Sam Bass Partners with Richard Petty To Do Good with Goody’s

NASCAR artist Sam Bass and the ‘King’ Richard Petty are partnering with Goody’s and BC Powders to do good for two charities, the Wounded Warrior Project and Victory Junction Camp. The special promotion, ‘Pick a Powder’ will culminate at the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 Cup race this weekend at Martinsville Speedway.

[media-credit name=”Barry Albert” align=”alignright” width=”275″][/media-credit]Throughout this month, fans have had the opportunity to get involved by voting on which powder provided the fastest relief, Goody’s or BC Powders. Richard Petty championed the Goody’s cause benefiting the charity nearest to his heart, Victory Junction Camp, and county singer Trace Adkins was the cheerleader for the BC Powders team with his charity being the Wounded Warrior Project.

Artist Sam Bass got involved in this special promotion as he was asked to design the paint schemes for each charity that will be displayed on two cars during the Martinsville race. Even more special was that two individuals, one representing each charity, worked with Bass to craft the designs.

“Well, it’s going to be a very exciting weekend,” Bass said. “These are two tremendous causes brought together by Goody’s and BC Powders.”

“It’s a unique pairing of a lot of different things,” Bass continued. “BC Powders and Goody’s have been around the sport of NASCAR for a long, long time. Victory Junction Gang Camp and Wounded Warriors Project have been as well.”

“The idea was what could we do to represent these two charities and make people happy and tie it in to Sam Bass and NASCAR design work.”

“What I got to do, which was really, really special, was that I got to work with a gentleman named Cory Collins on the Wounded Warrior Project and I got to work with a little girl named Eleanor Bolton from Victory Junction Camp,” Bass said. “Both of them are tremendous NASCAR fans and basically what they did was to work with me to design their race cars.”

Bass began his collaboration with the two at the first race in Daytona. His work started with phone calls to pick their brain about their interest in the sport and their respective relationships to their charities.

Eleanor Bolton, a Victory Junction camper, is an eight year old with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. She and her family first attended Camp for a family weekend in February 2010.

“She is as sweet as she can be,” Bass said. “She sent me some drawings she had done and I just took all of her information, all of her colors, all of her family photos, all of her drawings and then kind of took the logo of Camp and Goody’s.”

“Her car number was 43, of course with Richard Petty,” Bass continued. “And I just designed a car with her input and came up with something that she would like.”

“She had peace symbols and hearts and photos of her and her family,” Bass said. “That’s how her car was.”

The other participant with whom Bass worked was Cory Collins. On his first tour in Iraq in 2005, Collins was injured 27 days after arriving. He and his unit ran over a 500-pound IED  and he was the sole survivor of the attack.

“Cory is a veteran of the armed forces and had been injured serving this country and ultimately it cost him his left leg,” Bass said. “I could sympathize because I lost my lower left leg to diabetes a few years ago. He and I hit it off from the very beginning.”

“I worked with him and got his favorite colors and learned that he was a Jeff Gordon fan,” Bass continued. “So, having designed for Jeff since he came into the sport of NASCAR, I quickly related to Cory.”

Bass took Collins’ favorite color, which was black, and put some flames into the mix a la Jeff Gordon. Bass then featured Collins’ car number, 101 for his unit, the 101st Airborne.

“We came up with a couple of designs that mirrored the tattoo that he had gotten on his arm over there,” Bass said. “It’s got a flaming skull that looks really cool. And of course the Wounded Warriors logo is prominently featured on the hood.”

“To keep the cars in symmetry, I had Cory send me photos of his family and his friends,” Bass continued. “So things are meaningful on both cars for both participants.”

Both Collins and Bolton will get to ride in their respective cars during the pace laps of the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville.

“Over the weekend they’re going to get to meet Richard Petty and Trace Adkins,” Bass said. “It’s just going to be a blast and I’m going to get to be a part of it.”

“From dealing with the child in Eleanor to the adult experiences of Cory was very meaningful to me.”

“It’s going to be a great day for both of them,” Bass said. “To see their reactions and to spend the day with them will warm my heart and I feel very proud to participate in this project.”

Fans can also get in on the action as Goody’s and BC Powders will make donations to each charity on every box of either product sold. During the Goody’s Fast Relief 500 race at Martinsville Speedway, both charities will be presented checks by their respective powders to continue their missions.