BY SCOTT WALSH

STAFF WRITER

The Scranton Times Tribune

Chad Martin cringes whenever he is watching a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race and hears the commentator say a driver is running a different paint scheme this week.

Martin is the director of marketing for The Decal Source, Inc. The North Carolina-based company is responsible for many of those colorful schemes — all of the Toyota cars in the Cup Series, as well as a number of Nationwide Series cars and Craftsman Truck Series trucks.

Only there is little or no paint involved.

“The evolution over the last five years or so, more and more of it is done with decals,” Martin said. “More often than not, it is a decal wrap that is used.

“We wrap a number of cars that aren’t even painted at all. They’re just bare metal.”

There was a time when stock cars looked plain. Just one color with a number and a sponsor. In fact, perhaps the most “elaborate” car was Richard Petty’s famed red, white and blue No. 43.

As NASCAR has grown, however, so has the look of its cars.

Perhaps it started in the 1980s with Darrell Waltrip’s famed orange, yellow and white Tide ride.

Maybe it was when Jeff Gordon broke onto the scene in the 1990s with his rainbow-colored No. 24 Chevrolet.

Whatever the case, when it comes to colorful, creative designs, teams have broken out the big box of crayons.

In today’s Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500, at least a dozen drivers will be in a car with a special scheme. Some examples:

■ To show support for Team USA in the upcoming Beijing Olympics, Jeff Burton’s No. 31 Chevrolet will sport the Olympic rings and pictures of gymnast Nastia Liukin and swimmer Michael Phelps.

■ Usually sponsored by Alltel, Ryan Newman’s No. 12 Dodge for this race only will be emblazoned with the red and white colors of Avis rental cars.

■ The No. 96 Toyota, driven by J.J. Yeley, will promote the upcoming movie “Mirrors,” starring Kiefer Sutherland.

Perhaps no driver’s car has been more chameleon-like this season than Kyle Busch. His No. 18 Toyota has featured five different schemes this season.

How did this explosion of color and variety happen?

One reason is to make money.

Teams began to notice that fans would buy souvenirs such as diecast cars or T-shirts of their favorite drivers if they featured a special scheme.

“About six or seven years ago, you would have your core car that would run 30 of the 36 races. Then they would intermingle about six specialty schemes during the course of the year,” Martin said. “They’d have their Daytona 500 scheme and their Coca-Cola 600 scheme. And people would have to have those schemes for their collection.”

Another reason, ironically, is to save money.

Although no one will say exactly what the cost is to sponsor a Cup team, that amount has ballooned compared to a decade ago. So to help defray that cost, one company will share sponsorship with another company. Or it will become an associate sponsor.

That is why the No. 99 car of Carl Edwards has Office Depot for some races, Aflac for others and Dish Network for a handful.

It is why Busch has had five different schemes this season. His primary sponsor is M&M/Mars, which then promotes the various brands under its umbrella. Meanwhile, Interstate Batteries is an associate sponsor.

“Ten years ago, you’d get a design for a car and that design was pretty much what the car looked like every week,” Martin said. “So we’d print 50 or 60 sets of those designs and put them on a shelf. Throughout the course of the season, teams would call and order 10 more sets to decal the car. It would look the same week-in and week-out.

“But the rise in the cost of sponsorship has made it necessary for multiple companies to share the cost. So one week it’s an M&Ms car. The next week it’s an Interstate Batteries car. The next week it’s a Snickers car. The cars change because the companies are trying to spread their marketing budgets out.”

That is why painting these schemes is no longer a viable option. Sanding off the old scheme, priming the car, repainting it with the new scheme and letting it dry takes time. That, in turn, prevents the teams from working on the cars and getting them ready for the next race.

By using decals, Martin said an installation crew of three can remove the old scheme and replace it with the new one in 3-4 hours.

Also, decals allow the schemes to be more creative and utilize special effects such as reflective material that makes the cars shine under the lights during a night race.

Average cost to have a car decal “wrapped” is $3,000, according to Martin.

Typically, the decals come in five pieces: one that goes from the front fender to the back bumper; one for the hood; one for the roof; one for the trunk lid; and one for the rear panel. Then, the car number and side logos would be placed on top of that.

However, Martin noted that his company is developing a new technology that allows it to build all of those elements into one piece.

“With the old Sprint Cup car, the shapes of the bodies changed from track to track,” Martin said. “Each team might have 15-20 different cars sitting in the shop, so you couldn’t use a ‘cookie-cutter’ graphic and have it work on every car.

“With the advent of the Car of Tomorrow, each car is pretty much the same shape; they all have to fit a template. So that’s enabled us to come up with a wrap template that will fit every single car.”

So how does a team decide which scheme it is going to use in which race? In the case of the No. 18 team, it is a matter of simple diplomacy, according to Adam Travers, Busch’s public relations representative.

Under its agreement with Joe Gibbs Racing, M&M/Mars has 30 points races and two nonpoints races as the team’s primary sponsor. As an associate sponsor, Interstate Batteries has the other six races.

Prior to the season, the involved parties sit down to map out which races they would like to sponsor.

“Since Interstate Batteries is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, they knew they wanted one of the Texas races,” Travers said. “They wanted a big-market race, so they took one of the California races. They wanted one of the Chase races, so they took the second Dover race. They picked back and forth until their allotment was exhausted.

“Sure, you would like to get every race you want. But when there’s another player involved, you have to work through it and be willing to compromise.”

For its 30-race allotment, M&M/Mars then decides which of its brands it wants to use at which races. So you see Snickers at Atlanta and Phoenix; Pedigree Dog Food at Richmond, Talladega and Phoenix; Combos at Dover; and M&Ms everywhere else.

Even then, there are special M&Ms schemes. At Darlington in May, Busch’s car featured the M&Ms characters in an Indiana Jones theme to coincide with that movie’s release.

Last week at Indianapolis, the car carried a red, white and blue theme with the characters involved in various summer activities.

Later this season, there will be a Halloween theme as well as a pink car to support the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

“M&Ms has been one of the most fun sponsors to work with because they’re forever promoting a different season or a particular type of candy,” Martin said. “The design agency that M&Ms uses, Chatain and Thomas in Connecticut, does a great job of pushing the envelope and doing things different.”

Pushing the envelope with the look of its cars has definitely made NASCAR a much more colorful sport than it was years ago.

Just don’t use the term paint scheme.

The scheme of things - There is a lot that goes into the colorful, creative look of a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car