NASCAR driver Corey LaJoie became the first driver to cover the entire front of their car with their own face in a very surreal sponsorship deal

Corey LaJoie once turned his NASCAR Ford Mustang into what looked like a giant version of his own face, creating one of the most bizarre race car designs the sport had ever seen.

The No. 32 Go Fas Racing Ford appeared at the 2019 Daytona 500 with LaJoie’s eyes stretched across the hood, his beard running down the front, and the Mustang’s grille positioned where his mouth should have been.

The wild design came courtesy of an Old Spice sponsorship promoting its dry shampoo and quickly became one of the biggest talking points of Daytona Speedweeks.

While LaJoie was not literally the first NASCAR driver to have a human face featured on a race car, the sheer scale of his own face covering the front made the car particularly unusual.

Old Spice turned LaJoie’s NASCAR Mustang into his face

LaJoie joined Go Fas Racing for the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season, driving the team’s No. 32 Ford Mustang car.

Old Spice came on as the primary sponsor for the Daytona 500, but instead of simply plastering its logo across the car, the brand went for something considerably more memorable.

A huge image of LaJoie’s bearded face was wrapped across the front of the Ford Mustang, with the car’s grille deliberately positioned inside the image of his mouth – apart from his two front teeth.

His eyes sat across the hood while his hair appeared to flow down the sides of the car, making the entire vehicle look like it had transformed into its driver.

The result was particularly strange from the driver’s perspective because LaJoie was effectively sitting inside his own face while racing around Daytona at close to 200 mph.

The unusual car also generated plenty of attention before the race even started, and it was described as hilarious, terrifying and one of the most recognizable cars in the Daytona 500 field.

The face of Corey LaJoie did not survive Daytona unscathed

Unfortunately for LaJoie, the bizarre paint scheme did not make it through the Daytona 500 in one piece.

Early in the race, LaJoie flat-spotted his right-front tire during a green-flag pit stop. Around lap 21, the damaged tire failed, with the resulting debris and tire carcass causing significant damage to the car.

The damage was particularly unfortunate because the tire failure effectively shredded part of the giant face that had attracted so much attention throughout Speedweeks.

The Go Fas Racing crew managed to repair the Mustang and get LaJoie back onto the track, despite the extensive bodywork damage and lost laps, he eventually finished 18th in the Daytona 500, completing 200 laps.

The scheme proved so successful as a marketing stunt that Old Spice continued its partnership with LaJoie and the No. 32 for the following race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where the team again ran the fan-favorite design featuring LaJoie’s face across the hood.

For a sport where sponsorships can produce some pretty creative designs, turning an entire race car into the driver’s own enormous face he then drove inside, is pretty legendary, even for NASCAR.