NASCAR Models by Steve Salhany

Jerry Nadeau's 1998 FIRST PLUS Taurus

Story from Steve:
"After first breaking into Winston Cup racing in 1997 driving the #1 car for Richard Jackson, Jerry Nadeau caught the first big break of his career when he signed on to drive for a new team founded by Bill Elliot and Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino. The new team would get sponsorship from First Plus Loans, a nationwide mortgage lending company, and would sport the Dolphins colors of Aqua, Coral, and White, as well as Marino's #13. This setup seemed promising, as it would be a full-time ride for Jerry that seemed to be well-backed.

However, outside factors conspired to limit the potential success of the team. NASCAR had radically changed the provisional qualifying rules for 1998, much to the detriment of new teams (see Bodine, Todd, and the Tabasco Fiasco). This meant that Jerry had to make the field solely on speed every time, as he had no previous owner's points on which to fall back.

This model was built pretty-much box stock from one of the numerous 1999 Taurus kits available. The trickiest part was figuring out how to duplicate the Dolphins Aqua color. I eventually settled on Chezoom Teal, a Testor's Color by Boyd color which gives the "spirit" of the hue, if not the exact tone. The decals were a no-name brand, and to be honest were total junk. There are probably parts of 4 different sets of decals on this model: 1 set disintegrated in water, 1 set was applied, 1 set went on later to hide bleedthrough of the color underneath the white graphics (it's bad when your wife notices!), and 1 final set to touch up parts of the orange striping. Once all applied, the finished model looks pretty good.

Jerry got off to a good start in 1998, finishing a respectable 21st at the Daytona 500. He struggled from there, missing 3 of the first 15 races before qualifying 2nd at Sears Point, where his road-course experience helped him get up to the front. He blew his chance at victory, however, by running off the course in Turn 2 of the very first lap of the race! This was apparently the final straw for Elliot, who released Jerry soon afterwards. The #13 team was not to survive for much longer, as the Money Store, which had purchased First Plus Loans, suffered a massive bankruptcy and pulled all funds from the team. Soon afterwards Elliot and Marino "took a knee" and shut down the operation.

Jerry, however, caught yet another break and was able to keep racing in Winston Cup, but that's yet another stoooory..."

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