NASCAR Cup Series: Stewart-Haas Racing to honor 'Talladega Nights' at Talladega

Stewart-Haas initially teased the paint schemes with a video posted on their social media. Continuing with the teasers, Ryan Preece, driver of the #41 Ford Mustang, posted a video of toasting Wonder Bread . SHR announced the schemes with a depiction of a scene from the movie. Riffing off the line, Shake and Bake, Preece and Chase Briscoe coin the catchphrase “Preece and Chase”.

Stewart-Haas Racing has embraced the tribute. SHR changed their logo on Twitter, and Briscoe and Preece have been tweeting out lines from the movie.

Preece and Chase!

Ryan Preece and Chase Briscoe both were very excited in the press release posted to the SHR website. Preece said “Getting to have my teammate, Chase Briscoe, in the Old Spice car makes it all come together. The movie remains relevant after all these years, and there’s no better track than Talladega to work with your teammates. We’re going to have a lot of fun this weekend and I hope we get the No. 41 Wonder Bread Ford Mustang in victory lane.”

Briscoe continued the fun-loving attitude toward the paint scheme and the coming race weekend. He said, “Talladega Nights is one of my all-time favorite movies, and I’m really glad that Old Spice was on board to come back to Stewart-Haas Racing, we couldn’t do this Talladega Nights deal without them, and as a Tony Stewart fan who has gone on to drive his car, it’s really special to be the one to bring it back for all the fans.”

Stewart-Haas Racing’s 2023 Season:

Stewart-Haas Racing has had a terrible 2023 season. Briscoe is 30th in the points standings, even after a top-ten at Texas on Sunday. The #14 Ford Mustang has three top-five finishes and seven top-tens with only two DNFs. Briscoe last year, won his first Cup Series race at Phoenix in the spring and almost made the final four with a strong run at Martinsville.

Ryan Preece, in his first season with SHR, is sitting 25th in points, but he has not had an easy year either. He won the pole at Martinsville in the spring but only has one top-five finish, coming at Richmond. The most infamous highlight of his wild flip at Daytona. Preece got spun on the backstretch and flipped over a dozen times, with both his window net and the roof hatch coming open. Ryan was cleared to race the next weekend at Darlington but suffered broken blood vessels in and around his eyes.

Ford teams with the exclusion of Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing, have been terrible in 2023. Stewart-Haas is looking to turn their winless season around, especially with a retiring Kevin Harvick. The push to get an SHR Ford back into victory lane is there, and maybe a fun tribute to a popular movie in “ Talladega Nights” could bring some speed to the Ford team.

Stewart-Haas Racing will race the Yellawood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 1st, with coverage beginning at noon ET on NBC.