NASCAR confirms new order that severely impacts throwback weekend at Darlington

Since 2015, the spring NASCAR Cup Series race at Darlington Speedway has been known as throwback weekend. It could look a lot different in 2026, however.

According to Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, NASCAR will no longer ask teams to do throwback paint schemes for Darlington in March. NASCAR will still use the weekend to honor the league’s history and alumni with a parade which includes appearances by former drivers.

Of course, there will be teams that bring out throwback schemes. But going forward, NASCAR won’t be outright asking for it.

Darlington throwback weekend in danger of going away?

The throwback schemes have always been the main attraction of the weekend. Last season, 19 drivers in total used a throwback scheme. Denny Hamlin ran a Carl Edwards-inspired Sports Clips car and drove it to Victory Lane. Hamlin discussed on the following week’s “Actions Detrimental” podcast the challenges teams face in attempting to run throwback schemes.

“I hear both sides of the argument. It’s tough to keep the enthusiasm of it and I think it’s lost some enthusiasm,” Hamlin said. “I hear the other arguments of it’s not about the paint schemes even though that’s typically what this was founded on was we’re gonna have a retro paint scheme. But again, the world has changed. We don’t have sponsors in our sport now that are on these cars for 20-some races. And I think The Teardown did a good job of pinpointing this.

“When you got sponsors on the cars for three or four races, they’re not going to give up one of their races to change their logo, change their colors, change their brand. You’re not giving them value doing that. When it’s a sponsor-driven sport, sponsors are going to drive what you see. That’s the model that we’ve got, and we just have to accept it.”

Opinion has been divided in the garage. Chase Elliott flat out said last year “we’ve rode the horse to death.” It appears NASCAR agrees.

“I feel like it got old 4-5 years ago,” Elliott said. “Not to be a downer. … If we kept doing it down the road, we’re gonna be throwing it back to me in 2018. … I think we’ve rode the horse to death.”