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In NASCAR, and other motorsports, sponsorships are an important piece to a race team, as they provide the financial fuel that helps them compete. To stand out on Sunday, sponsors need to create a paint scheme that not only fits their brand, but catches the eyes of thousands at the race track, and millions more at home.

It doesn’t take much to make a good paint scheme. As long as it’s not too simple, has color combinations that make sense and logos that are legible, you have yourself a pretty good paint scheme, but there are few designs that become iconic, and in this edition of Sam’s Soapbox, I will explain my three picks for NASCAR’s most iconic paint schemes.

The first entry on this list is none other than Richard Petty’s famous #43 STP paint scheme.

STP was one of the first big companies to sponsor a NASCAR race car when they donned the hood and quarter panels of Petty’s Dodge Charger in the 1972 season-opener at Riverside, California. Initially, Petty refused for the car to have any of STP’s Day-Glo red, preferring to retain only the already-iconic Petty blue on his race car.

Petty and STP would reach a compromise before the next race at Daytona, and from that point until his retirement, the colors of Day-Glo red and Petty blue would stay with King Richard through many iconic moments. These include backing him in four of his seven championships, his seventh and final Daytona 500 win in 1981, his 200th race victory in 1984 and his final race at Atlanta in 1992.

The scheme has gone through various iterations throughout its history, remaining the primary sponsor of the #43 car even after Petty’s retirement until the 1999 season. STP’s involvement with the team has been reduced in the last two decades, but their history with Richard Petty will be forever ingrained in the NASCAR books.

Moving from one seven-time champion to another, the next entry on this list belongs to Dale Earnhardt and the GM Goodwrench #3 car.

After sporting the Wrangler colors of yellow and blue for most of the 1980’s, Dale Earnhardt and his #3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet would debut the Goodwrench black and silver paint scheme for 1988.

The paint scheme would see little changes throughout its run, as Earnhardt dominated the first half of the 1990’s by winning championships in 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1994, submitting his legacy as “The Intimidator” and “The Man in Black.” One of the small changes made to the paint scheme came in the 1998 Daytona 500, where the regular Goodwrench logo on the hood was replaced with a red “Plus” script, and it would be in this car that Earnhardt would break a 20-year losing streak in the Great American Race.

After Earnhardt’s untimely death during the 2001 Daytona 500, the paint scheme was retired, and the #3 would not be used on a Cup Series car again until 2014. Even though the black and silver #3 Goodwrench Chevy no longer roams NASCAR’s tracks, its legacy and that of its iconic driver will never be forgotten.

In stark contrast to the black and silver colors of Earnhardt’s famous ride, the final entry on this list is the colorful livery of Jeff Gordon’s 1990’s DuPont Chevrolet.

Funnily enough, the DuPont #24 made its debut in the very same race as Richard Petty’s last race in the STP #43 at the 1992 season finale in Atlanta.

The paint scheme, which contributed to the “Rainbow Warriors” nickname given to its pit crew, fueled Gordon to three championships in 1995, 1997 and 1998. The 1998 season was especially dominant for Gordon, who tied a modern era record of 13 wins in a season, a mark previously set by Petty in 1975.

The Rainbow Warrior paint scheme would stay the same through the year 2000, as in 2001, DuPont switched to the also-beloved flame paint scheme, but the original is still considered a classic by many, and it has been thrown back to numerous times in 2004, 2015 and 2018.

Whether you loved or hated Jeff Gordon, it’s hard to argue against his 1990’s DuPont paint scheme being one of NASCAR’s most iconic looks.

If you’ve ever looked inside a NASCAR history book, you would have a hard time avoiding photos of any of these three paint schemes. On their own, each one of them look good in their own right, but it’s through the legends associated with them where these paint schemes became iconic.