Long-time fans of NASCAR recall fondly the classic paint schemes – Dale Earnhardt’s 3 with Goodwrench Richard Petty’s 43 with STP, Jeff Gordon’s 24 with DuPont and many others. These drivers were associated with one major company, which would sponsor the driver and his team for the full year.

Today, there are fewer full-time sponsors, and drivers need to switch up their paint schemes, ever throwing in some nods to all-time classics. Painting the car each week would be beyond difficult. Inkjet printing, on the other hand, solves this problem while adding design flexibility. Creating wraps for the cars potentially allows for a new look every week.

For Richard Childress Racing (RCR), Roland DGA has been an ideal partner when it comes to vehicle graphics. RCRT has collaborated with Roland DGA since the 2010 season, using Roland DG wide-format inkjets exclusively to print the wraps for all of the team’s race cars and support vehicles and coming up with exceptional graphics.

The RCR Graphics Center is “powered” by five Roland DG inkjets, including two of the company’s new TrueVIS VG2 series printer/cutters. For the race car wraps, RCR uses Roland DG TrueVIS VG2-640 wide-format printer/cutters with TR2 Ink in a CMYKLcLmLk+Or configuration. The company wraps 350 vehicles a year.

In a nod to its longtime printing partner, RCR included Roland’s logo on Tyler Reddick’s No. 8 Chevy in the April 25, 2015, GEICO 500 NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.

Nick Woodward, Richard Childress Racing Graphics Center manager, talked about the changes and opportunities that digital printing brings to the world of NASCAR.

“Prior to digital printing, all the cars were painted and then decals were applied over the paint,” said Woodward. “We also used ‘spray masks’ for some designs to paint stripes. Back when we painted the cars, it seemed as though we had more time to get the jobs done. The diecast business was bigger, and most cars were based on that branch,” Woodward noted. “The diecast company would supply the layout and we would work with the team to determine what would be painted and what would be decals.”

Woodward said that the ability to print on demand is another major change.

“We also had more lead time – cars were produced more in advance,” he noted. Now, we print on demand and wrap the next day. Often, last-minute changes are required, and the sponsors change weekly, so these days, there simply isn’t time to paint a car. The cars are being built and wrapped at the same time.”

Not surprisingly, digital printing saves a lot of time compared to painting a car.

“Being able to digitally print the graphics is a huge time saver,” Woodward observed. “With our Roland DG inkjets, we can print an entire wrap in three to five hours. The install typically takes about eight man-hours.

“Besides making the process much quicker and easier, we can install the digitally printed wraps while guys are putting in the engine or working on other parts of the car,” added Woodward. “With painting, that couldn’t be done. Installation of the motor and various other parts had to wait until the painting process was done.”

Above all, digital printing improves the creative process.

“We can be very creative because, with a digitally printed wrap, everything can be built into the design,” Woodward said. “We can have fades, images, highlights, etc. In the past, when we were working with paint and decals, you would have to get creative on the production side to incorporate these elements. We also work hard on our wrap templates, so we can build everything into the wrap. They are one-piece and incredibly lightweight.”