Sporting a gray beard and an American flag shirt, Kevin Reed uses his Michelob Ultra can to gesture toward his “coffin”: a sleek Soap Box Derby–style car adorned with hand-painted skulls and roses, its nose tapering to a long, sharp point. Reed, of aerospace company Greenpoint Technologies’ Denton-based facility, and his team, reigning champions of the North Texas town’s annual Day of the Dead Coffin Races , constructed the car out of lightweight honeycomb panels. It’s one of seventy vehicles displayed under canopy tents at the Show ’n’ Shine just a few hours before Sunday’s race.

“We build airplane interiors for a living,” Reed says. “Our car’s fast enough to win—fast enough to beat them ,” he adds as he points to the nearby tent of Second Hand Sports, a local store that’s won the ra

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