NEW YORK — Report by Race Chaser Online Managing Editor Jacob Seelman — Hendrick Motorsports image —
The rainbow is back for one last ride.
Courtesy of AXALTA and unveiled on “CBS This Morning” early Tuesday in New York, Jeff Gordon and Hendrick Motorsports have revealed a throwback paint scheme for Gordon’s final drive at Bristol Motor Speedway on Aug. 22 — replicating the famous “Rainbow Warriors” look that Gordon drove from his debut race in 1992 through the end of the 2000 NASCAR premier series season.
“It’s cool this paint scheme will appear on the No. 24 Axalta Chevy SS one more time,” said Gordon. “Ever since it was announced this year was my final season, the fans have been vocal on social media wanting us to run it again. Thanks to Axalta for allowing that to happen.”
Gordon piloted the #Rainbow24, designed by legendary motorsports artist Sam Bass, to three of his four Cup championships, 52 victories and 33 pole awards — including a million dollar payday in 1997 when he won R.J. Reynolds’ Winston Million bonus, joining Bill Elliott as the only other driver to do so.
“It is such an iconic paint scheme,” Gordon added after the reveal on CBS This Morning. “It is when I got introduced to NASCAR with – now Axalta, used to be DuPont – they are the ones who came out with this bright-colored paint scheme and the fans love it. Especially young fans, they were attracted to this car because it was so bright it always stood out. So it is exciting for them, exciting for us and for me to get to drive it again – it has been a long time, since 2000.”
“This is an exciting time for us. We realize race fans have always celebrated and appreciated this paint scheme,” said Nigel Budden, Axalta Vice President and Head of its North America business. “We could not be more thrilled to see the rainbow paint scheme hit the track one more time under the lights in Thunder Valley. It will be a tribute to our long history with Jeff Gordon and the No. 24 Team at Hendrick Motorsports. We owe it to fans and our long-time customers who love the sport.”
Gordon is currently in the midst of his final full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, and reiterated that he wants to go out one way — on top.
“I want to go out still being competitive,” he said. “I’d like to be a little more competitive than we’ve been this year, but we still have a lot of races left to go and I feel confident we’ve got a team that we can end on top.”
Gordon will return to the race track this Sunday, July 5, looking for his first Cup victory of the 2015 season in the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola (8 p.m. ET, NBC) from Daytona International Speedway. The four-time champion is a three-time winner of the annual Independence Day weekend classic, most recently in 2004.
Hendrick Motorsports contributed to this report.
