Lightning McQueen (2024)

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"Kachow!"

―Lightning McQueen

Monty "Lightning" McQueen is a semi-retired American racer and professional crew chief. Lightning McQueen is best known for competing with the Rust-eze team in the Piston Cup Racing Series from 2005 to 2017 winning 7 Piston Cups.

Career

Before 2005

In 2004, Lightning McQueen started racing in the Cyber Car Series. He was unsponsored for the first 19 races, but then raced under the sponsorship of Smell Swell Deodorizer for the rest of 2004. However, he was fired in favor of another young rookie racer named Sammy Smelter, whose poor racing fit the image of Smell Swell better, according to the representative who fired McQueen.

Mack, who had overheard McQueen's termination, approached the young hotshot racer and offered to take him to Boston to meet for a job opportunity with Rust-eze, who had been looking, with little success, for a new spokes car. During their trip, McQueen and Mack became fast friends. Upon their arrival in Boston, Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze offered a sponsorship to McQueen. Though he was initially hesitant due to the sponsor's humiliating demeanor, McQueen agreed as long as Mack could become his transporter.

McQueen's racing abilities eventually garnered the attention of the Piston Cup Racing Series, and he became a rookie in the 2005 season.

2005 (Rookie Year)

On his rookie year, Lightning was the dominating rookie with 5 wins and a lot of Top 5s. However, he had some competition with Piston Cup legend Strip Weathers (Also known as The King) who was planning to end his career with a championship and infamous racer Chick Hicks who had been cheating his way through his entire career. Despite his good performance, Lightning was a very arrogant racer, who only cared about winning and was planning to take the Dinoco sponsorship by winning the Piston Cup and also with The King retiring. His arrogance led him into firing 3 Crew Chiefs due to crashes and DNFs and one of them was fired because of a slow pitstop.

In the final race of the season, McQueen was about to make history by becoming the first rookie to win a Piston Cup, but during the final lap of the race he blew his rear tires and on the final turn he tied with The King and Chick Hicks.

A tiebreaker was going to be held at California and Lightning wanted to be the first one to arrive there. However, during his way to the race, he got lost in a small town on Route 66 named Radiator Springs. Lightning was eventually found by the press and his hauler who took him back to California for the tiebreaker.

During the tiebreaker, Lightning was seen unfocused and distracted at first but then the townsfolk of Radiator Springs came there to help him and even the legendary Piston Cup champion Doc Hudson (Or better known as The Fabulous Hudson Hornet) came to be his crew chief. After that, Lightning started gaining positions and even used some of the tricks the townies showed him. However, on the last lap of the race, tragedy occured after Chick Hicks rammed the King out of the track. Lightning saw what happened and he stopped near the finish line to help the old veteran finish his last race. Chick won the race, but the public cheered for Lightning after his heroic actions. After that, Dinoco owner Tex Dinoco offered McQueen the sponsorship because of helping The King but declined and decided to stick with Rust-eze as they were the first ones to offer him the sponsorship.

Days later, McQueen came back to Radiator Springs to live there and set-up his racing headquarters.

2006-2009

Lightning started the 2006 season amazingly. He won his first Florida 500 and won the Hollywood 400. He then won at Glen Ellen a year after he first won there. He then took 7 more wins and the 2006 championship. 2007 was the exact same winning 5 races and the 2007 Piston Cup. He was close to winning in 2008 but lost to Winford Bradford Rutherford as result of multiple DNF and new pressure from rookies, but recovered in 2009 and won his 3rd Piston Cup.

2010

TBA

2011-2015

TBA

2016-2017

In 2016, Lightning was planning to make history by winning his 8th Piston Cup and break the Cup Series' championship record. However, during mid-late season, a new generation of racers starring rookie sensation Jackson Storm came into the circuit and caused all the racers except Lightning to retire or be fired by their sponsors. Lightning even started to slow down because of the Next-Gens arriving and ended the season horribly with a near career-ending crash.

Months later, McQueen recovered from the crash and was ready to race again. However, his training wasn't paying off and during the first race of the new season he retired during the middle of the race and newcomer Cruz Ramirez finished the race for him. She even succesfully won after pulling off an old trick of Doc Hudson on the final turn of the race. After her victory, Cruz was offered the Dinoco sponsorship and Lightning, despite not ending his racing career forever, would be her crew chief for the rest of her career.

