The Best Movie Paint Schemes of All Time
Besides my various issues with the playoff format and Denny Hamlin getting completely screwed out of a deserved, long-awaited title, I won’t really offer much commentary on how the 2025 NASCAR season ended here.
Instead, I figure we should end this column’s regular posting for 2025 on a positive note and take a look at some of the best movie paint schemes to ever hit the track.
I’ve done some variation of this before, but this is after I’ve truly (I think) found every single one that’s ever run.
This is obviously a very subjective list, and at some point soon I’m going to poll the Frontstretch staff and compile a list of which stack up as staff favorites, but one more time around (might do it), to quote Soundgarden’s “The Day I Tried to Live”:
There weren’t enough schemes in the 1990s or the 2020s to really do a top-whatever — and let’s face it, the 2020s have in particular had a dearth of schemes (and the ones that have run aren’t particularly great-looking).
There’s really no qualifications, just whichever ones I liked in terms of idea or execution. First off, I narrowed it down to 12 honorable mentions:
- Morgan Shepherd, Goldeneye (1995)
- Jason Keller, Finding Nemo (2003)
- Brendan Gaughan, The Punisher (2004)
- Jeff Gordon, Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005)
- Bill Lester, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
- Bobby Labonte, Speed Racer (2008)
- Justin Allgaier & David Stremme, Star Trek (2009)
- Mike Wallace, Cowboys & Aliens (2011, mosaic car)
- Dale Earnhardt Jr., The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
- Tomy Drissi, Hercules (2014)
- Stanton Barrett, Navy Seals vs. Zombies (2015, Truck Series)
- Jimmie Johnson & Dale Earnhardt Jr., Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
10. Days of Thunder (1989-90)
I’m kinda sorta cheating here, since none of these schemes were ever actually run to promote Days of Thunder — rather, they were on track to film scenes for the movie. But in my mind, that’s equivalent to — if not superseding entirely — straight-up promotion.
While Days of Thunder certainly isn’t a perfect movie, it’s grown on me over the years and Tony Scott was a master of his craft when it came to directing.
And to have rigs like the car in the YouTube thumbnail above, and more shown in that making-of documentary that NASCAR on FOX premiered back in 2020, was pretty awesome.
“They don’t make them like they used to” certainly applies to racing movies, and movies in general, as compared to Days of Thunder … but I hope Joseph Kosinski’s F1 and its practical production means there’s a return to that coming soon.
9. Danica Patrick, Wonder Woman (2017)
While I can’t speak to the success of either Danica Patrick’s career in NASCAR or Gal Gadot’s career on the big screen, I can’t deny that the No. 10’s Wonder Woman scheme at Kansas Speedway in 2017 wasn’t cool as hell.
It blends its colors extremely well, works in the movie’s title character — in three different poses, no less — perfectly and captures the essence of that movie. This isn’t to say Gadot wasn’t good in that movie (she is), but its disastrous sequel and everything else she’s been in since haven’t exactly done her any favors.
8. Dave Blaney & Scott Wimmer, The Fast and the Furious & 2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
I’m lumping these two schemes together because it’d be weird to have one without the other. I love a scheme that replicates what it’s referencing, and the Fast and the Furious franchise did that twofold at Dover Motor Speedway in 2003.
2 Fast 2 Furious came out that year, so for the then-Busch Series race, Scott Wimmer carried a resemblance to Brian O’Conner’s yellow Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII, right down to the square door designs..
The next day, Dave Blaney’s No. 77 Cup Car bore the orange-and-green of O’Conner’s (Paul Walker’s) 1994 Toyota Supra from the first film in the franchise, as well as that movie’s logo. But that film had come out two years before, so maybe they were trying to make up for an incredibly obvious missed opportunity.
Together, they’re a pair of incredibly striking cars, Blaney’s in particular. Just sucks that only Fast Five showed up on a car after that.
7. Kyle Busch, Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005)
It’s extremely hard to pick a favorite Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith scheme. They’re all great. But I lean toward Kyle Busch’s No. 5 he ran at Richmond Raceway here.
The movie itself holds a special spot for me.
