Random Wax: 2025 Donruss NASCAR 4 Hobby Box Packs with Auto

2025 Donruss:  It's Father's Day and we'll kick it off with a NASCAR post for all the dads who like seeing these guys turn left.  And I'm one of those guys.  Michael Waltrip only had 4 Cup wins in his career, but he was always a great fun driver personality in the sport and he's still active as a NASCAR O'Reilly Series (minor leagues) and NASCAR Truck Series commentator.  His best seasons were 1994 and 1995 when he finished 12th in the rankings both seasons, and he's looking great on this Red Xplosion Auto #/49.

I don't like saying it every time, but this is a boring design.  Just nothing going on on the fronts that scream NASCAR or fun.  Driver car number?  A little car design?  Tire design?  Race track design?  Give me anything people!  "Hurricane" Hocevar is always fun to watch because you don't know what chaos he might bring to the track.  He's only 23 and did get his first win this season and looks to make the playoffs for the first time in his career.

Jesse Love won the 2025 O'Reilly Series Championship (minors).  He's shown on a Red and Blue Parallel.  Two more young drivers appear on these Rated Rookie cards.

Not a fan of Spellbound but pop is a big fan of Kyle Larson.  These inserts allow you to spell out a driver's name if you get all of their Spellbound cards.  Larson has won 2 Championships and is the reigning NASCAR champ.

These Race Kings grown on me more and more though maybe a bit more color around the border would help.  But still, I like that Donruss brought back the cars.  Denny Hamlin is the biggest personality in the sport and for the all the great drivers NASCAR has, there just aren't enough drivers with the big personalities the sport craves.

After winning 10 races in the O'Reilly Series (minors) last season, Connor Zilisch is now a rookie at the Cup level.  He's on a Spellbound Carolina Blue Ice Parallel #/199.

More youngsters in the sport.  Layne Riggs is one of the top drivers in the Truck Series.

And some all-time greats including three retired greats.  We get The King, Richard Petty, Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison both left the sport too soon.  Kulwicki won one championship but died shortly afterwards in a plane crash and Allison passed away at the height of his career in a helicopter crash.  Petty is the all-time winningest racer with 200 wins to go along with 7 Championships.  Joey Logano is no slouch winning 3 Championships of his own.

BREAKDOWN:

32 – Total Cards

5 – Retired Greats

4 – Red and Blue Parallel

2 – Race Kings

2 – Spellbound

2 – Rated Rookies

1 – Signature Series 

1 – Red Xplosion Parallel #/49

1 - Carolina Blue Ice Parallel #/99

Random Wax: 2025 Donruss NASCAR 4 Hobby Box Packs with Relic

2025 Donruss:  Kevin Harvick is one of the all-time greats in the sport.  He finished his career with 60 wins, 1 championship and finished top five in the season standings 5 times.  He's also a really good announcer and his podcast is a fun watch.  NASCAR is in Charlotte tonight for the Coca-Cola 600.

Ty Gibbs on this Red & Blue Parallel.  He got his first career win this season and has been very consistent after a rough start to the season.  Overall, this design doesn't do much for me and I find this year's set boring.  The 2026 set is supposed to bump up the card totals and hopefully bring back some of the fun.

The backs are fine but without a different photo it feels redundant.  We also need stats.  NASCAR is easy for stats.

You get one Optic per pack.  That Ricky Stenhouse Jr. is a Gold Parallel #10.

This Pedal to the Metal is #/99.  Checklist says it is a Red Parallel.  Is it really?  I do like this relic.

Coming Attractions, Season Highlights, Unleashed.  I like all three of these inserts.  That coming attraction is a Red Parallel #/99.  I like Unleashed the most but wish they had different backgrounds for different drivers or at least some variety.

That Matt Kenseth isa Red Parallel #/299.  I like that the set includes retired greats like Kenseth.  Zane Smith is one of my favorite drivers.  He's had an uneven third year of driving in the Cup Series but has seen some promising finishes.

