The "Justice League" movie paint schemes Hendrick Motorsports' Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne will drive Sunday at the Monster Energy Cup Series AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway are "against NASCAR's rules," according to Nick Bromberg of YAHOO SPORTS. The team yesterday unveiled the paint schemes and both cars have "distinctly different sides." This is a "problem within the framework of NASCAR's rules," as the racing circuit "explicitly prohibits cars that look different on each side." Earnhardt in a video posted yesterday to Twitter said, "I saw the car for the first time Friday and when I saw it I said, 'Hm, it has two different sides. I didn't think that was allowed in NASCAR.' So this is going to be fun to see how this plays out." A NASCAR spokesperson "confirmed the cars did not pass muster" and said that Hendrick would be "revealing redesigned paint schemes." Bromberg: "We're a bit baffled that a team as large as Hendrick Motorsports would make a blunder like this" (
SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 10/31).
AMERICAN PRIDE: The PyeongChang Games are 100 days away, and Xfinity today announced it is sponsoring Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 20 Toyota driven by Matt Kenseth this weekend with a paint scheme promoting Comcast's official deal with the USOC. Comcast has sponsored JGR under the Comcast Business banner, but this weekend's Cup race will mark the first time it is promoting in NASCAR the four-year USOC deal that it signed last December. Comcast Senior Dir of Sports Brand Marketing Matt Lederer said, "The fact that the race is just a few days after the 100-day celebration is perfect timing." Xfinity works with GMR Marketing for its sports marketing (Adam Stern, Staff Writer).
