Images that stick with you.

• Author: Martin, Edward
• Position: Motorsports Designs Holding Inc. - Company Profile

John McKenzie went from zero to 20--customers, that is--in nine months. If that seems sluggish, bear in mind that he was revolutionizing the appearance of NASCAR racers. When he started Motorsports Designs Holding Inc. in 1982, the elaborate graphics for which NASCAR cars are famous barely existed. Sponsors' names and logos were painted on--often crudely--by sign painters pressed into service the night before a race.

A salesman for a lawbook distributor, McKenzie was moonlighting as a decal maker for High Point's Hatteras Yachts, now based in New Bern. He had learned screen-printing by working nights for a textile company while in high school, and when he heard local race-team owner Richard Childress had landed Piedmont Airlines as a sponsor for the car driven by Ricky Rudd, he paid Childress a sales call. "Nobody in racing was using decals then," he says. A week later, Rudd's car arrived at a race in Richmond, Va., plastered with McKenzie's decals--numbers, Piedmont's emblem, stripes and other designs. By November, the end of the season, 20 teams--more than half the field--were using his decals.

Since then, NASCAR's popularity has fueled the growth of Motorsports Designs. Its decals are on the cars of 25 teams, about 60% of the field in a typical Winston Cup race, plus cars in other divisions. They also decorate racecar haulers, souvenir trailers, pit-wall banners, helmets and dashboards--almost anywhere that sponsors want their logos in view of cameras.

Although the company had handled commercial jobs on 18-wheelers, TV-and radio-station vehicles and trade-show booths almost from the beginning, it established a separate division, MDC Graphics, in 2001. That same year, it converted to 100% employee ownership with an employee stock ownership plan valued at $1.6 million. 2001 proved a test in other ways. Revenue dropped 11% to $4.7 million, forcing the company to freeze pay. McKenzie and Kip Johnson, executive vice president...