Cant get rid of text drawn with drawString, drawString only wrking in paint

Question

Sorry for coming back to ask for more help, but I just caught a snag that I can't get around.
As you can see, "Press Space to start..." is drawn during the paint method. When the user presses space, the other KeyEvents are enabled, but filling a black rectangle where the text is does not hide it. If I put the clearText call before the started = false, then the other KeyEvents aren't enabled.
Also, when I try to draw another string in win method, it doesn't show up.
You can check out the complete applet at http://users.adelphia.net/~uberugh/Race.html
This code compiles with no errors but requires Car.java.
import java.applet.Applet;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
public class Race extends Applet implements KeyListener {
     private Car car1;
     private Car car2;
     boolean started = false;
     private Image dbImage;
     private Graphics dbg;
     private Graphics txt;
     private Graphics g2;
     Font f = new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 36);
     Font f2 = new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 12);
     public void init() {
          setBackground(Color.black);
          car1 = new Car(10, 146, Color.green);
          car2 = new Car(10, 246, Color.blue);
          addKeyListener(this);
     public void paint(Graphics g) {
          g.setColor(Color.darkGray);
          g.fillRect(0, 0, 600, 100);
          g.fillRect(0, 300, 600, 100);
          g.drawLine(0, 200, 600, 200);
          g.setColor(Color.yellow);
          g.drawLine(550, 100, 550, 300);
          g.setColor(Color.red);
          g.setFont(f2);
          g.drawString("Press Space to start...", 250, 180);
          car1.drawCar(g);
          car2.drawCar(g);
     public void update(Graphics g) {
          if (dbImage == null) {
               dbImage = createImage(this.getSize().width, this.getSize().height);
               dbg = dbImage.getGraphics();
          dbg.setColor(getBackground ());
          dbg.fillRect(0, 0, this.getSize().width, this.getSize().height);
          dbg.setColor(getForeground());
          paint(dbg);
          g.drawImage(dbImage, 0, 0, this);
     public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {}
     public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {}
    public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
          int k = e.getKeyCode();
          if (k == KeyEvent.VK_SPACE) {
               started = true;
               clearText(249, 159, 100, 30);
          if (started) {
              if (k == KeyEvent.VK_G) {
                   car1.move();
                   repaint();
                   if (car1.winner) {
                        win(1, txt);
              } else if (k == KeyEvent.VK_RIGHT) {
                   car2.move();
                   repaint();
                   if (car2.winner) {
                        win(2, txt);
     public void win(int x, Graphics g) {
          removeKeyListener(this);
          g.setColor(Color.red);
          g.setFont(f);
          g.drawString(String.valueOf("Player " + x + "wins!") , 200, 218);
          repaint();
     public void clearText(int x, int y, int width, int height) {
          g2.setColor(Color.black);
          g2.fillRect(x, y, width, height);
}

Answer 1

That's because you're trying to paint to a null, non-existent Graphics object.
Your approach is wrong. Don't try to draw when you get the key event, because there may be nothing to draw then anyway (the GUI thread isn't in the act of drawing). Use your event handlers to set internal state of your game object (Race, or other objects as necessary like Car). Then when you draw, use that state. So use your boolean field "started". In your paint method, do this:
if (!started)
     g.drawString("Press Space to start...", 250, 180);Then just get rid of your cleartext method.