Texas Universities That Went Full Throttle & Raced in NASCAR

Anytime you watch a NASCAR race, you'll see many cars blazing by with some truly incredible paint jobs (most of the time). Sometimes you can see race cars sporting popular rock bands like Guns N Roses & Ghost or even find cars sponsored after famous YouTubers (like Eric Estepp, that contained names of his fans including one of our own).

Some colleges have sponsored race cars, like Texas Tech University based out of Lubbock, Texas A&M in College Station, even the University of Texas at Austin has had a race car sponsored after them.

Let's start with Texas Tech.

The most known Texas Tech NASCAR race car was seen in 2015.

Texas Motor Speedway held the Duck Commander 500 on April 11th. It was here that fans got to see the #32 Texas Tech Ford Fusion driven by Mike Bliss. The car was unveiled on Facebook just 3 days before the race, but you can see the car as it was at the track down below.

Jimmie Johnson would end up winning the race while the #32 car finished the race at 36th place, 6 laps down.

However that wasn't the first time people saw a Texas Tech University car at a NASCAR race.

The first time Texas Tech raced in NASCAR was back in 2011

People at the Texas Motor Speedway saw a black Texas Tech Ford Mustang race during the Nationwide O'Reilly Auto Parts Challenge on November 5, 2011. The #08 Mustang was driven by David Regan.

The #08 car sadly did not finish the race; the car retired due to an engine blowing up at lap 114. David Ragan would finish in 35th place.

Texas A&M raced a car in 2014

My favorite driver has always been Jeff Gordon, so it was surprising to find out that he did at one point drive a special Texas A&M paint scheme for his #24 car; which he went ahead & showed off the car at the school.

Jeff raced the Texas A&M #24 during the 2014 Duck Commander 500 and nearly won the race; he ended up finishing in 2nd place. Texas A&M would sponsor another car near the end of the 2024 season.

We can't forget the Texas Longhorns car in 2006

After the Texas Longhorns' undefeated 205 National Championship season, the school teamed up with Michael Waltrip for a special paint scheme on the #99 Aaron's Dream Machine Dodge Charger. The car would finish in 25th place at during the 2006 O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Let's see if we can see more Texas colleges appear in NASCAR races; my pick would be for a UTEP car with the number #95 on it. The city of El Paso was actually sponsored by NASCAR once; you can read that story here.

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EDIT: This article was originally published on October 19, 2023