Back in 1992, Alan Kulwicki won NASCAR’s Winston Cup driving the #7 Ford sponsored by Hooters. He tragically died in a plane crash the following year after the race at Darlington, never getting the chance to defend his title. But at least his livery will be back again this year.
At the Southern 500 at Darlington early next month, Roush Fenway Racing driver Greg Biffle will sport a throwback Hooters livery on this #16 Ford Fusion in tribute to Kulwicki. But it’s not just Kulwicki he’ll be honoring.
The car will also wear the name FirstRespondersDay.org in order to promote the campaign to get America’s emergency services personnel a nationally recognized holiday. Though it has yet to receive congressional approval, the Hooters chain will offer free entrées to any first responders who come in with a valid ID on September 20.
However the lobbying effort turns out, we stand a decent chance of seeing the retro livery rolling down victory lane. Biffle has, after all, won the Sprint Cup race at Darlington twice, along with two poles, three top-five finishes and six top tens, leading 718 laps around “the track too tough to tame.” And that’s just in the Sprint Cup (as the top series is now known). Biffle was the first driver to win the championships in both the second-tier Busch (now Xfinity) Series and the Craftsman (now Camping World) Truck Series.
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