The Amazing Story Of The Man Behind SiriusXM’s Rock And Roll Indy Cars

Felix Rosenqvist’s “Maximum Metallica” Honda Indy car after it was “wrapped” at the Meyer Shank Racing IndyCar shop in Pataskala, Ohio.

Meyer Shank Racing Photo

Thanks to support from partner SiriusXM, Meyer Shank Racing’s IndyCar team has been living the “Rock and Roll Lifestyle.”

At this weekend’s IndyCar Series season finale in the Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway, Felix Rosenqvist’s No. 60 Honda will feature a spectacular “Maximum Metallica” livery.

The man behind this beautiful car is a Brad Hoffner, a 66-year-old graphic designer who has worked at Meyer Shank Racing for the past 28 years. His love of racing began as a boy growing up in Lexington, Ohio, just down Steam Corners Road from the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Back then, the Can-Am and Trans-Am Series featured some of the glamour names of international racing and competed at the famed road course. Parnelli Jones was the big name that was competing and to a young boy such as Hoffner, he couldn’t believe the great racer was driving race cars just a few miles down an Ohio farm road.

Other big names at Mid-Ohio included Jody Scheckter, who would win the 1979 Formula One World Championship and the great British racer Brian Redman. Both were competing in the Ohio Formula 5000 race and young Hoffner talked his mother into dropping him off near the backside of the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Like many boys in the early to mid-1970s, Hoffner was adventurous and discovered a wooded area where he could sneak into the track.

“Most kids were into baseball football, whatever,” Hoffner told me. “I liked racing.

“When I got to be about 13, My mom took me out and dropped me off, and I snuck through the woods because I couldn’t afford a ticket. I snuck through the woods to watch my first race.

“From then on, I would go to every race I could. I would go to Trans Am races. There was a big Formula 5,000 race that year.”

That was the first time Hoffner watched real race cars on the track. But a few years earlier, one of his four brothers, got a gas-powered Dan Gurney miniature Formula One car for Christmas. It would be attached to fishing line with a nail or a stake driven into the ground.

Once that was anchored, the gas-powered toy car would be fired up and it would run around in circles until it ran out of gas.

At eight years old, Hoffner was fascinated by the toy.

Years later, Hoffner designed the Dan Gurney exhibit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, creating the brochure given to those who toured the exhibit.

“Dan is the only person in racing that has thanked me for doing something like that,” Hoffner said of the late, great Formula One and IndyCar driver, car designer and team owner. “He sent me a personal note and one of his ties with the cars on it.”

The late, great Dan Gurney is one of the many racing heroes that Hoffner was worked with.

Brad Hoffner’s Amazing Back Story

Hoffner attended The Ohio State University, about one hour’s drive south of Lexington, Ohio and would earn a degree in Journalism. He landed a job in the advertising department of the Gorman-Rupp Company in nearby Mansfield, Ohio “basically because I knew how to use a camera, which came about, because I used to go to Mid-Ohio and take pictures with my mom’s little Instamatic camera.”

Although primitive by today’s photography standards, Hoffman learned the value of framing, centering, focusing, lighting and other key aspects of photography.

After completing his degree at Ohio State, Hoffner returned to Lexington and bumped into the father of one of his friends. His buddy’s sister had married a man named Jim McCullough, a former sportscaster at the NBC affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina, who started a trading card company named MAXX Race Cards.

It was the first true trading card set featuring NASCAR drivers.

Hoffner knew McCullough from playing golf in the Lexington area. He heard about the new venture and called McCullough in February 1990 when he was at the Daytona 500.

McCullough told him he needed a writer, Hoffner said he had a journalism degree. He received a plane ticket to Daytona, played a round of golf with McCullough and left with a job.

Hoffner Heads To Charlotte

He moved to Charlotte, North Carolina for three years, wrote copy for the cards and was later offered a chance to write a company newsletter. Because Hoffner was a very early Apple Mac user from the Apple Labs at Ohio State, he designed the newsletter.

“He came back and said, ‘This is better than I can do’ and it became my job,” Hoffner recalled.

The company was eventually sold to Skybox International and Hoffner moved to Durham, NC. Fleer eventually bought Skybox and moved the company to Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

It was there that Hoffner met CART CEO Andrew Craig and CART CFO Randy Dzierzawski.

“This was in 1995, around the time ‘The Split’ (between CART and the Indianapolis 500) and they wanted to do a trading card set,” Hoffner said. “It never happened, but I met them.”

Meeting them would be beneficial to Hoffner. A friend of his, Mansfield, Ohio sportswriter T.E. McHale, had been hired at CART to work in the public relations department.

“T.E. told me Bob Andrews was doing the media guides and the publications at CART, and he had left,” Hoffner said. “They were looking for a publication person.

“I had an interview with Andrew and Randy in the IndyCar coach at Milwaukee and walked out of there with the job and started working with them, within a month.”

