Origin

On September 9th, 2019, u/Catalyst138 posted an image macro to /r/HistoryMemes featuring a screenshot from the Pixar animated film Cars of protagonist Lightning McQueen drifting behind two other cars as if he’s lost control, garnering over 1,500 upvotes in 18 months (shown below). On September 12th, the same user posted a blank template to /r/MemeTemplates, garnering over 4,000 upvotes in a comparable span of time.

On September 13th, u/TheDiv posted a new version of the meme to /r/memes with an additional lower panel from later in the scene, where Lightning McQueen manages to drift past the other two racers and into the lead (shown below). The post garnered over 21,300 upvotes in 18 months, and became the dominant Lightning McQueen drifting format going forward. On September 14th, u/OG-Dreadful uploaded an HD template of the format to /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial.

The scene, taken from the climax of 2006’s Cars, can be seen below, uploaded to YouTube in 2014.