This concept is based on the #26 Klein Tools / Jim Beam colors that Wheldon raced in the 2005 season where he brought home the Indianapolis 500 win and the Indycar Championship. I always liked how both the Klein Tools and Jim Beam branding was tied together so I stayed pretty true to how each color was used on the real car.
This concept is based on Dan's years at Chip Ganassi Racing from 2006 to 2008. Dan lost the 2006 championship in these colors after a tie-breaker decided that the Penske driver Sam Hornish Jr. would be crowned champion. Dan still won many races in the iconic Ganassi Target car. Bringing this car into the modern day with the current branding for Target and its associates was a fun challenge.
Dan raced the National Guard colors for the 2009 and 2010 seasons for Panther racing. While this was a smaller team, Dan outperformed his equipment and finished 2nd in both 2009 and 2010 in the Indianapolis 500. This concept was probably the most difficult to reimagine, to modernize this design I used the new Army National Guard branding which also changed up its color scheme.
In 2011 Dan, as the underdog for a small one-car team won the Indianapolis 500 for the second time in his bright orange William Rast car. For this concept I wanted to make the orange pop as much as I could so I opted for a black base on the car instead of the white on the real car. Tragically, we lost Dan in a crash at the 2011 season finale in Las Vegas. RIP Lionheart.
