The original rendering (even though you denied it) was cool because the design was directly from the WWII P-51s which Roush paid homage to with his P-51 Mustangs. The blacked out hood, chrome look rest with the black and yellow checkered design was cool. If viewed with that mindset it's a classic tribute and not ghetto. It may have been distracting for others on the track, but there's been a couple cars with the chrome bodies in the IRL the past couple years and they haven't been causing accidents every race.
But, since that's been vetoed, I would say I like the second one but not the wanna be ZR-1 hood graphics. Get rid of the whiteout area and it would look better.