This Week on Trading Paints: August 1, 2025

Welcome to This Week on Trading Paints, the pulse on what’s happening in the Trading Paints world while you’re getting ready for Number Day.

🔢 Sunday is Number Day!

We’ll be celebrating Number Day on Sunday, August 3 — sharing our love for all things car numbers on iRacing. Follow along here on the blog for fun content and stats, and join us on Instagram for a giveaway to the Trading Paints Store.

👨‍🎨 Artist Spotlight: Harris Lue

This month, we’ve got Harris Lue, co-owner of LUE Creative, in the spotlight. Check out Michael Carey’s interview with Harris to learn how the inimitable creator got his start, his friendship with the late Sam Bass, and advice for up-and-coming designers.

🐂 Gen 4 Ford Taurus update

In a Tuesday patch from iRacing, the popular Gen 4 2003 Ford Taurus got a slight update to its B-pillar and rear bumper area. Double-check your paints in case you want to make any tweaks — though we consider these non-breaking changes, so we aren’t removing any existing paints.

🏎️ Paint Builder Dallara IR18 decal layer update

We updated the decal layer on the Dallara IR18 in Paint Builder Thursday to match the latest version from iRacing. Some small decals were updated in the iRacing Season 3 build in June, but the changes hadn’t been reflected in Paint Builder … until now. (Thanks to Jim P. for letting us know!)

🎮 ICYMI: Downloader Beta for AI-Ready Collections in Hosted Racing

Earlier this month, we released a new beta version of the Trading Paints Downloader featuring some enhancements around hosted racing sessions with AI Collections. Give version AI3 a try if you want to help us test out these updates and bug fixes, available on the Downloader Beta page.

🌟 Fresh Official Paints

There’s a new listing in the Verified Official Paints section of the Showroom, courtesy of Brantley Roden (Harpoon Design) and Joe Gibbs Racing.

🏎️ Staff Picks

Here are some paints we’re enjoying this week.

SpongeBob SquarePants Mazda by Jordan Spoon2 - Trading Paints

Rev up the fun with SpongeBob SquarePants Racing Team, where speed meets sea-sational adventure! Dive into the fast lane and let the Bikini Bottom crew lead you to victory!

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Jagermeister M2 by Bruce Funderburg - Trading Paints

Inspired by the 1992 Jagermeister M3 DTM car

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NAPA Monte Carlo - Stamped by Vincent Giacalone - Trading Paints

One of the created-driver schemes from EA Sports’ NASCAR 2001 for the PS2. Took some liberties with the associates since the original had an Advance logo on the rear quarter panel.

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Bubba Wallace #23 Vaporwave Columbia Camry - fictional paint by Matthew A Tomelleri - Trading Paints

Bubba Wallace #23 23XI racing fictional paint. made with: https://www.simwrapmarket.com/collections/collection---134

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Nissan Puma by Paul Metcalfe - Trading Paints

Pink like the GTO.

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Cookout Toyota Tundra by Justin Rector - Trading Paints

A fictional Texas Pete paint scheme that I’m currently running. I borrowed elements from Harris Lue’s original Cookout scheme that he designed for Bobby Labonte’s modified.

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🏆 Paint of the Week

Jeff Gross earned the distinction of Paint of the Week this week, from our Community manager Patrick, with Jeff’s interpretation of an old Tony Stewart NASCAR Cup Series car painted on the Toyota GR86.

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🏁 Special Shoutout

We’d like to say congratulations to our friends at JR Motorsports on reaching their 100th NASCAR Xfinity Series win Saturday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with Connor Zilisch behind the wheel.

Michael Carey, leader of our Artist Spotlight blog series, serves as the Digital Marketing Manager at JRM. Team Creative Director Ryan Williams shares the team’s official paints on his Trading Paints profile. (And, of course, team co-owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. is an executive director at iRacing!)

What did you think of This Week on Trading Paints? Let us know on Instagram and Bluesky — and don’t forget to tag us when you share your paints! 🏁