NASCAR: Tony Stewart ‘unrecognizable’ at Talladega

Tony Stewart’s image on the side of Chase Briscoe’s car for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway drew a few laughs.

Three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Tony Stewart is back in the Fox Sports broadcast booth alongside Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer for Sunday’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Sunday’s race marks Stewart’s sixth booth appearance of the 2023 season and his first since the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway back on Easter Sunday two weeks ago.

He is also back on board the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing car, which he last drove in the 2016 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway before retiring from Cup Series competition. But in the GEICO 500, he is back as a part of the paint scheme.

The “You Old Goat” paint scheme on Chase Briscoe’s No. 14 Ford, which was made possible by primary sponsor Mahindra Tractors, features an image of Stewart drinking a cup of coffee in front of several thousand “fan mail” letters, a nod to some of the recent Mahindra commercials in which Stewart and Briscoe have appeared together.

Take a look at Chase Briscoe’s Tony Stewart paint scheme for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

The Stewart rendering drew quite a few responses, many of which sharing the same sentiment: that the image looks nothing like “Smoke” and that nobody would have recognized him had they not been specifically told it was supposed to be him.

All in all, however, it has people talking and has drawn quite a bit of attention, which is exactly what you’re looking for as a sponsor of a NASCAR Cup car. That is certainly no different for the Indian agricultural machinery manufacturer.

FanDuel Sportsbook lists Briscoe’s odds to win the 188-lap race around the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked Lincoln, Alabama oval at +3000 (bet $100 to win $3,000).

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The GEICO 500 is set to be broadcast live on Fox from Talladega Superspeedway beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 23. Begin a free trial of FuboTV if you haven’t already done so!