With the Championship decided, the #48 model car has been engraved and gold plated. All that is left to do is the final assembly and then ship it to New York so Goodyear can present the gold model car to Jimmie Johnson at the Nascar Nextel Cup Banquet. Because of the advance work done by everyone connected to this project, the deadline will have been met for the 22nd consecutive year, with nearly 12 hours to spare.

I would like to express my special thanks to several people who are instrumental in helping me complete this project each year:

Sean Wise and his staff (RePliForm Inc.) whose innovative application of electroforming techniques makes possible the forming of the bodies, seats and tires used in these models.

Rex Pedersen (Pedersen Engraving) for the many hours of engraving and his relentless attention to detail that helps produce a truly remarkable representation of the actual race car.

Larry Capoccia, Frank Morales, and Greg Prichard (Alexandria Metal Finishers) for doing the finest job of gold plating I’ve ever seen. The addition of the gold elevates the model car to a truly valuable piece of artwork.

Thanks to each of you for your unequalled contribution to this project.

Mike Dunlap

Nov. 27th 2006

Back Up Plan

Some years the championship race is so tight that we have to hedge our bets. To assure delivery of the correct car by the banquet, we sometimes have to finish more than one car. This year was that type of year. The photos to the right are of Matt Kenseth’s #17 Ford.

As you can plainly see, the body has already been engraved a week before the Homestead Race, in case Matt should win the Championship.

Because the other four potential winners are Chevys we can’t yet commit to a particular decal scheme for the Chevy body.

Nov. 18th 2006

Engraving Stage

The engraving of the Goodyear Gold Car Award is an art unto itself.

For the past 5 years, Rex Pedersen has done all the engraving on the Goodyear Gold Car Awards.

For several weeks, he has been working around the clock, doing his part of this project at the same time Mike is finishing the interior components of the model.

Rex has made five different complete sets of patterns so he can engrave the correct graphics on whichever car wins the Championship at Homestead next week.

Nov. 24th 2006

Early Stages

Work has been progressing on the Goodyear Gold Model Car Award since May of this year. For the past 5 weeks it has been 15 - 18 hour days, 7 days a week. This schedule will continue until the day before the banquet when the model will be delivered to New York by special courier for presentation by Goodyear executives to the Nextel Cup Champion.

The trick is to make certain that the right model is finished in time for the event. With five drivers still able to win the Championship in the last race of the Chase, that's no small task.

Nov. 15th 2006