The scene: Atlanta, late 1997
The plot: Todd Bodine announces a new team with TABASCO as sponsor, with heavy-duty marketing schemes involved.
The twist: Poor Todd can't get into the field enuff to keep the TABASCO name front and center, but the TABASCO folk have jumped into the merchandizing side with both feet - there's even a Todd Bodine cookbook...
Turned out the cars being fielded by Todd's new team were dogs - or Todd wasn't up to gettin' them in the field... who knows? In a solution typical of modern management, the owners, ISM, dumped Todd after the June Pocono race, and Gary Bradberry appeared at New Hampshire in July. There had been no consultation by the owners with TABASCO, and they were hot! (sorry...). Win races be damned - what about all the marketing plans they'd had - built around Todd??
And now to continue the story...
Loy Allen had been tapped to replace Todd at the Firecracker, but it was postponed to October due to brushfires. Bradberry out, Horton in, for an unsuccesful qualifying attempt at the July Pocono race. Now, no other replacement driver for the TABASCO team had been named, and the Brickyard was comin' up...
Meantime, in another far-away galaxy of the NASCAR universe, Darrell Waltrip's carefully-crafted world had been quickly unravelling. New sponsor, Speedblock, were said to have not remotely lived up to their commitments, and DW was runnin' out of his own pockets. Even DW's pockets weren't deep enough to keep that up for long, and he sold the unsponsored team to Tim Beverly, who shut it down to regroup as Tyler Jet Motorsports... and DW moved on.
DW had some good times subbin' for the injured Steve Park, drivin' Teresa Earnhardt's (wife of former foe Dale) #1 PENNZOIL Chevy. Still with me?
By the time the 'Yard rolled around, Park was back in good health, and DW had no ride...
Tim Beverly, who, by the way, is a wealthy industrialist with the requisite DEEP pockets - he builds and sells airplanes, fer Chrissakes... had also purchased the TABASCO team from ISM prior to the Brickyard - again with no communication with the sponsors from seller or buyer... Beverly put Darrell back in one of the new Tyler Jet Chevies that had been built by DW's old team over the past few weeks. Since Beverly owned both teams, he opted to field a Chevy from the Tyler Jet team as the TABASCO-sponsored entry, as he felt it would be superior to the Pontiacs ISM had been running for TABASCO.
So, just prior to the Indy event, a crew took some decals and paint from the ISM team, tootled over to DW's old shop, now Tyler Jet, and repainted a Monte Carlo in the TABASCO colour scheme. So now TABASCO not only had a new driver, but even the PONTIACS featured in their marketing artwork were disappearing!! Are you still following all this?
McIlhenny, the corporate owners of TABASCO, were livid. DW ran the Monte Carlo in TABASCO colours at Indy, and finished 13th, the second-best finish the TABASCO-sponsored team had had... but TABASCO insisted they go back to the Pontiacs.. and began rethinkin' this whole NASCAR sponsorship thing...
Thus, the model shown here was a one-race wonder, but likely the most promising car fielded with TABASCO colours in 1998! The model was built using a Mike Skinner Monte Carlo. The usual plumbing, wiring, new exhaust dumps, etc were added.
This model was painted and decalled at the same time as the TABASCO Pontiac, so see it for gory details. Suffice to say it took four sets of "bootleg" decals (is THAT what 'B' decals means???) to complete both models... I had to buy a Monogram Earnhardt Monte Carlo to get the correct B-pillar Coke decals. Final touch was clearcoating the whole body, and buffing it to a shine suitable for Indy...
DW languished for the rest of 1998, driving the bog-slow Pontiacs, gettin' into the field on Past Champion Provisionals... embarrassed (so he said later)... but at least tryin' to meet TABASCO's marketing objectives... such is the state of NASCAR racing today...
The TABASCO PONTIAC? That's another story... and a different model...
The good news is:
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