From Trading Paints to the World 100: sim painter Joshua Wright’s big break

It’s hardly a secret these days that there’s a clear funnel from sim racing to real-world racing, whether that’s a driver who made the transition from pixels to podiums, or a car-setup ace who’s earned a job as a race team engineer. Teams know that sim racers have unmatched passion and talent, and they’re looking more and more toward the gaming world to scout for hidden gems.

Add artist Joshua Wright to that list.

Earlier this month at the World 100 at Eldora Speedway, one of the most prestigious dirt racing events of the year, Joshua Wright’s own design graced the Hunt the Front team’s car throughout the weekend. The 23-year-old was hired by the team to design the wrap after being discovered through a Trading Paints Proving Grounds Challenge held over the summer.

Joshua was one of dozens of designers to participate in the Trading Paints Hunt the Front World 100 Proving Grounds Challenge. Artists were prompted to design an iRacing dirt late model with very few restrictions — just include Hunt the Front and Trading Paints branding — then submit it to the Trading Paints Showroom with the hopes of catching the eye of the Hunt the Front crew, who’d be hiring the World 100 wrap designer from the field of participants.

Rather than a “design contest” that provides a client with lots of valuable concepts from unpaid designers, a Proving Grounds Challenge is more of an audition. Artists show off their skills following minimal parameters with the intention of getting paid to complete the actual design brief if they’re selected.

After a successful and eye-catching entry, Hunt the Front tapped Joshua for the job, and then began working together to design the real car with the team’s requirements. That meant designing for an actual sponsor, BRUNT Workwear.

“The Hunt the Front team let me know that BRUNT Workwear would be the main sponsor of the car, which immediately had me excited to work with such a well-known brand,” said Joshua.

The process he followed was the same used by any real-world wrap designer, even with Joshua’s background as a sim-racing-forward artist with his design shop, JDubb Graphicz.

“Both Hunt the Front and BRUNT provided guidelines regarding the colors, patterns, and overall elements they wanted incorporated into the design,” Joshua continued. “Once I had all of the information, I created several different concepts and explored different ways to bring everything together.”

Designing real-world race cars is the ultimate goal for most sim-racing designers. “Before doing Hunt the Front’s World 100 wrap, I had done a handful of real-world race cars, but I never really saw myself as a true racing designer,” said Joshua.

But now, his moment has arrived, and his confidence backs it up.

“After seeing my design on one of the biggest stages in dirt racing, I now truly believe that I can do this.”

Of course, Joshua took the three-hour trip from Danville, Illinois to attend the World 100 at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio to see his design come to life in person.

“Seeing the car in the pits was one thing, but actually seeing the car on Eldora Speedway with a design that I created was something I will never forget. It was a surreal experience and the coolest moments of my design career so far,” he said.

The experience was a dream come true for Joshua.

“Growing up around dirt racing and being a dirt racer myself, the World 100 has always been an event I wanted to attend,” he said. “I never would have imagined that I would be designing a wrap for one of the most popular Dirt Late Model teams in the country.”

It was a success for Hunt the Front, too. On track, driver Joseph Joiner won his heat race to qualify for his second World 100, and finished 12th in the $100,000-to-win main event — and the team looked good doing it.

“The design Joshua created gave our race car a look that really stood out when we rolled into Eldora for the World 100, the biggest event of our season,” said Joshua Joiner from Hunt the Front. “Having him with us at Eldora and watching him see his work come to life was exactly what the Proving Grounds Challenge was supposed to be about, and we were proud to carry his design on one of the sport’s biggest stages.”

What’s next for Joshua and JDubb Graphicz?

“This opportunity has definitely changed my path in a very positive way. I will continue designing iRacing cars for the foreseeable future, but I also plan on expanding my real-world racing design work throughout the rest of 2026 and into 2027,” he said.

Joshua has posted over 1,000 paints to his Trading Paints portfolio, making him one of the top painters in the iRacing dirt racing scene.

Of course, his paint design — in iRacing replica form — is available to race on iRacing in the Trading Paints Showroom.

“This project gave me a ton of self-confidence and made me realize that I can have a future in motorsports design. With hard work and dedication, I truly believe there are a lot of opportunities ahead.”