In Pixar’s Cars, Chick Hicks wins the 2006 Piston Cup after Strip Weathers retires.
The championship is decided in a dramatic final race involving Hicks, Lightning McQueen, and Strip Weathers, also known as The King. McQueen and Hicks are tied with The King before the final event, so the result determines the season champion. Hicks crosses the finish line first after McQueen stops to help The King, who crashes near the end of the race.
Hicks is a green 1979 Shyster Cremlin and is characterized as an aggressive, rules-bending competitor. His victory is technically valid because he reaches the finish first, but the crowd reacts negatively after seeing how the race unfolded. The championship therefore gives him the trophy without giving him the respect associated with a sportsmanlike victory.
McQueen later refuses the sponsorship opportunity that Hicks’s victory creates and chooses Rust-eze instead. Chick’s win is often confused with McQueen’s emotional triumph at the end of the film, but the official Piston Cup result belongs to Hicks.