This may appeal to some, but I don't get Spellbound.  It won't look right on a page of cards so I'm not sure what display options it would give you. 

And some Rated Rookies.  Yep, the Frankie Muniz from Malcom in the Middle.  After dominating much of the O'Reilly series (minor leagues) season last year, Connor Zilisch was the most anticipated rookie this season.

BREAKDOWN:
32 – Total Cards
5 – Rated Rookie
4 – Optic
4 – Retired Greats
3 – Red and Blue Parllel
1 - Unleashed
1 – Spellbound
1 – Gold Parallel #/10

1 - Red Parallel #/299
1 – Season Highlights
1 – Coming Attraction
1 – Pedal to the Metal Relic

2025 Donruss NASCAR 4 Hobby Box Packs with Relic

2025 Donruss:  The Daytona 500 today marks the start of the 2026 NASCAR season.  Denny Hamlin finished second in the 2025 season missing out on the championship with a heartbreaking loss at the end of the final race.  He's now tied for 10th all-time with 60 career wins.

Three of the better drivers at the Cup level which is the top tier in the sport.  Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott are two of my favorites in NASCAR.  Elliott is a 1X Champion and has finished top 10 in the standings in 9 of his 10 full-time Cup seasons.

The backs are colorful but with no stats or different photo it's hard to get too excited about them.

Three of my Optic pulls.  They are the same designs and photos of the base cards.  That Riley Herbst is a Red Parallel #/199.

Jeff Gordon is an all-time great with 4 NASCAR Championships and 93 wins, good for 3rd all-time.  Spellbound inserts allow you to spell out a driver's last name.  There are six Gordon Spellbound inserts with different letters, photos and colors.  Okay idea but not sure how you display them as putting them in binder pages won't do anything for you.

Plenty of youngsters to go around.  Some who have only raced in the lower NASCAR levels and some who have raced some at each.

Inserts including my Suited Up relic.  I really like the Unleashed look.  I do wish there were different animals behind each driver.  I like Coming Attractions as well.

Overall, I'm pretty disappointed with this set.  The design is okay.  Nothing more.  In years past there was also a second retro design that gave mit ore variety.  There were also different photos of each driver.  Feels like Panini just phoned it in.

A couple Red and Blue Parallels and a Purple Parallel #/99.

We'll end it with a driver you either loved or hated in Darrell Waltrip.  I liked him and enjoyed him quite a bit as an announcer.  He won 3 NASCAR Championships and finished with 84 wins which is 5th all-time.  I'll show off more of these over time.

BREAKDOWN:

32 – Total Cards

6 – Retired Greats

4 – Optic

3 – Red and Blue Parallels

2 – Spellbound

1 – Unleashed

1 – Suited Up Relic

1 – Red Parallel #/199

1 – Coming Attraction

1 – Purple Parallel #/99

 

Random Wax: 2024 Donruss NASCAR Hobby Box - 6 Packs

2024 NASCAR:  Kyle Larson is in the midst of a mid-season slump, but he already has three wins this year and is probably still looked at as the best all-around driver in NASCAR.  He's also the 2021 NASCAR Champion.

Bubba is fighting for his playoff life right.  He's one of my favorite drivers.  Jeff Burton is retired and an announcer now but having retired greats in these sets is something I really enjoy.  Chastain has won a race and is in the playoffs.  I'm not a fan of the '91 Donruss design but I do like it better on parallels like the Blue Parallel.

Denny Hamlin is having a great year with three wins, and many are hoping he'll get his first championship.  I'd be fine with that.  I think he's one of the few great personalities in the sport which it is lacking right now.  The photo is too small here but overall, I like the design on Burning Rubber.

The Retro Series inserts are fun and od have a retro vibe to them.  Bill Elliott (retired legend) drove with McDonald's as his sponsor for a really long time.  I like the 2024 Race Kings.  Plenty of color and while the driver is really prominent, we also get to see his car.

These Picture-Perfect Victory cards are a fun way to highlight wins by the drivers.

