Sam Bass’ latest release, “Victory Lap”, is a roll call of the men who made NASCAR Winston Cup racing the most popular sport in America with the support of sponsor R.J. Reynolds. The artist’s Pantheon of stock car performance includes Richard Petty, Benny Parsons, Cale Yarborough, Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Terry Labonte, Bill Elliott, Rusty Wallace, Alan Kulwicki, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth - each represented by the car he drove to a championship. A single gold trophy inscribed with each of their names centers and unifies the elements in the image.

The painting was a result of Bass’ participation in NASCAR’s Victory Lap program, which honored the 15 drivers who became champions under the Winston Cup banner with special pre-race ceremonies and presentations.

The walls of the Sam Bass art gallery, located less than a lap away from Lowe’s Motor Speedway’s high-banked oval, are alive with vivid recollections of racing’s most exciting and endearing events. Visitors are often overcome with a sense of time frozen in place as they view the paintings – as if Jeff Gordon’s first win were only yesterday; Richard Petty’s seventh championship had just happened; and Mark Martin is just beginning to celebrate his $1 million victory in the Coca-Cola 600. Individual moments, protected from the present behind the glass plates of their frames, hang in anticipation of being freed by the imagination of race fans.

The first thing NASCAR artist and motorsports designer Sam Bass admits to any guest in his Concord, N.C.-based gallery is that he’s the luckiest person on Earth. Bass’ characteristic modesty suggests only luck could be responsible for the 10,000-square-foot gallery that is his home away from home 80 or more hours a week, where he’s surrounded by hundreds of his race-inspired paintings and designs for everything from stock cars to electric guitars and toolboxes.