It was the first Star Wars movie I remember anticipating (I was 7 when it came out), it was one of the first movie releases I remember being excited for and I thought Anakin Skywalker, specifically in that movie, was the coolest motherf—er ever. The crossed-lightsabers photo below has stuck with me ever since the promotional run for the movie.
Strangely, I don’t remember Busch’s scheme running — I would’ve been all over that diecast.
But it has all the characters, Mustafar on the hood, the lava along the sides and perfectly fit the night-race vibe at Richmond Raceway. Jeff Gordon’s was cool, too, though.
6. Ryan Newman, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
A diecast I need to get and a massively overlooked scheme, not just for movie cars but in general, is this beauty from Chicagoland Speedway.
While I can’t say the third Mummy movie got great reviews, it did get Brendan Fraser a paycheck and gave us this incredibly sick paint job on Newman’s car.
The dragons arcing along the side panels and the color palette are pretty perfect, and the red rims are the chef’s kiss on top.
5. Steve Park, Mission to Mars (2000)
Speaking of red planets on the hood of a racecar, a la Mustafar about 100-some words above this, let’s go back to 2000.
Brian De Palma, the director of classics like Scarface, The Untouchables and the first Mission: Impossible, did not turn in a stellar (pun intended) film this time around.
But it gave us this incredibly cool paint scheme, where the red, barren surface of Mars stretches across the hood and flanks of the car.
For as many random diecasts as they made back in the day, including tons of one-offs, I can’t believe this didn’t get one. It’d already be sitting on my shelf if they had.
4. Robby Gordon, Spider-Man (2002)
Few movie schemes are as fun as this car Robby Gordon ran back in 2002, and few superhero movies are as fun as Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy.
I loved the classic style of the character they used for the scheme, from the bright blue to the webbing of the door numbers.
It’s also always cool when these cars aren’t the exact same on both sides, and the No. 31 had Spidey’s face on the driver’s side and Green Goblin’s mask on the passenger side. Why wasn’t this a diecast either??
3. Tony Raines, Cars (2006)
For a third straight spot on this list: why didn’t this one get a diecast? Tony Raines’ Shrek the Third car can get one made, but this can’t??
Anyway, Raines’ Cars scheme clears any and all other Cars schemes, for any of the films, as the best of the bunch. It’s the perfect replica of Lightning McQueen’s livery from the movie and the closest number, too.
They should’ve changed his number to 95 for the one race, though.
2. John Andretti, Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones (2002)
As much as I love Busch’s Episode II car, we gotta go back to an era long past in NASCAR: the era where cars with completely different right and left sides were allowed.
In the vein of the Mike McLaughlin and Rodney Combs Black Flag / French’s schemes from the 1990s, John Andretti and the No. 43 crew had one hell of a striking scheme for the 2002 Coke 600.
Andretti’s driver’s side was all Jedi: Obi-Wan, Anakin, Yoda, Mace Windu and a clone trooper. On the right side, Jango Fett, bounty hunter Zam Wesell, Count Dooku and a clone trooper (the latter possibly hinting at things to come in III).
Planets behind the door numbers, eye-catching beyond belief. It’s a busy scheme, but appropriately so.
1. Kyle Busch, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Was there ever any other contender?
This was the first one-off scheme I remember downright loving and, besides Star Wars, the first to represent a movie I was actively looking forward to. I remember being little and watching all three Indiana Jones movies to that point, being terrified of Arnold Toht’s melting face (now one of my all-time favorite practical effects) and being excited for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
And then Kyle Busch, my 10-year-old self’s favorite driver at the time, goes out with this beauty at Darlington Raceway — and wins the whole damn thing.
From the M&M dressed as Indy on the hood to the mascots dressed as the movie characters on the sides, and from Harrison Ford himself on the quarter panel to the Maya script in stones in the background, this scheme was — and still is — perfect. I just wish the diecast wasn’t so expensive.
I still think Crystal Skull is the third-best movie in the franchise and that Temple of Doom is still the worst, but that’s a conversation for another day.
That’ll do it for my regular posting of articles for the 2025 season! Had a ton of fun putting together what I believe is the Internet’s only official NASCAR movie scheme archive throughout the season. I’ll see y’all in 2026!
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He’s freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek’s Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.
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