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NASCAR MODELS by MR NASCAR Jeff Burton's 2007 AT&T Monte Carlo

Another fine mess has developed in the ever-fascinating world of NASCAR sponsorships...the CINGULAR/AT&T/NEXTEL(SPRINT??)/NASCAR dust-up over sponsorship on Jeff Burton's Childress-owned #31 Monte Carlo.

So how did this particular quagmire develop? Typical mixing of NASCAR and corporate lawyers... read on...

Back in the WINSTON Era, Richard Childress had brought Cingular onto the #31 car with Robby Gordon. Jeff, who had left Roush for RCR in mid-2004 just before the Sirius at The Glen, signed a three-year contract with RCR, leaving Roush after eight and a half years with the team. He started out with RCR driving the #30 AOL Chevrolet for the rest of the '04 season. During the offseason, Burton and his team were switched to the #31 Cingular Wireless Chevy, replacing Robby Gordon, who had some "interesting times" with the team.

When NEXTEL took over from WINSTON, CINGULAR, as one of the sponsors that competed with NEXTEL, was "grandfathered" in... But no moves to another team were to be allowed, and no new potential competitors to NEXTEL would be allowed in.. NEXTEL's hope was that competing sponsors would just "go away"....sounds pretty simple, possibly a bit naive... but....

Meanwhile in the Boardrooms of America, business as usual ended up with CINGULAR being sold to AT&T, and the CINGULAR name flat out disappeared. Naturally, AT&T were desperate to get their logos on the flanks of the 31 in place of a defunct brand! AT&T's position was that a merge/acquisition/name change/whatever didn't constitute a new sponsorship, so the grandfather clause should still be valid. Both NASCAR and NEXTEL begged to differ, ganged up on poor little AT&T, and demanded they not use AT&T on the car. AT&T got an injunction to prevent them from blocking the use of the AT&T signage, and AT&T signage appeared on the car starting at the May Charlotte race, after the ALLSTAR race. .

When ATT&T finally got the injunction that allowed them to replace the CINGULAR logos with AT&T, I saw an opportunity to build a unique model... with all the appeals and other legal folderol, I figgered no diecasters would touch it, and we all know if it ain't Junior or Jeffie, no kit maker will touch it either... Thanks to Brandon Dunlop's 2005 CINGULAR graphics, I had a lot of the basic scheme, especially the black swoops and the door numbers that were good to go. It was a pretty simple matter, using references, to track down and reproduce the AT&T signage, and to update the sheet to 2007 specs. I had already done some of the basics for the 2006 ARMY car, and just had a few things, such as the MONTE CARLO SS for the nose, to work up in CorelDraw.

The starting kit was the 2006 #48 Monte from REVELL, built box-stock, except for a few tweaks for realism. I don't go in for the high detail levels many NASCAR builders do, I've found over the years the colour scheme and the challenge of the graphics are what I find the most interesting.

The body was primed with PLASTIKOTE white primer, and after a few days to dry, was wetsanded with 1500 grit then topcoated with several light coats of DayGlo Orange. I had to mask and paint the decklid, cowl and front valence black, as per references. I did put a few extra light coats of TAMIYA TS13 clear over the orange prior to masking and painting the black areas, as the orange dries very flat, and would not accept decals well without silvering. The finished paint job then recieved a couple further coats of clear.