RACER's World Cup of Liveries: IndyCar, Round 2

After a bruising opening round, the IndyCar edition of the RACER World Cup of Liveries moves into the Group of 8.

As a quick recap, RACER's writers and editors came up a list of 16 contenders for IndyCar's all-time greatest color schemes. These were then randomly drawn into a series of head-to-head elimination match-ups, determined by your votes.

The readers have spoken, and eight of those initial 16 have been sent for an early shower. Here's how the initial match-ups ended:

Christian Fittipaldi's 1995 Walker Racing colors vs Al Unser Sr's 1970 "Johnny Lightning"
Winner: Al Unser Sr; Johnny Lightning; 70.2% of the vote.

The first match-up was also the most lopsided, with poor Christian Fittipaldi going up one of the most distinctive paint schemes in American open-wheel history. Fittipaldi's cause wasn't helped by us not being able to source a photo of the car from above, which would have revealed that his paint job was actually a Brazilian flag.

Robby Gordon's 1999 Eagle vs Will Power's 2016 Verizon colors
Winner: Robby Gordon's 1999 Eagle; 54.4% of the vote.

Power rocked several cool Verizon liveries during his years with Team Penske, but none were more eye-catching than the silver version from 2016. But it still wasn't enough to get him over the line against the paint scheme on Robby Gordon's Eagle Toyota from 1999. As one member of RACER's editorial team noted, "it integrated the eagle better than the works team did."

Sebastien Bourdais' McDonalds Newman/Haas vs the STP Paxton-Turbocar
Winner: STP Paxton-Turbocar; 54.9% of the vote.

It's not often that Sebastien Bourdais was beaten while he was driving a McDonald's-draped Panoz DP01, but here he's suffered a rare defeat, and at the hands of a car that never finished a race during its competitive career. But there's no arguing against the now-classic STP colors - even if there's room for debate about whether some other STP liveries were even better than this one.

Team Penske's 1993 Marlboro livery vs Jim Clark's Lotus 38 from 1965
Winner: Team Penske Marlboro; 51.8% of the vote.

Jim Clark's 1965 Indy-winner was eye-catching even by Lotus's standards, and it probably would have stood a solid chance against most other contenders in the opening round. But variations of the Marlboro livery that got Penske over the line here will be equally familiar to fans of everything from F1 to rallying, and perhaps it was these 'all-time classic' vibes that helped it take down one of the most instantly-recognizable color schemes of the 1960s

Josef Newgarden's PPG Team Penske colors vs Bobby Unser's 1975 Jorgensen AAR Offy
Winner: Unser's Jorgensen AAR livery; 53.7% of the vote.

Newgarden's PPG livery was the only current-era paint job to make the cut, and its core concept – a blue base with strategic use of bright color – looks a bit like a reinterpretation of the design that ultimately beat it. The Jorgensen livery on Uncle Bobby's No.48 AAR car looks glorious from every angle.

Jacques Villeneuve's 1995 Team Green Player's vs Target Chip Ganassi Racing
Winner: Target Chip Ganassi Racing; 53.3% of the vote.

A clash between two absolute 1990s heavyweights here - we emphasized the late-90s versions of Ganassi's Target cars as wielded by the likes of Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Juan Pablo Montoya over the later iterations. It was a bummer that these two were drawn against each other so early, but the voters have spoken and the Target Ganassi cars move ahead with a chance to add a Livery World Cup win to their numerous championships. Make some space in the trophy cabinet, Chip.

Parnelli Jones's 1963 "Ol' Calhoun" v Teo Fabi's 1989 Holbert Racing Quaker State March
Winner: Teo Fabi's Quaker State car; 51.7% of the vote.

This one was pretty close, and you wonder how it would have played out if you all could have seen the cars in person because Parnelli's 1963 Indy winner is absolutely glorious when viewed up close. Then again, Teo Fabi's Quaker State car had plenty going for it too, and that elegant green and white combo will now continue its pursuit of a Livery World Cup win to go with its victory at Mid-Ohio.

Pennzoil Chaparral 2K "Yellow Submarine" v Danny Sullivan's 1988 Miller High Life Penske
Winner: The Yellow Submarine; 55.6% of the vote.

A member of RACER's editorial staff suggested that the Yellow Submarine had an unfair advantage because the cars it adorned were so attractive (well, most of them). They had a point, but then again, the modern retreads of this livery have also looked pretty good.

Danny Sullivan's gold Miller High Life paint scheme also looked pretty good, but not good enough in this case to earn it the win. Team Penske goes 0-2 with metallic liveries.

So from our original starting line-up of 16, we're now at eight. Time to cut that to four. Once again, the match-ups have been determined by a random draw. Get voting.