IndyCar: ‘First-of-its-kind’ livery design revealed for Nashville

The fan-designed liveries for the two Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolets ahead of the inaugural IndyCar race in Nashville have been revealed.

The long-awaited IndyCar livery designs for the Arrow McLaren SP Chevrolets of Pato O’Ward (#5) and Felix Rosenqvist (#7) for the upcoming inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville, Tennessee have been revealed.

These liveries were designed by Jack LaPilusa, the Astoria, New York native who won the Vuse Design Challenge.

The Vuse Design Challenge was a unique, first-of-its-kind opportunity to turn an IndyCar into a racing canvas, bringing inspiration and artistic vision to life. This challenge was run in partnership with Arrow McLaren SP.

Nearly 1,000 individuals entered designs to be on the cars of O’Ward and Rosenqvist for this race, and it was these designs by LaPilusa that were selected.

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Rosenqvist, who ran a special design by UNDFTD in the 105th running of the Indy 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this past May to promote the Vuse Design Challenge, is excited to have the opportunity to run another special livery in Nashville.

“I think it’s really cool, what Vuse is doing with this challenge,” Rosenqvist told Beyond the Flag. “We had a dedicated designer for the 500 with UNDFTD, and now we actually let the fans design the car, which is something really rare. I don’t even know if it’s been done before, to be honest. It’s super cool. I’m always down to have a different livery.

“I think we actually have the best looking cars in the field already, but whenever the team’s telling me we’re going to have a new livery for a specific race, I think it’s a super cool thing. I think this specific one, it kind of reminds you of our current one, but it has a very different pattern.

“Mine and Pato’s have the same pattern but different colors. I personally think they look super cool. Honestly, you never know until the whole thing is done and you see it in reality. That’s when you get the true feel of what the car’s like. But what I’ve seen from the drawings, it looks amazing. I’m really pumped to see how it’s gonna turn out in Nashville.”

O’Ward shared the same sentiment.

“I was actually a little jealous at the Indy 500 that I didn’t get something like a tiger like Felix did!” he admitted. “I know what they’re trying to kind of get across. I know that Vuse is into art collections, and I feel like racing is an art of its own, and it’s kind of like driving around with different kinds of paintings on-track. Some cars are blue, some are red, some are black, some are silver, yellow, whatever it may be.

“I think it’s really cool that for this specific race weekend, we’re going to have something that’s going to be completely different. It’s going to be crazy, it’s going to look cool, it’s going to look young, it’s going to look like what something should look like in Nashville, in a way. It’s a very young and fun city with lots of life. And I feel like that’s what we tried to portray with these new designs.

“It reminds us a little bit of kind of like the World War I vehicles that go to battle. I don’t know, I just think it has a very cool kind of mix-in together with racing. When we go out on-track, the goal is to win. So I’m really excited to see what everyone thinks of them.

“I’m also doing a special helmet, which, coincidentally — I hadn’t really seen the design of the car before I did the helmet — but now that I actually saw the design and I did the helmet, they actually look very similar in a way. So I’m pretty ecstatic about it.”

The drivers did not have a say in the winning design, but they are thrilled that LaPilusa’s designs were selected.

“No, actually not,” Rosenqvist continued. “I think I saw — I kind of glanced upon something on a screen — but no, it wasn’t really our call. But as I said before, honestly I’m down for any fun idea. Like Pato said, you know, helmets and liveries on the cars, whatever it might be, I think it’s always a good idea if you do it, specifically now, you do it for the right reason as well.

“You do it as a piece of art and some person is actually involved in it to get their art across a big worldwide scene, which is probably a very rare opportunity in the art world. So yeah, we’re all for it and we look forward to showing these cars to the public soon.”

Asked whether he thinks this is something that could be done again in the future, Rosenqvist believes so — and hopes so.

“Yea, for sure,” he said. “I think this is really part of what Vuse wants to do. Nashville is one of our big events, and I think whenever we have an event like that, we’re always down to do these kinds of things. But yeah, personally, I love it. I think Pato does as well, and everyone at the shop. When I talk to the guys working on the car, everyone thinks it’s super cool, and they feel like extra energy going into the weekend.

“But also the reception I got after the 500 with my tiger livery, I can’t remember one person who spoke badly about the livery. And every time you have something new, there’s always like, “Ehh, is this going to turn out well?”, and then when we saw the real deal, everyone was just stoked. It was one of my favorite liveries in IndyCar for sure.”

The inaugural Big Machine Music City Grand Prix is scheduled to take place on Sunday, August 8, and it is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network from the streets of Nashville, Tennessee beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.