Team Penske Ready to Chase First Win of 2025 With Three Iconic Darlington Paint Schemes

It's been a confusing season for Team Penske. The three-car organization, which came into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign on its first-ever NASCAR Cup Series championship three-peat, has had some of the fastest cars in the field seemingly each race.

Yet, bad luck and circumstances have dictated finishes that haven't reflected that speed. But this week, the team hopes three iconic throwback paint schemes can help them shake off the funk in Sunday's Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway.

(Dale Earnhardt Jr. poses with his father's No. 2 Osterlund Racing car at Talladega Superspeedway in 2017. Photo Credit: Brian Lawdermilk/Getty Images)

Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Freightliner team will carry a familiar look for fans of seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt. No, it's not the black and silver paint scheme that Earnhardt made famous in his time at Richard Childress Racing, Cindric will drive the blue and yellow livery that Earnhardt piloted for the No. 2 Osterlund Racing team in his 1979 Rookie of the Year season and 1980 NASCAR Cup Series championship season.

Cindric is the 108th driver to run the No. 2 in the history of the NASCAR Cup Series, and the deuce has reached victory lane 102 times over the years. Four Team Penske drivers (Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Cindric) have combined to win 81 races with the No. 2 on the side of their race cars.

The racer, who has finished inside the top-10 twice this season, and has already amassed 159 laps led, will look to break through this weekend at Darlington Raceway. If he does, the No. 2 Team Penske entry will move to 82 triumphs all-time.

While Cindric has yet to record a top-10 finish at Darlington Raceway in NASCAR Cup Series competition, the driver scored a best finish of third and had three top-10s in six starts at the 1.366-mile speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Additionally, Cindric is coming off his best-career NASCAR Cup Series run at Darlington, which was a 13th-place finish last Fall.

(Dave Blaney (No. 32) leads a pack of cars during the 2006 Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo Credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Ryan Blaney will pay homage to his father Dave Blaney as he will pilot a No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse resembling his father's No. 32 Braun Racing entry from his NASCAR Xfinity Series win at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the Fall of 2006.

The only exception to the throwback scheme for Blaney is that his car features Dutch Boys blue instead of green like his father's car did. Team Penske even altered the number font for Blaney's No. 12 car this weekend to match the number font on Dave Blaney's Braun Racing machine.

The younger Blaney is a third-generation driver, who picked up the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series championship driving for Team Penske. Like his teammates, Blaney has recorded triple-digit laps led in the opening portion of the NASCAR Cup Series season as he has 148 laps led heading into Darlington Raceway.

While Blaney crashed out of both events at Darlington Raceway a season ago, both incidents were not of his doing. Prior to the double-DNF run at Darlington last year, Blaney had rounded himself into a consistent top-10 competitor at Darlington Raceway, a track that he initially struggled at early in his career.

(Cale Yarborough poses on top of the No. 11 Holly Farms Chevrolet that he drove for Junior Johnson and Associates in the 1970s. Photo Credit: ISC Archives)

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano and his No. 22 Team Penske team will throw it back to fellow three-time champion Cale Yarborough. Logano's Shell Pennzoil Ford will take on the look of Yarborough's 1976 Junior Johnson & Associates Holly Farms car.

Yarborough took home the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 1976, the first of three consecutive championships for the NASCAR Hall of Famer. The three straight titles by Yarborough was a feat that would not be accomplished again until Jimmie Johnson pulled it off in 2008 during a run of five consecutive championships.

Logano, who has racked up 260 laps led this season, finally was able to record his first top-10 finish of the season last weekend with an eighth-place run in the Cook Out 400 at Martinsville Speedway. Now, he'll look to build upon that momentum as he heads into a track, where he has performed very well over the years in Darlington.

The 36-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner has one win (Spring 2022), six top-fives, and 11 top-10 finishes in 22 career starts at Darlington Raceway over his career. He'll look to score another win and pay tribute to one of the greatest legends of the sport, who passed away in December 2023.

Featured Photo Credit: Team Penske