A new season of NASCAR Cup Series racing has finally arrived, as the season got underway on Monday with a rain-delayed Daytona 500.
Ryan Blaney returns as the reigning Cup Series champion, and leads a long list of contenders for the 2024 crown.
The offseason has seen plenty of driver and sponsor swaps, which means a new slate of paint schemes for 2024.
We’ll be keeping a ranking of every paint scheme to appear throughout the 2024 season, starting with the Daytona 500. Check back each week to see the new schemes that show up at tracks around the country.
Let’s start with the best of 2024 so far.
1
#84 Jimmie Johnson
This tribute to Richard Petty is brilliant from all angles, from the number design to the old-school horsepower mark on the hood.
2
#1 Ross Chastain
The light blue drop shadow inside the No. 1 really pulls this together.
3
#6 Brad Keselowski
Castrol red and green are legendary colors in all forms of motorsports, and the chrome number looks beautiful.
4
#23 Bubba Wallace
The fries sticking out of the red “container” seal this as one of Bubba Wallace’s best schemes.
5
#7 Corey LaJoie
A huge upgrade for LaJoie in the Daytona 500 compared to his usual 2023 schemes.
6
#48 Alex Bowman
Super vibrant, layered and detailed, and it’s the only purple car on the track in the Daytona 500.
7
#99 Daniel Suarez
Arguably the best number design and color in the entire field.
8
#20 Christopher Bell
They found a great way to merge the classic DeWalt yellow with the typical fluorescent green of typical Interstate Batteries schemes.
9
#24 William Byron
A throwback to the Jeff Gordon flame schemes of old, but I think there’s a little too much blank space to match those classics.
10
#60 David Ragan
Teal is an underused color outside of Aston Martin’s F1 team, and the RFK chrome numbers get this scheme some extra points.
11
#31 Daniel Hemric
It looks like one of those bottled yogurts. Very refreshing!
12
#21 Harrison Burton
The Wood Brothers never need to change this scheme, it’s a classic with decades of history.
13
#11 Denny Hamlin
A rare scheme where huge blocks of white space actually work without looking empty.
14
#4 Josh Berry
I’m not sure if I love this or hate it, but at least it’s bright.
15
#5 Kyle Larson
Nothing special or out of the ordinary for Larson, but as a baseline it’s one of the better looking cars in the field.
16
#16 AJ Allmendinger
Simple. but very clean and sharp.
17
#9 Chase Elliott
A switch to a blue primary color is a nice change from Elliott’s usual white scheme, and makes him a little easier to pick out on the track.
18
#8 Kyle Busch
It feels like Kyle Busch changes paint schemes every week since joining RCR, but he started the 2024 season off on a good foot.
19
#22 Joey Logano
A yellow Shell-Pennzoil car is a NASCAR classic by this point.
20
#12 Ryan Blaney
I’d like this more if the car didn’t have a blue hood and just went full highlighter-mobile.
21
#19 Chris Buescher
Not one of Buescher’s best.
22
#45 Tyler Reddick
Maybe a little too busy, but at least it’s not a flat black Monster car.
23
#19 Martin Truex Jr.
We’ve seen this similar Bass Pro scheme so many times. The orange is great, at least.
24
#10 Noah Gragson
If Martin Truex’s paint scheme had a slightly more buttoned-up cousin.
25
#3 Austin Dillon
The camo texture takes this a step below Truex.
26
#14 Chase Briscoe
The paint scheme definition of “not bad, not great.”
27
#41 Ryan Preece
Haas schemes have never been particularly flashy, in NASCAR or F1. This vaguely makes me think of shop class, so it’s mission accomplished.
28
#34 Michael McDowell
Standard fare for the Love’s car, but at least it’s vibrant and relatively different from everyone except Joey Logano.
29
#71 Zane Smith
Could have used something extra in the rear half of the car, but not a bad debut for Weather Tech.
30
#77 Carson Hocevar
Looks like something you turn in to the professor when you remember an hour before class that there’s a project due.
31
#42 John Hunter Nemechek
The light green outline of an actual tree going up the hood just comes across as a bunch of splotches.
32
#43 Erik Jones
A fairly boring scheme that’s totally overshadowed by teammate Jimmie Johnson’s Richard Petty scheme.
33
#2 Austin Cindric
There’s nothing wrong with this, but we’ve seen it a million times before.
34
#47 Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
This would look pretty sharp if it weren’t for the huge, contrasting red “boost” logo.
35
#62 Anthony Alfredo
This looks like a base scheme from iRacing that they slapped a logo on top of.
36
#38 Todd Gilliland
I’d give this a few more points if it had a bright number color. It all just looks a little dark.
37
#15 Riley Herbst
Monster has a sweet logo that could make for some very cool green cars, but this plain black scheme we’ve seen for years now is just… boring.
38
#54 Ty Gibbs
I’m not sure why Riley Herbst had a nice green outline on his door numbers and Ty Gibbs did not, but…. Ty Gibbs could use it.
39
#51 Justin Haley
It’s the Ty Gibbs Monster car without a cool logo on it.
40
#36 Kaz Grala
About what you’d expect for a non-charter car.