Valuable Connections

At CART, Hoffner created connections with people that would last a lifetime. He met public relations professionals Mike Zizzo and Steve Shunck. They became fast friends and would be valuable assets for other opportunities later.

Hoffner was creating a solid reputation as a graphic designer because of his artistic expertise.

Mary Weir, who did all the publications, posters and T-shirts at Mid-Ohio. The designer Mid-Ohio was using was about to leave and Hoffner had another client.

At CART, Hoffner’s first duties were to create the Media Guide, a massive 200- to 300-page book with all the facts, stats, bios and records for the series that is a valuable resource for the media.

“I said, ‘Oh yeah, I can do that,’ but my thought was I’ve never done anything over 12 pages,” Hoffner recalled. “Now, I’ve got to do this book.”

He brought color photography into the project, something that wasn’t common in 1996.

As his career continued and Zizzo and Shunck both went to NASCAR, they gave additional work having him produce the NASCAR Media Guide. Shunck connected him with Ellen Bireley, who was in charge of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

But it was a phone call with a high school friend named Dave Zuber, that got him involved with team owner Mike Shank.

“Dave called me up and said, ‘Mike’s looking for a PR person. They just won their first race. They need somebody. Would you be interested?’

“I told him I did not have any real PR experience, but I worked in the PR department, I was around all this stuff. I have a journalism degree, but I could also design and whatever.

“Mike had a shop down at the Columbus Fairgrounds, kind of a little dumpy shop and he was in this tiny little office. Him and his wife were both in this little space. The shop, you had to move things around to get all the cars in and out, it was ground level stuff.

“Anyhow, I talked to Mike and told him what I did. Mike is Mike. He is super. He is a nice guy, and I took him as being honest, which he has been.

“This is year 28 for me. I started working for him in 1998 at Mid-Ohio. That was my first race, and Kenny Wilden was one of the drivers. And then the following year we had Kenny Wilden come back, we had Sam Hornish Jr. in Formula Atlantic.

“I was Sam Hornish Jr.’s first PR guy in 1999.”

Hoffner’s Career Takes Off With Shank

Hornish would go on to become on the greatest oval drivers in IndyCar with three NTT IndyCar Series Championships in 2001, 2002 and 2006 and won the Indianapolis 500 in 2006, the first two with Panther Racing and the 2006 title with Penske Racing.

Hoffner had plenty of work to do in Champ Car, IndyCar, NASCAR and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. But Shank’s small sports car team continued to be a priority as Hoffner was in charge of the graphic designing.

“I’ve been with Mike ever since then doing stuff, whatever I could,” Hoffner said. “When it started out, he was doing the three Atlantic cars.”

Shank would become one of the top teams in Sports Car racing include Grand-AM, then IMSA. Hoffner designed the livery for the Sports Cars.

Shank was building an operation that would one day compete in the NTT IndyCar Series, first as an Indianapolis 500 entry before joining the series full-time.

Hoffner would take his skills to another level.

From Four-Time Indy 500 Winner To The Grateful Dead

With a team in the Indianapolis 500, Hoffner designed the race cars, crew uniforms, driver suits and the images in the team’s Gasoline Alley garages and the suites.

Shanks brought in Jim Meyer, the former CEO of SiriusXM Holdings, who retired from that company in 2020. He became Shanks racing partner and together, they celebrated Helio Castroneves’ fourth-career Indianapolis 500 victory in 2021.

The driver’s firesuit was designed by Hoffner as was the livery on his winning Indy car.

Because of Meyer’s connections at SiriusXM, the satellite radio network wanted to showcase some of its music channels on Meyer Shank Racing’s Indy cars.

“The first performer we had was Carrie Underwood at Iowa a couple years ago and that bumped us to another level socially,” Shank told me. “We took notice of that and so did Sirius/XM.”

Hoffner designed the race car that featured Underwood. From there, SiriusXM decided to feature more of its music channels.

Creed was on Rosenqvist’s car in the 109^th Indianapolis 500 in 2025. Creed joined the team to spend race weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

At Mid-Ohio, a special Ozzy Osbourne livery was created to honor the famed rocker on his last performance. Osbourne passed away shortly after the Mid-Ohio race in early July.

The iconic Grateful Dead was on Rosenqvist’s Honda in Monterey, California on July 27 and the race at Portland, Oregon on August 10.

Those numbers were off the charts.

Ending The Season On With A Showstopper

The 2025 season concludes with the Maximum Metallica car for the August 31 Borchetta Bourbon Music City Grand Prix at Nashville Superspeedway.

“It’s going to be as big as it gets in the world and the world of music in my opinion,” Shank said. “It’s as big as it gets today, and we look forward to putting that out here in a week or two from where we’re talking today and get ready for Nashville with another incredible livery.”

All of these artistic liveries were designed by Hoffner.

“I’ve done a lot of stuff. I don’t think anybody’s done a variety of things that I’ve done in racing as far as graphics and visual elements,” Hoffner said proudly. “I really don’t.”