Here we see the standard 2024 Donruss design utilized. It's okay but again the extra color on the Purple Parallel #/99 looks better.  I really like the Cole Custer photo.

I like how the Production Line inserts highlight how many times a driver has won the championship and overall is a good-looking card.

One optic card per pack.  That Erik Jones card is a Black Velocity Parallel #/39.

These car photo cards are good.  I like them but I do wish we could see them in other spots other than just on the track alone.  I know it's limited what they can do when taking photos of cars but I think there is room for variety.

Dominators inserts don't scream dominator to me.  Feels like they could have done more.

I like Unleashed.  As always, I wish there was more variety in the animals behind the driver.  They are the same on every card.

Fun packs of cards.  I still haven't decided if I'll pick up a 2025 hobby box this year.  I'm reevaluating my collecting so it's still TBD.  We'll end it with my favorite driver in NASCAR, Kyle Busch in a nice photo.

BREAKDOWN:
48 – Total Cards
15 – Retro ‘91
8 – Retired Greats
6 – Optic
4 – Red and Blue Parallel
3 – Cars
2 – Retro Series
1 - Unleashed
1 – Race Kings
1 – Dominators
1 – Rated Rookie
1 – Base Variation
1 – Burning Rubber
1 – Production Line
1 - Red Xplosion #/99
1 – Blue Parallel #/199
1 – Purple Parallel #/99
1 – Black Velocity Parallel #/39

Random Wax: 2024 Donruss NASCAR Hobby Box - 6 Packs with Relics

2024 Donruss:  We go racing today as the 2025 NASCAR season starts at Daytona.  Dale Jr. is still very relevant in the sport today.  His company Dirty Mo Media has many media efforts including podcasts and he will be an announcer for TNT and Amazon Prime in 2025.  He will be on 10 races I think during the summer months.

As part of this set we get Retro '91 cards.  Not a favorite design of mine but maybe a car number or some type of logo would help.  Lots of parallels in this set including this Purple Parallel #/99 of Dale Jr.

The Car cards are fun.  We get to see the sponsors.  I do wish we could see more action here.  Maybe add some "Track Action" inserts showing spins, wrecks or major moments from the sport.

The base design is a bit meh to me.  The tire tracks do work but the gray and lines just don't work.  Give me a little car, a car number, or some type of logo and maybe this works better.  Just kind of bland as is.

I like Unleashed which goes vertical in 2024.  Again, the cards I'm showing off today are from six packs from my 2024 hobby box.

My two Red Parallel Suited Up Swatches.  Christopher Bell was 5th in the 2025 standings, and it was his third year being in the top 5.  Alex Labbe drove a total of 10 races in the Xfinity series and NASCAR Canada series.  

Nice combo cards with Production Line inserts where we get to see both the driver and car as well as pertinent stat like 93 wins for one of the all-time greats, Jeff Gordon which is 3rd all-time.

We get a Red Xplosion Parallel #/99 on one of my two Dominators inserts.  The Retro Series logo does say Retro, but I'd like to see something else on the card to help us get that feel.

Season Highlights card.

I do like these.  Plenty of color and we get the driver and car on the card fronts.  FedEx will not be a NASCAR sponsor for the first time in forever.  This is a big loss for the #11 Denny Hamlin team who has had FedEx as a sponsor for a long time.

We'll end this post with a Burning Rubber insert which gives me some of the action I'm wanting to see and this really cool looking Black Velocity Prizm Optic Parallel #/39 of Rajah Caruth.  Caruth finished 7th in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2024.  Enjoy the race today.  I'm excited for the season to start!

BREAKDOWN:
48 – Total Cards
16 – Retired Greats
6 – Optic
3 – Season Highlights
2 – Cars
2 – Race Kings
2 – Dominators
2 – Suited Up Swatches Red
1 – Unleashed
1 – Rated Rookie
1 – Burning Rubber
1 – Production Line
1 – Purple Parallel #/99
1 – Red Xplosion Parallel #/99
1 - Black Velocity Prizm Optic Parallel #/39