"So Joey agreed to hide it in his shop. So many legendary cars.

Especially when it came to this particular paint scheme.

"Then you talk authenticity.

Only 26 drivers can make the claim that they have won in all three of NASCAR’s top series. Park said. So, almost a full month before the 2017 Darlington race we were already beginning the process of deciding what we would do for the 2018 Darlington race," Heidi Massey-Bong laughed as she said the words aloud.She is a senior business advisor at Shell Oil Company and has overseen its NASCAR sponsorships since 2007.

"Before we took anything to Roger Penske, our first meetings to talk about this idea specifically were in January 2018," said Jonathan Gibson, Penske Racing vice president of marketing and communications. "Massey-Bong was fully aware of that obstacle course.

At Penske Racing headquarters in Mooresville, North Carolina, that's hard to do. Park was then given a full-time ride in Earnhardt's No. In the end, there were about 20 versions of the paint scheme before it finally received the rubber stamp of approval.And during all of this, both the race team and Shell were in constant communication with Darlington Raceway and NASCAR. If you know anything about Roger Penske, then you know that he demands that, as well. For example, initially there was a lot of internal pushback to the idea of including so much black into the Park paint job. "Dale Earnhardt. A throwback paint job's path to the racetrack is more winding than any road course, ultimately weaving through dozens of departments and across at least that many desks. An idea so successful in its bringing back the past that everyone at the track spends all day sporting face-splitting The greatest source of that happiness are the race cars themselves, as teams up and down the grid roll out in paint jobs that pay homage to the past. 36 fill the grid in the XFINITY Series.

Now I just hope that I can make them -- and Steve -- proud." "I was all for it from the beginning," said Park, who has run an homage to that paint job (unofficial and not Pennzoil sponsored) himself in lower level races. Instead, he came back to run that Pennzoil machine for another season and a half.Now Park is coming back again, thanks to more than a year's worth of behind-the-scenes work. Gibson said, recalling a few incidents where fans unwittingly spilled Penske secrets via social media. "They always came back with, 'When are you going to run the Steve Park car?!'" He finished 5th in the point standings. ET, Darlington Raceway will once again take its place as the happiest place on NASCAR Earth. While black in 1998 was cool, Pennzoil's current corporate palate tries to avoid the color whenever possible.And perhaps the biggest hurdle of them all is certainly not a problem unique to Shell. Paul Andrews was replaced by crew chief Tony Gibson and the remainder of the season was one of highs and lows.

On Sunday at Darlington, they will be standing side-by-side again, this time alongside the actual race car, about to roll out at the racetrack where, in 2001, Park suffered an accident that many feared would end his career. I get to tell people a story, and ultimately that's what a project like this is about -- a paint scheme that tells a story. So many great moments. "A lot of people worked hard to make this happen.

It will be a secret for like 10 seconds." All articles, original art, and other entries are (c) Brock Beard. A throwback paint job's path to the racetrack is more winding than any road course, ultimately weaving through dozens of departments and across at least that many desks. "I am a New England racing guy, and Steve is a New England racing guy, and when I was 8 years old, he was driving this car," Logano said. "A big part of preserving that enjoyment is secrecy, keeping the newly wrapped car under wraps until the big day has arrived.