Under the big sky of the Lone Star State, the Champ Car World Series returned to Houston for the first time since 2001. The area around Reliant Park, site of the Houston Texans' Reliant Stadium, as well as the historic Houston Astrodome, was converted to a 1.7 mile street course for the week-long event in early May. 

For the first time in the history of the Champ Car World Series, a street race took place at night - illuminating the colors of Champ Car drivers and teams. A highlight of the event was the presentation of Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes (SWAFC) "It's All in the Finish" Color and Design Awards, complete with a $10,000 prize, to the Champ Car team with the hottest look on the track.

"Adding visual excitement to Champ Car was one of our goals when we signed on to be the Official Automotive Finishes of the Champ Car World Series and the Atlantic Series," said Bobby Moody, SWAFC National Accounts Manager, Motorsports. "Teams use Planet Color, our new series of optically enhanced coatings, to add energy and life to their paint schemes. You can see the color difference in the teams that won our 'It's All in the Finish' Color and Design awards this weekend."

During the pre-race events in Houston, several SWAFC experts judged each Champ Car and Atlantic Series Car, to decide which two teams had the best color, design, gloss and overall appearance.

In a surprising tie, the winners for the Champ Car World Series were the #5 and #15 of Team Australia powered by Australian driver Will Power and Canadian driver Alex Tagliani. With their outstanding Aussie Vineyards green and yellow color scheme, these cars stood above the rest. They had been recently repainted following Long Beach with Planet Color, the newest brand of automotive finishes by Sherwin-Williams.

The highly reflective additives in this finish are dimensional, color shifting, iridescent and extremely brilliant. Congratu-lations to Team Australia for their excellent use of color and design to win the Sherwin-Williams' "It's All in the Finish" Color and Design Award and a $10,000 cash prize.

In the Atlantic Series, the #4 car powered by Mexican driver David Martinez for US Racetronics won Sherwin-Williams' "It's All in the Finish" Color and Design Award and a $4,000 prize for its use of a vibrant blue and yellow Planet Color finish.