Sparks company hustles to swap out NASCAR car logos

Randy Cunningham discovered that NASCAR Sprint Cup teams do everything not just mid-race tire changes, but everything in a hurry.

Cunningham, owner and general manager of Silver State Barricade & Sign in Sparks, put his staff to work stripping the multiple graphics from a show car that accompanies NASCAR driver Bobby Labonte and getting a new graphics package in place.

The challenge: The job needed to be done in one day.

Todd Hahn, a spokesman for JTG Daughtery Racing, explains that the NASCAR team is supported by multiple sponsors that include consumer brands such as Clorox and Kingsford Charcoal.

In late June, one of the show cars covered with logos representing each division of Clorox was a centerpiece at a worldwide conference of executive for Oakland-based Clorox.

After the Clorox show, the car needed to be returned to its normal paint scheme, "Racing Season is Grilling Season." With that theme, the cars carries the logos of brands such as Kingsford Charcoal, BUBBA burgers, Bush's Beans, Scott Towels, Hidden Valley Ranch, KC Masterpiece Sauces and Marinades and Glad Food Storage.

Needing to get the job done in two weeks, and unable to get the car across the country to the JTG Daughtery Racing headquarters in North Carolina in time to get the work done, the company started looking for someone on the West Coast to do the work.

Randy O'Connor, owner of Absolute Sealing and Striping in Sparks, had seen the Silver State Barricade & Sign team install graphics during a customer appreciation day, and referred Silver State to JTG Daughtery Racing after an informal conversation with a race-team employee.

The racing company was relieved to find Silver State.

"The hood decal itself is about 68 inches wide and if you aren't an expert at applying vinyl graphics it will take about three seconds to ruin the decal." Says Hahn. "We wanted to make sure a specialist did it for us."

Adding to the challenge: The race team needed completion of the job, both on the show car as well as the trailer that delivers it, within a day. The decals were shipped to Silver State from the JTG Daughtery Racing headquarters.

While Silver State Barricade & sign is known mostly for construction sign rentals and sales, Cunningham says it's also been doing vehicle wraps including race cars for several years, says Cunningham.