CONCORD, N.C. -- Sam Bass remembers getting Matchbox and Hot Wheels race cars as birthday presents when he was young. Before he played with them, he worked on the toy cars with his paint and brushes.

Now that he's all grown up, Bass hasn't changed much.

For 20 years, he has been drawing everybody who's anybody in Winston Cup racing. With a degree in fine arts from Virginia Commonwealth, his artwork can be found on race cars, helmets, transporters and uniforms.

Bass struggled as an artist in the early 1980s. Now, at 40, he is perhaps the country's most successful motorsports artist, with his work appearing on everything from Jeff Gordon's No. 24 car to the latest version of Monopoly with a NASCAR theme.

He points to 1981 as the start of his career as a painter when he asked racing great Bobby Allison to autograph some of his paintings. The driver asked to buy some of them.

Bass has worked with the late Dale Earnhardt and his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Among the more than 200 paint schemes he has designed are the Winston Cup cars of Gordon, Dale Jarrett and Tony Stewart.

The prices vary depending on how much detail and reworking is involved, said Susan Russo, a vice president at Sam Bass Illustration & Design, Inc.

His client list at Sam Bass Illustration & Design includes such Fortune 500 companies as Anheuser-Busch, General Mills, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, DuPont and Pepsico.

One of his latest projects is a NASCAR Collector's Edition of the famous Monopoly board game, which replaced an earlier racing-inspired one that used still photographs of Winston Cup cars.

His signature also can be found on Christmas ornaments, cereal boxes, camping gear -- even some limited edition Gibson Les Paul electric guitars.

"From Gibson's vantage point, we were able to provide Sam with a unique canvas to illustrate motor sports,'' said Gibson's Don Pitts. "He's passionate about music and guitars. We already consider most of our guitars a work of art, so having this is really great.''

A Dale Earnhardt model originally sold for $3,000, though Russo said they now fetch as much as $4,500 because of their popularity and limited supply.

Pitts expects more Sam Bass artwork to show up on Gibson guitars.

"We talked about a Richard Petty one and the Dale Earnhardt guitar is probably the Holy Grail,'' he said. "And we're talking to two or three other drivers.''

Bass is humble but confident he can deliver value to his customers.

"The best way I can put it is that I want to be the Wal-Mart of NASCAR artwork,'' he said. "When I started, there were these people who would design the paint scheme for the cars and other people who designed the uniforms. Another group would do the design for the helmets.

Like Wal-Mart, "I can be a one-stop place for people who want anything or everything, from helmets to car transporters to uniforms,'' he said. "I put this all together and this is what happened.''

Bass said he treats each new project from a fan's viewpoint.

"I get just as excited when I see one of my paintings on a cereal box as I do when I see one hanging in an art gallery,'' said Bass, whose paintings are on display at the Levine Museum of the New South in Charlotte. "It's all about connecting to the fans.''

Bass produces an astounding number of paintings and prints with a distinctive NASCAR theme. He regularly puts in 16-hour days in his studio.

His paintings and prints are on display at the 10,000-square-foot Sam Bass Gallery, which opened in 2000 across the street from Lowe's Motor Speedway. The building, which also contains Bass' studio, is close enough to the track to hear the 750-horsepower race cars roaring down the front stretch.

The gallery also contains some of Bass' other creations, including a limited edition Dale Earnhardt tool box that Bass designed for Snap-on Tools Inc. Despite the selling price of $10,000, all 4,200 of the custom tool boxes are gone.

Snap-on liked the project enough to sign Bass to do a second one with Dale Earnhardt Jr. They also sold out. A third tool box will feature driver Kevin Harvick, who took over at Richard Childress Racing following Dale Earnhardt's death.

"Sam's art has a different feel from your everyday stuff,'' said Bob Velisek, director of marketing for tool storage for Snap-on Tools. "It also didn't hurt that the buyer got a signed Sam Bass lithograph, which tend to appreciate in value over time.''