NASCAR Models by Steve Salhany

Jerry Nadeau's 1998 CARTOON NETWORK "Birthday" Taurus

Story from Steve:
"After getting booted from the #13 First Plus Loans car midway through the 1998 season, it looked as if Jerry Nadeau might have to leave Winston Cup racing for a time, since his efforts up to that point in his career had hardly been exceptional. But, in one of the numerous breaks he's gotten over the years, Jerry was able to quickly pick up another ride.

The Melling-owned #9 team had once been one of the dominant teams in Winston Cup, attaining their greatest successes with Bill Elliot behind the wheel. By 1998, those days were long gone, and the Melling operation was just another mid-pack team struggling to compete in an increasingly corporate NASCAR. In 1998, they had landed solid sponsorship from the Cartoon Network, and had veteran Lake Speed driving cars with whimsical and attention-getting paint schemes featuring cartoon characters. Speed suffered some severe injuries in a hard crash, though, which would end his career as a driver.

Speed got injured right around the same time Jerry was looking for a job, and Melling Racing wasted no time in naming Jerry their new driver. The #9 car at this time was sporting the Birthday paint scheme, with Droopy Dog on the hood and pink "frosting" everywhere as the car was shown driving through a pink birthday cake. Colorful!

This model was built from a R/M limited edition kit depicting this very car. Again a box-stock offering, I used Testor's #43 Petty Blue for the main color of the car. All the other graphics, including the pink splotches, were done with the kit decals. Using R/M's decals from these kits makes one appeciate Slixx, Wetworks, and JWTBM that much more! After much tugging and pulling and cursing, I got the pink decals more or less lined up, although there were still some gaps. The rest of the decals went on a little better. I used decals for Jerry's name above the doors instead of the kit-supplied Lake Speed ones, to reflect the driver change.

This was one of 4 paint schemes the #9 car wore throughout the 1998 season. Jerry had more success in the #9 car than in the #13, with a best finish of 15th at Watkins Glen. He would also drive the Zombie Island and PowerPuff Girls paint schemes that year (models forthcoming!) "

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