Lionel Racing has opened its 2026 NASCAR Authentics season with a Wave 1 lineup built entirely around Darlington's Throwback weekend, one of the sport's most anticipated events for liveries that pay tribute to NASCAR's history. The wave covers six drivers at 1:64 scale: Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron, and Sammy Smith, according to coverage from dailydownforce.com.
Darlington Throwback liveries are consistently among the most collected NASCAR diecast releases of any given season, since each car reimagines a driver's paint scheme around a specific era or predecessor rather than running the team's standard livery. That makes Wave 1 more of an event release than a routine restock for collectors who specifically chase Throwback weekend.
With six drivers covering a range of teams and manufacturers, Wave 1 gives collectors several entry points depending on which driver or throwback theme they follow, and it sets the tone for how the rest of Lionel Racing's 2026 NASCAR Authentics lineup is likely to roll out across the season. Opening a season with a Throwback-focused wave rather than a standard driver assortment also signals that Lionel Racing expects strong early interest, since Darlington weekend consistently ranks among NASCAR's most-watched events for diecast releases specifically.
Throwback weekend has become one of NASCAR's signature traditions, and the diecast tied to it tends to reflect that. Unlike a standard season livery that stays consistent across most races, a Throwback scheme is typically a one-race-only design, which makes the diecast version a more limited snapshot than a driver's regular paint job.
That one-off nature is exactly what drives collector interest, since a Throwback casting captures a livery collectors may never see repeated on that driver's car again. Wave 1 pulling from six different teams also means fans of manufacturers across the Cup Series field have a reason to pick up at least one car from the release.
Cindric, Larson, Blaney, Logano, Byron, and Smith also represent a mix of veteran contenders and newer Cup Series names, which broadens Wave 1's appeal beyond fans of any single team. That spread is part of why Throwback waves tend to sell through faster than a single-driver release, since the diecast draws interest from overlapping but distinct fan bases at once.
The six confirmed drivers in Wave 1 are Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron, and Sammy Smith, each represented in their respective Darlington Throwback scheme at 1:64 scale. Lionel Racing's Authentics line typically ships these in individual window boxes, similar in format to other premium 1:64 diecast lines, which means each car needs its own protection rather than relying on a single shared case.
Collectors building out a full Wave 1 set should expect the six cars to box up similarly in size, making a uniform protection approach across the whole set more practical than mixing case styles car by car. A crystal-clear 1/64-scale diecast protector case works across boxed releases like this, keeping each Darlington car shielded without needing a different case for every driver.
NASCAR collectors chasing a full season's worth of releases, or even just every Throwback weekend car across multiple years, tend to run into the same display problem: individual window boxes eat up shelf space fast once a collection grows past a handful of cars. Grouping a Wave 1 set together in a shared showcase keeps the six-car release visually intact instead of scattering it across a shelf alongside unrelated liveries.
An aluminum-framed acrylic showcase gives a themed release like Wave 1 a dedicated display space, which matters more for event-specific liveries like Darlington Throwback than it does for a driver's standard season car. Keeping a themed wave together also makes it easier to spot a missing driver at a glance, rather than searching through a mixed shelf of unrelated liveries every time a new release needs to be added.
Wave 1 includes Austin Cindric, Kyle Larson, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano, William Byron, and Sammy Smith.
Each car is built at 1:64 scale.
Wave 1 is built around Darlington Throwback weekend liveries.
Throwback schemes are typically one-race-only designs, making them a more limited snapshot than a driver's regular season livery.
They ship in similarly sized individual window boxes typical of Lionel Racing's Authentics line, though exact dimensions can vary slightly by casting.
Keep a full six-car Darlington Throwback set together and protected with an aluminum-framed acrylic showcase built for growing 1:64 diecast collections.
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