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NASCAR WCUP: A New Look -- Times Seven

27 May 1999

CONCORD, N.C. -- Every race weekend, there are certain questions NASCAR Winston Cup driver Jerry Nadeau asks himself: What time is the drivers' meeting? Where is the best racing groove? And, oh yeah, what color is my car?

The Cartoon Network's "Dexter" design, the No. 9's most common colors, will appear at Lowe's Motor Speedway at Charlotte, for the May 30 Coca-Cola 600. The next paint scheme to appear will be the silver World Championship Wrestling colors June 6 at Dover (Del.) Downs International Speedway. "Sometimes I have to think about which car I'm going to when I head down the starting grid to strap in," said Nadeau. "But I really like watching the reaction from fans and other teams when we roll out these cool new designs."

Since the beginning of the 1999 NASCAR season, the No. 9 Cartoon Network/Melling Racing Ford has debuted five different paint schemes. Two more will appear later this year at the Pepsi 400 at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the Save Mart/Kragen 350 at Sears Point (Sonoma, Calif.) Raceway. The unveiling of the World Championship Wrestling Bill Goldberg car and the Cartoon Network's "Jetsons" design will bring the grand total to seven new looks for the No. 9 Melling Ford. Cartoon Network and TBS each have two car designs while World Championship Wrestling has three.

The process of a new car design involves the race team as well as the sponsor. Melling's sponsors, Cartoon Network and its sister companies TBS and World Championship Wrestling, decide which paint scheme will appear at each track and on what date.

"Once we receive the design, Jeff Buice (crew chief), our decal supplier and myself make a few adjustments," said Lake Speed, Jr., marketing coordinator for Melling Racing. "We make sure the design is track-friendly -- we make the design raceable."

After team and sponsor approval, Speed works with decal supplier, The Decal Source, and paint supplier, Lakeside Motorsports, to match the colors needed for the new look.

"Most Winston Cup teams use two, sometimes three paint colors in a season. They may change their colors for The Winston," said Jim Smith from Lakeside Motorsports. "Melling is different. They change their colors at least once a month."

The entire process of creating a paint scheme is normally completed months in advance, although Speed admits it can be done on short notice.

"The design for the 'TBS Dinner & A Movie' car was finalized just three weeks before the California 500," stated Speed. For Speed, time is the most important element of the paint-scheme process.

"Completing a paint scheme design for the first time takes longer than one we have done before," said Speed, who works with a staff of two. "After we do it once or twice we can usually cut our time in half."

The time requirements for each paint scheme are as different as the designs themselves. According to Speed, the "Dexter" car requires the most amount of time to decal -- four hours. The World Championship Wrestling design, at eight hours, takes the longest to paint.

"It takes teamwork to change the look of a car so many different times. Most teams go through this process once or twice in a season. We'll do it seven different times."

 Putin' on the Glitz

Disassemble car 2 hours
Strip paint 6 hours
New paint 4 hours 
Bake car          1.5 hours
Reassemble 2 hours
Decal 2 hours
      Total    17.5 hours

*Process times vary with each design

Editors Note: For hundreds of hot racing photos and racing art, be sure to visit The Racing ImageGalleries and the Visions of Speed Art Gallery.