What's in a name? Nowadays, for races, usually a title sponsor that graces the already long name indicating the race's location, and in NASCAR, typically the mileage of the race as well. Sometimes the sponsor names alone lend to amusing race titles — sometimes, the fans get involved and hijinks ensue. Don't believe me? Here's a list of some of the most absurd race names to grace NASCAR to-date.
My personal favorite. In 2021, Busch Beer left it up to the fans to pick the title sponsor for the Kansas Cup race with the following options: 'The Busch Latte 400,' 'Nectar of the Cobs 400,' 'For the Farmers 400,' and the 'Buschy McBusch Race 400.' Naturally, the final name won out, echoing the famous incident where the public were asked to name a research vessel, ultimately deciding upon Boaty McBoatface. But what truly made the Buschy McBusch Race 400 perfect is who ended up winning it -- Kyle Busch.
Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota Camry M&M's Mix, celebrates after winning in Kansas.
Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images
SpongeBob SquarePants 400
Jimmie Johnson, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Photo by: Action Sports Photography
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400
Race winner Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Toyota
Photo by: Lesley Ann Miller / Motorsport Images
Crown Royal Presents the Curtiss Shaver 400 at the Brickyard Powered by BigMachineRecords.com
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips at The Glen
This one is definitely fun to say, but anyone with limited or no racing knowledge will have no idea that this is the the title sponsor of a NASCAR race at Watkins Glen. Also, race names should normally avoid punctuations mid-sentence, but the most egregious example of that is still to come...
Axalta Faster. Tougher. Brighter. 200.
Please. Stop. For the 2016 Xfinity race at at Phoenix, Axalta decided to use all of the periods in its race title in a very awkward presentation that demands a superfluous amount of pauses. But keeping with the theme, it was Kyle Busch who put a period on the competition that day, leading 175 of 200 laps en route to the victory.
Race winner Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
Pork The Other White Meat 400
It took a skill I don't possess for the commentators to nonchalantly throw this title sponsor out there while calling the 2001 ARCA race at Atlanta. And this one is pushing it for the theme of NASCAR title sponsors since ARCA was technically its own entity then, but it was too good not to mention.
Hollywood has used NASCAR to promote new movies for years now, which has provided many unusual examples for race names. We'll let this one stand as the representative of them all ... a silent guardian if you will. The 2005 Michigan Cup race was promoting the first of Christoper Nolan's Batman movies and they wanted to make sure you knew it! They even had Batman literally begin the race by giving the command to start engines and the Batmobile was pacing the field, which was kind of awesome.
Batman gives the command to start the engines for the Batman Begins 400
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The 2022 Xfinity race at Martinsville somehow managed to fit a phone number, a website url and a message into its title, which is impressive if not a mouthful. The race also ended with Ty Gibbs punching Sam Mayer in the face, but hey, I'm sure they both knew exactly who to call before needing to start a dig.
Active Pest Control 200 Benefiting Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
This 2018 Truck race at Atlanta is an odd pairing, focusing on pest control for the first part before taking a turn into children's healthcare for the last half. It's not two messages you'd ever expect to see side-by-side, but it happened! And despite the title, it was all for a good cause as Active Pest Control was raising money and awareness for one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the country.
With context, this title sponsor makes perfect sense as this is obviously about the car battery brand, but for the unaware, it was certainly a striking name for NASCAR's many visits to Talladega Superspeedway -- one of the most dangerous tracks on the entire schedule with some of the biggest wrecks. DieHard was the title sponsor at NASCAR's biggest oval for much of the 1990s.
I think this one needs a few more 'Qs' to really be perfect. The Xfinity season-opener at Daytona was so close to having a normal name in 2017 and 2018, but Powershares, tagging the triple 'Q' on at the end, earns it a spot on this list. However, many simply omitted that bit and called it the Powershares 300.
Race winner Tyler Reddick, JR Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro
Photo by: Alexander Trienitz
URLs as race sponsors has always been clunky, and this is one of the prime examples of that, which graced the logos for Pocono Raceway in the early 2010s. To be fair, Go Bowling has been a great sponsor for the sport and has appeared at various events, eventually dropping the dot com portion of the title. And there are several other dot com race names that were just as worthy of joining this list, including some with really good messages. For example: MyAFibStory.com 400 and the TreatMyClot.com 300.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. celebrates
But this is only scratching the surface of unusual title sponsors and this sometimes beyond the world of stock car racing, so be sure to let us know what race title sponsors you can't seem to forget in the comments!
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