Thanks to you, we raised $8,840 for Caps fan Ryan Ellis to participate in the Drive Sober 200 Xfinity race at Dover International Speedway this Saturday. That money went to pay for a pit crew, transporting the car, new tires, parts – you name it. It also paid for a half-wrap of Ryan’s black-and-blue painted #25 Chevy Camaro.

Over the last few days, I’ve frantically worked with Rick Ware Racing and Carnage Graphics to turn around a hood design, a bumper design, and several other lower quarter panel decals. While it’s been fun and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, it’s also been quite stressful. We also had to figure out where to put everyone’s name who donated, how to best credit our secondary sponsors, and how to make all of those logos perfect vector illustrations.

After 48 hours, the car design was finished (minus the bumper). I really hope you smile at the final result.

The hood design

Red is one of RMNB’s most iconic colors, but that would be too bright to be the color of the hood. My original idea was to make the hood ice blue with skate shavings, similar to our site’s new masthead. With the limitation that the car had to be black and dark blue, I shifted gears.

Instead, I decided to highlight the Never Breaks aspect of our brand and give the hood a diamond plate steel texture on a dark silver/black gradient. Below the RMNB wordmark, I recreated our entire domain in yellow skate laces. Finally, there’s a goal light, illustrated by Rachel Cohen, at the bottom of the hood. You know, because we love to goals and celebration.

Photos of the hood

Your names are on the car

The car also featured the names of everyone who donated $20 or more to the Russian Machine Never Brakes campaign. That includes everyone who played in RMNB’s inaugural floor hockey tournament this past Saturday.

We also gave people the option through email to change the name they submitted. That was maybe a mistake.

Harambe

One reader was adamant that his donation be credited to Harambe. After careful consideration and heartfelt tears, we fulfilled his request. Why do I have a feeling this is going to be a thing?

Side Design

One of the limitations of the design was that we could only do a half wrap, meaning we could not control all the colors of the car. Where Ryan’s #25 is located near the driver’s window, three stripes — RMNB’s black, blue, and red colors — were added.

Photos of the side of the car

Young Rising Sons

Not only is Caps fan Ryan Ellis going to be at Dover on Saturday, so is up-and-coming rock band Young Rising Sons. The Interscope signed trio, which consists of Dick Patrick’s nephew Steve Patrick on drums, will be performing the national anthem ahead of the Drive Sober 200.

Patrick and lead singer Andy Tongren are huge Caps fans. Their latest single Undefeatable also features a historic and forgotten hockey trophy on its album art.

The Young Rising Sons will also be performing a free concert before the race. They are sponsoring our car. We cannot thank them enough for their contribution.

Rockville SportsPlex and DCHL logos

The Michael & Son SportsPlex and DCHL logos were included on the side of the car. The Rockville SportsPlex hosted our floor hockey tournament last Saturday and Suds, the DCHL Commissioner, planned and organized our tournament. The tourney was a huge success and we could not have made our goal without them. We are grateful.

Back Bumper

Finally, as I mentioned above, the only part of the design that isn’t ready to go is the back bumper. It’ll feature a special message to other drivers that one of our Twitter followers suggested. There is also an ad on the C pillar (above the rear window) promoting awareness for the autoimmune condition PANS/PANDAS, which RMNB’s Chris Gordon has. We don’t have close up photos of that yet. Stay turned to RMNB on race day for the pictures!

Now that the design is done, the Rick Ware Racing team will be hauling the car to Dover Thursday. Friday — weather permitting — there will be practice and qualifying. Then on Saturday, there’s only one last thing to do.

RYAN, CRASH THE NET AND VICTORY LANE.