How It’s Done

The long process that goes into these liveries begins with SiriusXM and the management of each band. The musical groups that are featured have a say in what they would like to see.

Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead consulted on the design that Hoffner created.

“They all loved it,” Shank said. “Brad Hoffner has done all these liveries, has been with MSR for 28 years, 27 years, something like that. And he is a personal fan of Black Sabbath and Ozzy and all the collaborations we’ve done. But he loved the Ozzy car and put a lot of effort in it.

“And the Grateful Dead, if you look at the way that car was designed and wrapped, it looks like a ‘Hodge Podge’ tie-dyed, but it was actually an intricate design that took a lot of effort. And also, on top of that, our installer, Kevin Weimer, we have an install that’s in charge of our print shop, Kevin Weimer.

“Kevin takes the design from Brad and makes it so it’s doable on a race car, very compound curved car, and did a great install job on it and made it all make sense.

“Brad is a true artist, actually. He is an artist that has very hardcore values on what should be seen and how a race card should look.

“And he and I go back and forth with Tim. We can get through a design probably in a day We give him some ideas and he’s just a very creative person that knows our business.”

Hoffner begins the creative process on his computer, which includes serious graphic design software.

Generally, he creates two different designs for final approval.

“It’s pretty interesting,” Shank said. Every year we’re trying to come up with new ways to present our product and our sponsors and our partners. I might have an idea and say, ‘Brad, what do you think about these three colors and this alignment?’ And he’ll say, ‘Okay’ and he’ll just go away and chew on that and he’ll come back with 12 examples.

“And then Tim Meyer (Jim Meyer’s son) and I look at him and we just kind of whittle it down to two. And then Tim has to send them all for approval.

“Usually, we send two versions for approval to all these bands at Sirius, first by Sirius and then by the band. It’s a whole process, but Brad has a great vision and we always talk about branding and motorsports is tricky because a lot of this stuff you can’t read on the car. So, it’s a visual thing that can be tough.

“Now, when you have a tie-dyed car, it’s pretty much hard to make anything work. We’re going for a mood more than anything, but he is really good at understanding how logos should look on cars.”

That’s A Wrap

Once the design is chosen, it becomes a “wrap” that is applied to the Indy car like a giant decal.

“I just do design,” Hoffner said. “When Mike built a new shop, he went out and bought a printer and that’s where Kevin Weimer runs it. Kevin takes what I do and applies it to the car.”

Back in the day, Indy cars were painted with decals applied to the top of the paint. But aerodynamicists discovered the “trip edge” of a decal actually created drag on a race car.

“They used to paint race cars, and put decals on them,” Shank explained. “Then they discovered if they put the paint the car, decals, and then they would clear coat the decal on the car.

“Now you’ve created a paint scheme that weighs five pounds. We don’t want that, right?

“So, with the modern day if we put the decals in the wrap, no trip edge. Now, the tricky part, like you’re saying, is ‘How do you line this all up?’

“My guy, Kevin Weimer, has developed a grid pattern that he puts on the car, and he puts the grid pattern on first and looks at distortion, and then how that grid pattern distorted, and it teaches him how to lay the sponsor logo on without distorting as it bends around the corner.

“When you bend and you put heat to things, it distorts a logo, and every one of these billion-dollar companies have logo police. You can’t mess with the logo.

“So, it’s a real science, and I’ll put Kevin Weimer up against anybody with application on wraps.

“Painting race cars is done. It’s over with. There are still some people that do their 500 cars, but a properly applied wrapped car is as good or better do these wraps have air bubble issues that have to be resolved they have a thing called an air release system on the back of them now. Back in the day you would spray some Windex down or soapy water and squeegee it out you don’t even need to do that anymore in most applications they have this release thing on the back that get the air out.”

Meyer Shank Racing uses the widest industrial printer on the market, measuring five- to six-feet wide to create the panels.

“We can do a complete car wrap with two guys in a night,” Shank said. “We can do it overnight and you will notice that some teams change between Saturday and Sunday and that’s just where our revenue model is today.

“There are sometimes you have to change the primaries and to be able to be involved with Sirius XM.”

Hoffner’s designs have been viewed by huge throngs at the Indianapolis 500 and on television. He has created exhibits that have been displayed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway museum.

One of his proudest moments is seeing Castroneves’ winning firesuit from his fourth Indianapolis 500 victory in 2021 on display at the newly reimagined Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

At its core, though, it’s all about the artistry of Hoffner’s work.

“What I tell people, you can design the coolest background in the world on a car, with all the tools we have available to us, you can do the coolest design background in the world,” Hoffner concluded. “But the sponsor logos have to be able to be seen on it.

“That’s the trick is placing everything where it’s visible.

“You want the livery to be eye-catching, but you’ve got to be able to read. You just can’t do this crazy funky background and stick logos on it because you won’t see them.

“That’s where the trick and the artistic things come in.”

When it comes to recognizing that trick, especially for SiriusXM, that is what makes Hoffner a true artist.