Other Racecars

"Junior" #8 Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s #8 Budweiser Chevrolet Monte Carlo during a pit stop at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2006. "Junior" #8 is a red-colored 2003 Chevrolet Monte Carlo similar to the model used in the Sprint Cup Series prior to 2007. As his name suggests, he is voiced by 2004 Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and closely resembles the #8 Budweiser Chevrolet that Earnhardt, Jr. drove from his Sprint Cup début in 1999 until his departure to Hendrick Motorsports in 2008. The car's Budweiser stickers were replaced by Dale Earnhardt Inc. stickers which was from NASCAR games to avoid advertising beer in the first film. Junior is seen during the first race (Dinoco 400). When McQueen goes missing, Junior tells the Competition Racing Sports Network "I sure hope that Lightning is okay, I would hate to see anything bad happen to him". At the tie-breaker, Junior wishes The King good luck in his last race, as "you've been an inspiration to me". Junior is last seen at the Radiator Springs racing museum with The King and his wife Lynda, amazed by Doc Hudson's many season winnings during the 1950s. Junior does not appear in the video game. Mario Andretti #11 Mario Andretti voices his eponymous character, who is a former racecar that believes every day is a great day for racing. He is based on the 1967 Holman Moody Ford Fairlane that Andretti drove to victory lane in the 1967 Daytona 500. In the Spanish edition of the movie, Andretti is voiced by Spanish Formula One champion Fernando Alonso. A small green car seen beside Andretti at the entrance to pit lane is identified in the "Car Finder" game as Patty, Mario's personal assistant. She does not have a speaking role in the film. The actual Ford Fairlane that Andretti drove was rebuilt as a Mercury Cyclone, driven in 1971 by German F1 and sportscar driver Rolf Stommolen for his only NASCAR start at Talladega Superspeedway, then sold to Darrell Waltrip for use his five races in 1972 and the first half of the 1973 season. It later became a Sportsman racer for Waltrip, but was crashed in 1975 at the Permatex 300 Sportsman race (now NASCAR Nationwide Series race). Abandoned by its builder, Robert Gee (Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s maternal grandfather), it stayed there until a few NASCAR mechanics restored the car in the mid-1990s. Now restored in its 1972 Talladega configuration (1971 Cyclone) Waltrip used for his first Sprint Cup start (brown #95), it is displayed at his museum in Harrisburg, North Carolina. It will be part of an Andretti exhibit at the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2013.[21] Dinoco 400 contestants The initial race in Cars consists of 43 cars, just like a real NASCAR starting field, three of which proceed to the tie-breaker race in California. With the exception of Earnhardt, Jr.'s #8, plus The King, Chick Hicks, and Lightning McQueen, the remaining forty vehicles (and the corresponding teams' pit crews) appear only during the first race (the Dinoco 400 at the "Motor Speedway of the South") and most make only silent cameo appearances. Many of these cars are towed as wreckage after a massive crash deliberately ignited by #86 Chick Hicks during the race. As automobiles without speaking roles have no voice actors, these briefly visible characters are absent from the film's credits. Names and back stories were assigned to these vehicles (typically one crew chief and one of the forklift mechanics per race car) in the "Car Finder" game and the die-cast "Cars" toy line but these are not named characters in the original film.