  The real thing: Jeff Gordon crosses the line at Homestead Miami speedway while competing during the final race of his last full time season in Nascar. (Photograph courtesy of autoweek.com).
Paint and Printing: (2 Points/3) Replicating model race cars that represent the last races for iconic drivers is one of the more important responsibilities that Lionel Racing now has as the exclusive and sole producer of Nascar diecast products. Lionel typically uses a method of painting a base color on a diecast body, and then uses decaling, and gloss coating to finish each model. While it is hard to imagine that workers at the factory put any more or less effort into any particular model, one would hope that the company as a whole would try to at least prioritize or emphasize where possible the more historically important models. For the most part, it's clear that this model was given much dedication, but it still falls short of those high expectations.
My biggest point of contention in this category is the base coat. The car is obviously silver, but Lionel elected to use a high metal flake paint on the diecast and the effect hasn't translated well in 1/64 scale. I don't own a 1/24 scale version of the car, so I have no way to really argue that the paint choice makes more sense in a larger scale. But, when you compare the 1/64 model shown above to the picture of the real car, you can see a difference, not only in the color, but in the effect of the paint that was used. The 1/64 scale model does have a nicely applied base coat of paint. They did a good job with the execution, but there's certainly a discrepancy between the real thing and the 1/64.  It may not be fair to take an entire point away here, but the paint color ultimately is the responsibility of the design team, and not the factory. I think this could have been done differently. Lionel had used their liquid color paint pallet on their diecast cars (both 1/24 and 1/64 scale) at this point in both 2015 and 2016, and I'd argue that a 'liquid silver' would have more effectively replicated the real color.  Getting further into the detailing, some of the most difficult areas to replicate in the scale are texts that are big enough on the real car to the point that they should still be legible when made in 1/64 scale. That range of font sizes can be very small, and this can be a pitfall for the manufacturer. On the back bumper panel of Gordon's car, a congratulatory message is written, and it is essentially perfect. If anything it is angled at no more than one degree, but that much is negligible. The other rear end details including the tail pipes, tail lights, spoiler, and bumper decals look very good.  The side profile of the car is where the most important characteristics of the car exist and so, should be the most carefully scrutinized. One of the trickiest features is the black profile that surrounds the rear windows. That black color is a tribute to the black base coat of the Axalta scheme that Gordon ran for the majority of the 2015 season. Accomplishing this faded effect had to require a second coat of paint, perfectly applied. The precision here, and the accuracy to the 1/1 is really impressive, and one of the most subtle, but also a most effective details on the model.  The end of the '90's also saw the Dupont rainbow morph into the Dupont flames. Even in 2025, Axalta, which was formerly called Dupont, still utilizes big sweeping flames as part of the primary details of their sponsorship with Hendrick race cars. Lionel did a good job of replicating the orange and yellow flames found on Jeff Gordon's car from 2015. If you look closely, it is apparent that some of those finer details and color gradients aren't exactly correct, but the replication is accomplished about as well as one could hope. Lastly, it's also notable that the splitter should be yellow, and it is correctly painted so. The other details on the race car including the door numbers, roof number, and other Hendrick, and Chevy logos are all nice and neat. The Axalta logo on the hood of the car is centered, and the race car driver's name is perfectly printed and centered on the windshield. The Goodyear logos on the fenders and on the race car's tires are nicely printed too. The only other paint/printing issue is on the front grill, more on that later. Overall, earning (2/3) points in the category isn't bad for a paint scheme with a high degree of difficulty, but still, is just a bit disappointing.  Mould and Assembly: (2 Points/3) When Nascar annoucened the Gen. 6 cars, Lionel presumably had to invest a significant amount of money to create three unique castings for the new Toyotas, Fords, and Chevy stock cars. Those moulds came online soon after the 2013 season began, and by 2016, Lionel must have certainly recouped some of that investment because the Chevy SS remained unchanged (minus a small adjustment in spoiler height) until the 2017 season. That also means that by 2016, they would have had several years of experience working on this tooling, so there shouldn't be issues, if any at all.  The car, like virtually all Nascar diecast cars, is made up of about 10-12 individual parts. The four plastic wheels are held securely in place by two pins that replicate the car's axels. They are inserted between the chassis and the baseplate of the car. Both of those parts are made of plastic, and core components of the race car (drivelines, suspension components, fuel tank, driver's seat, steering wheel, dash board, and other safety features are all moulded in. These parts all snap together and they are held in place by two metal pins that are part of the main body casting.  Above: Detailed printing indicates that this is Lionel's 2015 1/64 scale 'EL' tooling. (26015EL). The construction of the car is good. The model is solid. None of the main components are loose, and most importantly, the car rolls across a flat surface without wobbling or dragging on the ground. The plastic components all fit together like they were designed to, and the metal body of the race car is very nice. The windows and windshields are free from any scratches, and they fit snugly in their frames. Everything pertaining to mould and assembly are good to go except one significant detail, the nose/grill of this '25 Chevy SS. While the placement of the grill is probably more of a paint/printing issue, it also falls into the category of assembly, because at end of the day, the car has to look like the one it's representing in real life. That's mostly true, but you'll never see a real Chevy SS, or Nascar Cup car with a grill as askew as the one shown below. There are many forgivable mistakes that can be made when working on such a small canvas, but the front end of the car should always be free from production issues considering that no matter the driver, or the paint scheme, the base details should be the same, and are likely replicated hundreds of thousands of times. So, the car won't make it through this section without losing another point (2/3).  Historical Significance and Cool Factor: (3 Points/3) Race cars don't really get much more important than this one. Final ride race cars for drivers like Jeff Gordon are up there with championship winning race cars, and Dayton 500 winning race cars in my book. I was able to visit this car in person at the Hendrick Motorsports Museum on the Hendrick Motorsports campus in Concord. North Carolina. The car was put on display in March of 2025 in anticipation of the 2025 Goodyear 400 at Darlington, Nascar's annual throwback weekend. William Byron drove a special paint scheme honoring this car, Jeff's final ride.  Seeing the car in person again solidified my opinion on the paint Lionel used to replicate this car, but that wasn't what I was focused on when standing next to the vehicle on display. The car is just as it was when it came off the track after finishing 6th at Homestead. There's something human in all of us that is inherently awestruck when recognizing greatness. That's the best way I can describe what it means to see this car, and to reflect on one of the most storied careers in Nascar history. Jeff Gordon was largely responsible for bringing Nascar out of the south, and not only across the United States, but across the world. He is one of the most recognizable names in motorsports and is highly respected among other racing greats. This car is historically, hugely significant.  When your primary sponsor is in the business of selling automotive paint and finishing products, you're bound to have a good looking race car. Jeff Gordon was able to enjoy some of the coolest looking liveries that Nascar has ever seen, and this silver bullet is no exception. This car is ridiculously cool both in concept, and in reality. Full marks in this section (3/3) Conclusion and Recommendation: (1 Point/1)
 Sources:
-autoweek.com -hendrickmortorsports.com -Jayski.com -lionelracing.com -nascar.com -racing-reference.info
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