Pit Crew

• Crew Chief: Greg Startman (11 races in 2005), Bill Tropspace (10 races in 2005), Chuck Sellers (14 races in 2005), Doc Hudson (2005 LA Tiebraker - 2009)
• Pitty 1: Not Chuck (2005) Guido (2006-2017)
• Pitty 2: Fernie Fork
• Pitty 3: Austin Wheels
• Pitty 4: Donald Fuelins
• Pitty 5: Billy
• Hauler: Mack Haulsmith

Career Wins

• Bold - Grand Slam Round

1. 2005 Glen Ellen 350
2. 2005 Spare Mint 400
3. 2005 Georgia Safety Horn 350
4. 2005 Grandol Oil Co. 400
5. 2005 Beachside 500
6. 2005 Dinoco 400 (tied)
7. 2006 Florida 500
8. 2006 Glen Ellen 350
9. 2006 Spare Mint 400
10. 2006 Texas 400
11. 2006 Brickyard 400
12. 2006 Gasprin 350
13. 2006 Nitroade 400
14. 2006 Frostar Air Filters 400
15. 2006 Vitoline 400
16. 2006 Beachside 500
17. 2006 Sputter Stop 350
18. 2006 Dinoco 400
19. 2007 Florida 500
20. 2007 Spare Mint 400
21. 2007 RPM 400
22. 2007 Dinoco Light 350
23. 2007 Palm Mile 300
24. 2007 Gasprin 350
25. 2007 Frostar Air Filters 400
26. 2007 Vitoline 400
27. 2007 Leak Less 400
28. 2008 Virginia 400
29. 2008 Re-Volting 400
30. 2008 Texas 400
31. 2008 Brickyard 400
32. 2008 Mood Springs Sputter Stop 350
33. 2008 Leak Less 400
34. 2009 Hollywood 400
35. 2009 Transberry Juice 400
36. 2009 Dinoco Light 350
37. 2009 Palm Mile 300
38. 2009 Copper Canyon 400
39. 2009 BnL 500
40. 2009 Sputter Stop 350
41. 2009 Dinoco 400
42. 2010 Florida 500
43. 2010 Hollywood 400
44. 2010 Vinyl Toupee 350
45. 2010 Glen Ellen 350
46. 2010 Tow Cap 400
47. 2010 Spare Mint 400
48. 2010 Alabama 500
49. 2010 Brickyard 400
50. 2010 Texas 400
51. 2010 Los Angeles 500
52. 2010 Mood Springs 400
53. 2010 Copper Canyon 400
54. 2010 Nitroade 400
55. 2010 Grandol Oil Co. 400
56. 2010 BnL 500
57. 2010 DataShift 400
58. 2010 Bumper Save Gears & Glory 450
59. 2010 Beachside 500
60. 2010 Octane Gain 400
61. 2010 Leak Less 400
62. 2011 Lightyear 400
63. 2011 Alabama 500
64. 2011 Iowa Hybrid 450
65. 2011 Georgia Safety Horn 350
66. 2011 DataShift 400
67. 2012 Hollywood 400
68. 2012 Transberry Juice 400
69. 2012 Dinoco 400
70. 2012 BnL 500
71. 2012 Leak Less 400
72. 2012 Los Angeles 500
73. 2013 Lightyear 400
74. 2013 Transberry Juice 400
75. 2013 Brickyard 400
76. 2013 Nitroade 400
77. 2013 BnL 500
78. 2013 Los Angeles 500
79. 2014 RPM 400
80. 2014 Dinoco Light 350
81. 2014 Gasprin 350
82. 2014 Grandol Oil Co. 400
83. 2014 Mood Springs Sputter Stop 350
84. 2015 Hollywood 400
85. 2015 Glen Ellen 350
86. 2015 Re-Volting 400
87. 2015 RPM 400
88. 2015 Brickyard 400
89. 2015 DataShift 400
90. 2015 Los Angeles 500
91. 2016 Dinoco Light 350
92. 2016 Georgia Safety Horn 350
93. 2017 Florida 500 (shared)

Trivia

• He is one of TBA Racers to win all every Grand Slam Race at least once, and one of TBA to win all of them in 1 Season, which he achieved in 2010.