In the world of Disney and Pixar’s Cars, Racer Lightning McQueen is stuck in the town of Radiator Springs near Route 66 during the events of the first Cars film. Even though he initially doesn’t want to be there, Lightning warms up to the place, and eventually bases his racing team in the sleepy little town.

So the idea came to mind: what would McQueen’s team logo look like? So I threw around a few ideas, basing it loosely on some NASCAR team logos (Hendrick, Roush, Gibbs, RCR, Stewart-Haas, etc.), but eventually came to the conclusion of rooting it in racing, but evoking a little bit of “American Graphitti”. I wanted to logo to hearken back to the 50’s style of racing, but be respectful to current logos. So I started with Lightning’s colors (Red, Orange, Yellow), and the number style he had at the end of the first film, which is an homage to some of the Grand Prix cars of yesteryear. Add a lightning bold to separate team name and town name, and the final product was born.

Please not that this is an alternate logo that seems less busy than it’s primary counterpart, with the design evocative of license plates or a simple sign.