The race car was the paint sample

In March 1992, Rick Hendrick watched a young Jeff Gordon win a Busch Series race at Atlanta in Bill Davis Racing's No. 1 Ford, and signed him along with crew chief Ray Evernham. That Busch car was not a DuPont car. The DuPont story started with what came next: a new Cup car that needed a look.

That summer, designer Sam Bass found it in DuPont's own logo. DuPont's automotive business sold paint, a whole range of colors for car makers and body shops. Bass's idea was to arch bands of color over the oval DuPont logo, so the car itself would show that range.

That is the part of the story most people skip. The rainbow wasn't decoration. For a company that sold automotive finishes, a car painted in a spectrum of its colors was a product demo doing 190 miles an hour on television.

What the rainbow won

Gordon made his Cup debut in the rainbow No. 24 at the Atlanta season finale on November 15, 1992, qualifying 21st and finishing 31st after a crash. What followed is one of the most successful driver-sponsor runs the sport has seen.

1. 1992Cup debut in the DuPont rainbow at the Atlanta finale.
2. 1993Wins a Daytona qualifying race. Rookie of the Year.
3. 1994Wins the first Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis.
4. 1995First Cup championship, with 7 wins.
5. 1997Second title, with 10 wins.
6. 1998Third title, with 13 wins, tying Richard Petty's modern-era record.
7. 2001New flames scheme. Fourth championship in DuPont colors.
8. 201220th anniversary: 86 wins, four titles, 250,000+ customers hosted at the track.
9. 2013DuPont's coatings business is sold and renamed Axalta. The program continues.
10. 2015Gordon's final full-time season, in Axalta colors.

The real audience was in the hospitality tent

Fans saw a paint scheme. DuPont's sales team saw a business-to-business program. Its NASCAR effort was built mainly around hosting customers, sometimes as many as 1,000 guests at a single race. About two-thirds of those guests paid $200 to $250 for a package that included time with Gordon, and some DuPont customers bought packages so they could host their own customers.

By the 20th anniversary in 2012, DuPont had entertained more than 250,000 customers at the track. When the recession hit, the program shrank instead of vanishing: from 17,000 guests at 37 races in 2008 to six races and fewer than 2,000 guests in 2009.

A driver who acted like an employee

Gordon worked the program. In the early years DuPont used about 15 of the 30 appearances in his contract. After the first championship it used more. Over time, production days such as commercials and photo shoots became even more valuable to the company than appearances.

Surviving a change of owner

In February 2013, the Carlyle Group completed its $4.9 billion purchase of DuPont Performance Coatings, the paint business behind the program, and renamed it Axalta Coating Systems. Plenty of sponsorships die when the company that signed them gets sold. This one changed its name and kept going.

Gordon ran his final full-time race at Homestead in November 2015 in a silver Axalta scheme with the familiar flames. Axalta stayed with Hendrick Motorsports afterward, and in 2020 extended its partnership with the team through the 2027 season.