NASCAR Race Car Wraps
By John Carollo
Excerpted from Sign & Digital Graphics Magazine, April 2010
Ever wondered about the wraps used on NASCAR race cars? One would think they are different from the wraps seem in more everyday applications such as trucks, buses and other street vehicles. After all, your everyday bus doesn't tool around its route at speeds flirting on 200 mph. Then there's the abrasion those race cars get where it's not uncommon to see the front ends worn down to the base material of the nose piece by the end of the race.
It's even worse at tracks like Daytona where, try as they may to keep it off the track, sand finds it way back on the track and hits the cars as they race at such high speeds for three to four hours. In effect, running into conditions similar to sandblasting. So do these racers use a completely different product than we normally use?
And with competition massaging literally every square inch of the car in search of more speed, does a wrap affect the all-so-important aerodynamics and down-force of the cars? Are there special wraps just for NASCAR racing? Do NASCAR race teams using wraps have to consider any differences they may have from the everyday versions we see? The answers may surprise you -- and even help your business.