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Kenny Schrader's 2002 M&M's Pontiac!


Kenny Schrader is now the oldest regular driver on the WC scene, with his first start coming in 1984. Over Kenny's career, he had, up to the end of 2002, 564 starts, with 4 wins, 64 top 5's and 23 poles. His winnings total over 20 million bucks! That's the good news... the bad news is Kenny has not had a whiff of Victory Lane since the 1991 Bud 500 at Dover. Not even a top 5 since 1998! That's a long dry spell, for a very good driver!

In spite of what must be a frustrating several years, Kenny continues to project a positive, but "aw shucks", image, and his work on Inside Winston Cup has introduced him to a lot of NASCAR fans, keeping his profile high. Don't know about you, but if I were gonna kick back on a Saturday afternoon, have a few brews, and talk racin', Kenny's the driver I'd love to have in the lawn chair next to me!

Now, for some reason, there have been no decals for Kenny's M&M's cars (a ride he inherited from Ernie Irvan in 2000) other than the Profinish Kit decals. None of the major decal makers have tackled the subject for some reason. Since i'm a big fan of Kenny's I was very excited when this little set of graphics files arrived from Sam in November 2002! He had managed to nicely capture the car as it ran in 2002. I started right in on this one, printing up the decals, and layin' 'em down.

All went well, until the giant nose decal Sam had provided. There were simply too many compound curves on the car to accept the decal without too much cutting and overlapping. They also appeared about 25% small. It took me about 4 weeks, but I was able to "digitally disassemble" and resize Sam's original graphic into 4 separate graphics that were far easier to apply accurately. With other projects on the go, and Chrstmas and stuff, it wasn't until the end of January that I had them "good to go".

The model you see here started out as the HOT WHEELS pontiac. I updated the front bumper, and that was it for body mods. Body was primed with white PlatiKote primer. The actual M&M's colour appears to lie about halfway between TAMIYA's TS16 and TS34 yellow aerosols, the former too light and green, the latter too dark and red. My original plan was to blend them 50/50, and apply with my airbrush, but laziness got the better of me. Knowing how poorly yellows cover, I simply painted the whole body in one coat of the dark red-toned 34 yellow, then wet-on-wet, applied a medium coat of the 16 colour. Sure enough, there was enough showthru of the 34 colour that the overall colour was very convincing vs references.

The chassis/interior of this car was bright red, I hauled out a can of VW MARS red touchup (Candian Tire aerosol), and shot it on the chassis after it had been primed in PlastiKote white. Only changes to the chassis were the addition of the Earnhardt bar, a radio wire coil on the steering column, and seatbelts. I also tried out some updated double side exhausts from "Racin' Resins" (click here...) as this kit, being pre-2000, had the dinky little pipes stickin' out each side using the kit versions. RR's pieces were far more authentic, just requiring a bit of cleanup after assembly. ...

One thing I found peculiar on this car was there were no tail light decals. Sam had not provided them, I assumed it was an omission. But after checking pics in WCI, sho' 'nuff... there was a rear view, with no tail lights? Wonder why? (I shoulda known better'n to doubt Sam on this...)

All decal application is fairly straightforward, the nose groupings look intimidating, but work well. I wonder, though, how easy they'd be to apply to a body with the nosecone unmodified, as it has a lot more humps and lumps in original kit form...

2002 was truly an annus horribilis for poor Kenny, not even a Top Ten, and 30th in the final Points standings. Add to that a couple times when, as Kenny put it, the M&M car became the W&W car (i.e. - on its roof...) and it was no surprise Kenny and MB2 parted ways at season's end. This was also influenced by MB2's loss of M&M's to Yates as a car sponsor, and their uncertain future at the WC level in '03. (Yates' '03 M&M car is 'way cool, also!!)

What was surprising was the lack of opportunity for Kenny in other rides. He had a parttime deal with Petrie, but got released from that when an opportunity to run the BAM team car, albeit unsponsored, for the full season materialized. This is the Dodge that Shawna Robinson started out in in '02, and is owned by Beth Ann Morgenthau. Not considered a plum ride, but as of this writing, Kenny got it into the field for the 500. They even landed AT&T and Carrot Top as a sponsor. Good luck in '03, Kenny.. the beer fridge is in the garage... come by and help yourself if you're in the neighbourhood...

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