This concept piece pays homage to Columbus, IN, the hometown of NASCAR driver Tony Stewart as well as the artist René Crigler and was created specifically for inclusion in the Hickory Museum of Art exhibit titled NASCAR Inspired, which ran April through September 2006.

Columbus is a town just south of Indianapolis, IN and is surrounded by farmland, primarily cornfields, as well as several dirt short tracks, where Tony got his start racing karts. Rene’s father also raced karts at the same dirt track venues and is where she caught the racing "bug" as a small child.

René was living in Indianapolis and working as an automotive artist as well as a motorsports software consultant at the time she was invited to participate in this show. This is the only motorsports piece she has done. Part of the concept of the piece was to work with her motorsports colleagues and use some of the same materials and processes used in producing race cars; the carbon fiber, vinyl stencil and the clear-coat finish.

While carbon fiber is a material used to build the entire Indycar chassis, in NASCAR it is used in the production of various aerodynamic components as well as in the cockpit (Seat, HANS device, etc.) A vinyl stencil was created to adhere to the carbon fiber to protect the material during the painting process, for those areas where the carbon fiber is exposed in the final piece. As the carbon fiber is very porous and dark, each block of color was meticulously hand-painted by brush, 5-15 thin coats, in an effort to reduce the buildup of paint and eliminate brush strokes. The piece was then sprayed with an automotive urethane, which in racing terms is a clear-coat finish, thus giving the piece an automotive finish and protecting it from elements.

Special thanks to Mark One Composites and HMR, Inc (Hall’s Motorsports Refinishing) for their contributions.

More pictures of the exhibit NASCAR Inspired