Rick Ware Racing’s Josh Bilicki will bring a modern take on a classic NASCAR design when he visits the Darlington Raceway in South Carolina for Throwback Weekend next month.
The Wisconsin driver will honor Lennie Pond, and his No. 54 Burger King that began a partnership with Pond in 1979.
“It’s an honor to have the opportunity to honor the late Lennie Pond this year at Darlington,” said Bilicki. “My friends at Insurance King are always very creative with their paint schemes, so when they came to me with this idea, I was all for it. Like myself, Lennie Pond worked very hard to get to the NASCAR Cup Series and turn his passion into a career. NASCAR was built around blue-collar workers like Lennie, so naturally, I felt that this was a great tribute.”
Next month at @TooToughToTame, we’re honoring the late Lennie Pond with this throwback paint scheme to match his Burger King car. As always, @insuranceking_ knocked it out of the park with this one. Read about it below. ??https://t.co/XrQ1Cp8IC9 pic.twitter.com/MXy3ruE2O7
— Josh Bilicki (@joshbilicki) April 14, 2021
Born in Ettrick, Virginia, Pond amassed 234 career starts in the Cup Series, with one win, and 88 top-ten finishes. He topped NASCAR legend Darrell Waltrip for the Rookie Of The Year title in 1973. Pond passed away in 2016 due to complications of cancer.
The scheme was modernized by Orion Biedrzycki, a designer based in Atlanta, Georgia. The scheme itself replicates the Burger King design well, with Insurance King replicating the classic branding.
“Insurance King approached me with the idea for this Lennie Pond-inspired design and I immediately loved,” Biedrzycki told TobyChristie.com. “One thing that I feel always misses the mark with the throwback schemes is the lack of contingency sponsors. I thought it’d be really cool to replicate those as well to make the scheme feel as authentic to the original as possible. If you look closely, each contingency sponsor is a play on “Insurance King” or something the company stands for, each based on the actual sponsor that was on the car back in the ’70s.”
Fans can see the No. 52 Lennie Pond throwback hit the track on Sunday, May 9th at 3:30 PM EST on FOX Sports 1 and the FOX Sports app.
