NASCAR JACKET – WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING – RACING CHAMPIONS APPAREL – XL NEW
BUY IT NOW – $79.99
What are you looking at here? Well, quite frankly, I’m not entirely sure. When it comes to WCW, I have a pretty good grasp on a lot of the going-ons within the company and their merchandise throughout their history but I know pretty much zilch when it comes to their NASCAR partnership. In cases like these, I usually end up contacting friend-of-the-site Mike Mackler from Spade Racing to fill me in on these details.
Was this an actual NASCAR jacket or a cheap replica for fans? Are replica NASCAR jackets for fans even a thing??
Mike: It is a replica–the real deal would cost around $800 for the Nomex (fire retardant material) alone. Racing Champions made apparel & (mostly) diecast cars for the lower level drivers.
There you have it — for only $79.99, you can own your very own Jerry Nadeau replica jacket representing the year he drove the #9 WCW car:
Is this jacket worth the money? I don’t know, but it’s there on eBay for a limited time! I’ve never seen one before, so if this is your jam, get in before you lose out!
40-year-old World Championship Wrestling fanatic/collector/hoarder. Safety officer by day, scanner of wrestling magazine by night.
He’s got posters on the wall, his favorite rock group’s KISS.
I’m a longtime NASCAR fan so maybe I can add some info. First, I’m thinking that’s not Jerry Nadeau. Most NASCAR promo shots have the driver standing next to the car in their firesuit holding their helmet in their arms. I know this was WCW and they do a lot of stuff backwards but this would be a decision made by the racing team and I don’t see why they wouldn’t show his face if they had him available when they took the shot.
Secondly, as Mike Mackler said, it is certainly not the real deal. They have always made twill jackets that mirror a driver’s firesuit and these have always been very popular. Nowadays, they are pretty elaborate with every little sponsor included, too. They run in the $100-$120 range. But even back in the 90s the highest end jackets were pretty much the same. This jacket looks to me to be a cheaper version and not the higher end version. Again, as Mike said, Racing Champions mostly made die-cast and really weren’t known for apparel so I’m sure they didn’t pay close attention to detail on it. Chase Authentics was the company that made the jackets for the bigger teams. Being a lower level team, this was probably the only choice they had to get a jacket made for them.
Awesome — thanks for the input. Still undecided whether or not I want this sucker to live in the back of my closet forever until I die and my future children end up throwing it away.
The Number 9 car owned by The late Harry Melling ran The WcW paint scheme in four races in 1999 with three different drivers Jerry Nadeau, Steve Grissom and Stacy Compton.
The reason Jerry Nadeau isn’t in the photo is he had moved to the 36 team mid season, After there driver Ernie Irvan had a Serious crash at The fall race at Michigan Speedway that year.
Also I Didn’t count the nWo/WcW and Goldberg themed ones that they ran as well.
Thanks.