NASCAR insiders offer alternative suggestion amid calls to end throwback weekend at Darlington

The future of throwback weekend at Darlington was the cause of much commotion in the NASCAR Cup Series this past weekend. Multiple drivers, including Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace and William Byron, were outspoken about their lack of interest in continuing the festivities at Darlington Raceway beyond 2025.

While fans and certain drivers alike have come out to oppose the idea of throwback weekend going the way of the dinosaur, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic offered up an alternative. During the latest episode of their The Teardown podcast, the duo explained how NASCAR can still have all the fun of throwback weekend, just without the retro paint schemes.

“I think everybody’s conflating the paint schemes with the weekend as a whole,” Gluck proclaimed. “The paint schemes, I could see people saying, ‘been done, ‘It’s been done. We’ve thrown back to everything we can do. How many more tributes can we do?’ There’s either obscure ones or, you know, ones that have been done a zillion times. I get where they’re coming from at that.

“But the weekend as a whole? It’s really cool to celebrate NASCAR history. NASCAR history is badass. Let’s keep doing that. Let’s keep figuring out a way to do that. It doesn’t need to involve the paint schemes, in my opinion. If you want to do them, great.”

Evidently, Bianchi agrees with his partner on the matter. While the throwback paint schemes might have run their course, the celebration of NASCAR’s illustrious history should continue at Darlington in the coming years.

“I love that idea. I love that idea of making it a celebration of NASCAR history without the paint schemes, because I love everything about that. I love the fact that NASCAR does a really good job of bringing out the legends and incorporating them. It’s like an old-timers game of baseball. It’s always cool to see the guys you watch as a kid out there. I think you need that. I think they do a really good job of that. This is a great place for it. This is Darlington. It doesn’t get any better than this. This is really, really cool. And I love that,” Bianchi added.

“The paint scheme thing, I think you can separate that. If a team wants to take part of it, great. And there’s no pressure or anything like that. But keep the celebration. Keep this as the Hall of Fame, legend, history of the sport weekend. I think that’s a good thing about this. It’s one of the nice things that this weekend has, is this has become that. It’s a signature thing that you look at and like, ‘Oh yeah, Darlington, that’s gonna be throwback weekend.’

“Let’s figure out the revival. Let’s figure out a different name for it. I love it. I think it’s a great idea. And we can move away from the paint schemes. It becomes less about that, what they’re gonna be, again — it just becomes a little bit redundant. We’re also getting to a point of like, what is there, again, what is there to do? We’ve seen them all. So, I’m okay with that.”

All told, it’ll be interesting to see what NASCAR decides to do. The fans love throwback weekend, but the drivers aren’t hiding their true feelings on the matter any longer. We’ll just have to wait and see if the status quo remains, or if Darlington will have to adjust next spring.