Embarrassment for Joe Gibbs Racing as Early Leak Leaves NASCAR Fans Gutted

Christopher Bell has been on fire at the start of this NASCAR season. He became the first Cup Series racer to pull off three consecutive victories in the Next Gen car, with wins at Atlanta, COTA, and Phoenix. He came dangerously close to tying with Jimmie Johnson’s 2007 record before a pit stop mishap derailed his four-peat quest in Las Vegas. Still, in a remarkable start to the season, there is something else about Bell that is turning heads: his eye-catching paint schemes.

Mobil 1 logged the script of redemption for Bell after a rough end to the 2024 NASCAR season. It was going to be a revenge mode ON as the 30-year-old missed the Championship 4 due to race manipulation by Chevrolet at the Round of 8 finale at Martinsville. And to best represent this, Mobil1 came with a sleek and sharp white-black-and-red design, featuring the iconic Pegasus in flight, while Interstate Batteries powered four key races with a legacy-laced livery celebrating over three decades of partnership with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Then, to top it off, Bell was back with pangs of nostalgia on April 6 when he celebrated his racing roots to honor his mentor, one of the OG World of Outlaws members, and sprint car legend Rick Ferkel, with a vintage-inspired throwback at Darlington during NASCAR’s Throwback Weekend, turning laps in a scheme that bridged past and present. This scheme also incorporated DEWALT logos reminiscent of the brand’s earlier association with American Machine and Foundry. All good up to this point, but a leak from the Joe Gibbs Racing garage has left fans quite underwhelmed about his new scheme with Sport Clips.

When FedEx left the veteran at the end of 2024, ending a two-decade bond, Sport Clips, who has been traditionally associated with No. 11, was one of the sponsors to keep Denny Hamlin’s career afloat. But despite their dedication to Joe Gibbs, their creative team may lag a bit. In a NASCAR on Reddit post on Friday, we got a sneak peek into the No. 20’s Joe Gibbs Racing garage. The zoomed-in pictures featured a Sports Clips paint scheme, but instead of the No. 11, the car sported Christopher Bell’s No. 20 logo, and the interests immediately deflated. With the same old white, red, and black shades that we regularly see on Hamlin’s car, the ’20’ almost looks like it was spray-painted on top of the red-black blend in the background. This wildly contrasts with Christopher Bell‘s other paint schemes this year. Here, take a look:

Sport Clips has long been a steady presence in NASCAR, but when it comes to paint schemes, they’ve often played it safe, and some would say perhaps too safe. Known for their consistent red-and-white color palette, their liveries tend to lack the bold flair or creative risk-taking that make certain cars pop on the track.

A prime example is their 2023 scheme on Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota Camry, which looked nearly identical to versions used in prior seasons, drawing criticism from fans for being virtually indistinguishable from year to year. Hence, when the leak for their scheme for Christopher Bell surfaced, fans were not letting go of it.

In fact, the paint scheme loudly screams Hendrick Motorsports tactics. Yes! HMS celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Martinsville Speedway with four ruby red paint schemes for all four drivers in 2024. But, with no anniversaries on the line, it feels like a general mover for JGR, and that is exactly what NASCAR fans chimed in with.

Fans unhappy with Sport Clips’ scheme for Christopher Bell

Well, Sport Clips has had a long and resilient tenure with Joe Gibbs. The hair-cutting brand entered its 17th season as a proud sponsor of JGR. Yet somehow, their paint schemes never grab the attention of fans. That was evident in the recent picture on Reddit. If not for the 20 logo, fans would mistake it for Denny Hamlin’s No. 11. So a fan wrote about Sport Clips’ tradition of going drab, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Sportsclips wrap and have had a strong opinion on it. They’re always super mid schemes, very much ‘it is what it is’ energy. It’s fine, they’re all fine.” 

The monotonous nature of the paint scheme caught another fan’s attention. They wrote with a hilarious jab at Sport Clips’ creative team. “Of all the schemes I’ve ever seen, this is definitely one of them.”

Then, of course, Christopher Bell’s champion status also bugged a few fans. Why should a driver who broke so many records in the first five races of a Cup Series season have such a dull scheme? A fan lamented about the fate of Joe Gibbs’s 12-time Cup Series race winner. “It low key sucks when your driver never has good schemes lmao,” they wrote.

The design itself may look unappealing even to people unfamiliar with Hamlin’s car. The red, white, and black design had no striking aspect to it, as a fan dropped the perfect comparison: “This car is equivalent to unflavored ice cream.”

Joe Gibbs’s team rarely makes it to the best paint schemes of the year. That is despite the fact that one of his drivers, Denny Hamlin, always makes sure that 23XI Racing gets some of the snazziest schemes. This year, however, Hamlin’s scheme for Throwback Weekend at Darlington was special. The car paid tribute to Carl Edwards’ Office Depot-sponsored cars from early in his career, driving for Roush Racing. One fan quipped that it was probably the most interesting JGR scheme, although it was borrowed.

“Denny’s Carl Edwards throwback was probably one of their best, and it wasn’t even their paint scheme lol,” one fan mentioned.

Evidently, fans are not too impressed with Christopher Bell’s leaked paint scheme. We can only wait to see which race Sport Clips will appear on the No. 20 – but the reception is already not so good.