opened his own NSCA race team, and in 1995, he won the Daytona 500 with Randy Carpenter as his driver. However, late into the season, after a multitude of issues both on track and behind closed doors, Carpenter wound up walking away from the team with a few races remaining in the season. Enter Evan Miller, a hotshot Champcar driver who was successful in that series, and got bored with it. So when a team in the top level of stock-car racing had a sudden vacancy, he put his name into the hat. After a couple of races with other drivers, Evan got the call, and immediately blew away any and all expectations with a 2nd place finish in his first career start. As they say, the rest is history, with Evan Miller racing for JTR until the end of 2008.

Schemes:
1999 Interstate Batteries - Ahead of the 1997 season, JTR found new sponsorship in the form of Interstate Batteries. The team saw success the during the few years that Interstate was primary sponsor. In the first three seasons, the team ran with NFL logos on the hood of the car as well, though a rule change headed into the 21st century did nix that.

2001 Home Depot - Going into 2001, Interstate moved over to the team's other car while The Home Depot took over full season for the #20. The season started big for Evan Miller, and not in a good way. Being sent for a violent and spectacular flip late into the 2001 Daytona 500, Miller was taken to the Halifax medical center a couple miles away from Daytona. While there were rumors that he would miss the next couple of races, he would be back the very next week at Rockingham, and would nearly win the race, being beat out by Buck Taylor for the victory.

2004 Home Depot - The partnership would continue through into the mid 2000s, and a new scheme was brought into the fold for 2004. Gone were the blocks/stripes, in were spiky swooshes, and a more saturated orange color. This is also the scheme that he would be behind the wheel of for his 2005 and 2006 championships before the scheme changed again.