Sam Bass (artist)

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Sam Bass (Samuel Mark Bass) was an American motorsports artist and NASCAR’s first officially licensed artist. Born November 20, 1961, in Hopewell, Virginia, he grew up loving racing and began drawing cars as a kid. He later worked as a graphic designer and earned a fine arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Bass started designing race car paint schemes in 1988 after meeting Bobby Allison and went on to create designs for drivers like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt. He designed many race program covers for tracks such as Charlotte Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway and opened his studio, Sam Bass Illustration and Design, near Charlotte in 1991.

One of his most famous works is Jeff Gordon’s No. 24 “Rainbow Warrior,” a colorful scheme from the 1990s. In 2001, Bass created Gordon’s blue base with red flames, a design that helped Gordon win the Winston Cup. He also designed cars and uniforms for the movie Talladega Nights and was the logo designer for the Kannapolis Intimidators.

Bass faced serious health issues later in life, including type 1 diabetes diagnosed at age 29 and kidney disease. A 2005 infection led to a below-knee amputation a few years later. He endured further health problems, including septic shock in 2014, and bankruptcy in 2017. He died on February 16, 2019, in Concord, North Carolina, at age 57. Tributes followed, such as a 2019 paint scheme for MBM Motorsports’ No. 66 at Richmond.