Noah Gragson turns back time and recreates Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s iconic NASCAR Xfinity debut paint scheme at Darlington 

NASCAR Cup Series driver for Front Row Motorsports (FRM), Noah Gragson is set to recreate Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s Xfinity debut paint scheme for the upcoming race at Darlington Raceway.

This weekend, NASCAR will host the 'Throwback Weekend' as the 1.366-mile oval in South Carolina celebrates its 75th year. Drivers will sport paint schemes from the past while Gragson will pay tribute to JR Motorsports owner Earnhardt Jr. His Beef-a-Roo-sponsored No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse will have the iconic black and red colors that Dale Jr. used in his very first NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

NASCAR reporter Joseph Srigley wrote about the same on X:

"[NoahGragson] and [FRM] will pay tribute to [Dale Jr.] at Darlington, with a paint scheme matching that of his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut."

Gragson competed in the No. 9 Chevy for Earnhardt Jr.'s team, JR Motorsports, for four years before moving to the Cup Series. He collected 13 wins with the team in the NASCAR Xfinity Series between 2019 and 2022.

FRM revealed Gragson's new paint scheme for Darlington in a video, which included clips of Dale Jr.'s debut at a South Carolina track in 1996.

"The First Ever," the team wrote on X.

The NASCAR Hall of Famer debuted in the Xfinity Series for his father's team, Dale Earnhardt, Inc., at Myrtle Beach Speedway. Dale Jr. retired from full-time racing in the late 2010s and currently works as a broadcaster for the NASCAR Cup Series at Amazon/TNT.

Meanwhile, Noah Gragson's sponsor, Beef-a-Roo, will also appear on the No. 4 Ford two more times this season. The midwestern restaurant brand will sponsor the races at World Wide Technology Raceway (September 7) and Kansas Speedway (September 28).

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"Doesn't take much to go from a good day to a bad" - Noah Gragson after 30th-place finish at Martinsville

Noah Gragson scored his worst finish of this season last week, at Martinsville Speedway. He qualified for the Cook Out 400 in 24th place and finished 29th. Gragson stayed in the top 25 during the first stage and moved up to 14th by the end of the second but was involved in a crash with RFK Racing's Chris Buescher, who finished in 24th place.

The 26-year-old has one top-10 finish so far this season and is ranked 32nd in the NASCAR Cup points standings.

"The car wasn't bad, just teetering on being right. Worked on making air pressure adjustments but didn't get it figured out. The lap times are so close together it doesn't take much to go from a good day to a bad," Noah Gragson said (va Speedway Digest).

The Goodyear 400, the eighth race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, is scheduled to begin at 3 pm ET on Sunday (April 6).