Wood Brothers Racing Reveals Indy 500-Winning 1965 Lotus-Inspired Darlington Throwback Paint Scheme

Wood Brothers Racing’s newest winner will be driving an old-looking car at Darlington Raceway.

The legendary NASCAR Cup Series racing team has debuted the paint scheme for Josh Berry’s No. 21 Ford Mustang Dark Horse that will be used for the upcoming Pennzoil 400 throwback weekend.

The design is inspired by the 1965 Indy 500-winning Lotus 38 driven by Jim Clark. It was the first mid-engine car to win the race and might seem like an odd choice for a Cup Series car, but there’s a very direct connection to Wood Brothers Racing.

The Lotus was powered by Ford and the automaker asked the team to provide a pit crew for the race, which brought along something special. It had developed a refueling system used a venturi tube that cut the time it took to get 58 gallons into the car from 1 minute ad 15 seconds to just 15 seconds. Clark only needed two stops and beat Parnelli Jones by nearly two minutes.

The car was unveiled at The Henry Ford museum alongside the Lotus 38, which is part of its collection.

Team president Jon Wood, who is the grandson of its co-founder Glen Wood, called Lotus founder Colin Champan’s son Clive to get permission to use the paint scheme as a tribute to the 60th anniversary of the win.

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“I’m trying my damnedest to make him understand what a throwback is, but they use words like livery and revival,” Wood said during the car’s reveal. “So I’m trying to translate from my hillbilly talk to words he’ll understand, and I think toward the very end, he sort of started to get it.”

Once he figured it out, Chapman gave the project his wholehearted support and a scheme incorporating the car’s current Ford Motorcraft sponsorship with the iconic British Racing Green was designed and includes old-fashioned script for Berry’s name above the door.

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Next to it, you’ll find the winner’s sticker he earned at Las Vegas, which was the team’s 101st all-time win. Wood Brothers Racing is NASCAR’s oldest continuous team and is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

Berry’s win was his first Cup Series victory and secured the team a spot in the NASCAR Playoffs for the second year in a row.