Seeking advice from the Photoshop gods

[Extreme8]

Here's the issue I'm having.
Working with a Nascar theme (not sure if I'll keep with it but wanted to see how it looked), proving that there are rednecks even in Connecticut.
I've got a hi-res stockcar image that scales up to the size I'm using 6.5" x 27" with no problems. The NASCADE logo is vecorized.
I need some way to fill in the right side of the marquee from where the bitmap stops. As a test I just copied a portion of the asphalt and pasted it several times for a textured grey/black background. It's very obviously a copy and paste job. It looks fine when printed on an inkjet on plain paper at low resolution (basically looks like an even patch of mud on the printout), but it'll look terrible when printed professionally.

I need to find some technique that will allow me to either;
A - Do something similar to what I've already done but remove the hard edges and hide the fact that it's the same image pasted over and over again.
B - Create a texture that will blend in with the existing asphalt so I can use that to fill the rest of the marquee.
C - Something entirely different that I haven't even considered yet but one of the incredibly creative folks on this board will envision immediately.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to come up with anything I'm happy with and I'm looking for some Photoshop techniques that may help me along.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Disgrntld]

How would it look if you applied a Gaussian Blur to the asphalt to knock out the repeat?

Woot, my first post =D

[Extreme8]

Thanks, but I already tried that.
It helps hide the edges but makes the curved rubber marks on the track stand out even more. Plus it softens the background too much and it looks kind of like a rain cloud.

[RayB]

There's no magic way to make it look like one long pavement... You just don't have enough "source" pavement to do it right. I would look for another image that would fit the space and do some blending to get both of them together seemlessly.

[Stobe]

It looks like you could use "Extract" pretty nicely on the car and get it by itself.  Then you could scour the net for an asphalt texture to fill the entire background, behind your traced stock car.

If you need help with the extract, let me know.

-Stobe

[Baker535]

The two easiest ways...

First would be to clip the car out and paste it on to a separate layer... then apply an underlay*

Second is take your current image on a layer and just feather the right hand side (easiest method is with a soft eraser). You can then place it over another underlay*

*The underlay can be anything from plain black, a gradient, a fill pattern of the asphalt or some custom graphics or collage... for example a faded checkered flag or a crowd of race fans.


Here's examples...

[Baker535]

Feather...

[Baker535]

Created another one real quick...

[Extreme8]

Baker535, I like that last one. A lot. I think that one would work for me. You managed to blur the pavement really well and the checkered overlay is a great touch.

You said that was "another one real quick". With my elementary school level photoshop skills that would probably take me hours.
Any chance you could give me a little tutorial showing the steps you used to create it?
If I can't get it figured out maybe we can work out a deal for you to put that background together for me? (I don't expect you to work for free)

Thanks for your effort...

[Baker535]

Extreme8,

Sounds like a fun plan. PM sent...

-baker

[Nannuu]

Have you tried to cut the car out and place it on a larger pic of asphalt?  I don't have a nice asphalt pic but I'm sure there is one around somewhere you can grab.  Just use the marquee tool to cut out the car.