Bill Davis Racing
{{NASCAR_Owner_Infobox|
Company Name = Bill Davis Racing |
Image =
| Owner(s) Name =
Bill Davis | Racing Series =
NEXTEL Cup,
Craftsman Truck Series |
Championships = 0 |
Car Number(s) = #22, #23 (NEXTEL Cup)
#5, 22, 23 (Craftsman Trucks) | Driver(s) =
Dave Blaney (#22-NEXTEL)
Mike Skinner (#23-NEXTEL, #5 Craftsman)
Bill Lester (#23-NEXTEL, #22 Craftsman)
Johnny Benson (#23-Craftsman) | Primary Sponsor(s) =
Caterpillar (#22-NEXTEL)
Bad Boy Mowers/
Waste Management (#23-NEXTEL)
Toyota (#5-Craftsman, #23-Craftsman)
Checkers Drive-In (#22-Craftsman) | Shop Location =
High Point, North Carolina | Homepage =
Bill Davis Racing |
Bill Davis Racing is a
NASCAR team that fields the #22
Caterpillar Inc. Dodge for
Dave Blaney, the #23
Dodge for
Mike Skinner (NASCAR) (part time) in the
NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, the #5
Toyota Tundra for
Mike Skinner, the #22 Toyota for
Bill Lester, and the #23 Toyota for
Johnny Benson in the
Craftsman Truck Series. The team switched to Dodge in
2001, but when the team switched its trucks over to
Toyota in
2003, Dodge stopped backing the team, although the team still will run the Dodge cars in the Nextel Cup and Busch Series. In
2007, the team will switch over to Toyota in full, when the
Toyota Camry debuts in Nextel Cup. The team is based in
High Point, North Carolina.
BDR was formed by then-truck rental owner
Bill Davis, who himself was a former
motocross racer. Davis helped his friend and business partner Julian Martin develop his son
Mark's ASA racing program. When Martin signed with
J.D. Stacy, Davis took a break for racing, but the call of the racetrack still lured him, and before he knew it, he hired Martin to drive his
Busch Series car for 15 races with sponsorship from
Carolina Ford Dealers. In
1990, Davis moved the team to
North Carolina while his wife Gail stayed in
Arkansas to oversee the trucking operation.
Car #22 History
Upon arriving in Carolina, Davis was asked by the
Ford Motor Company to hire an up-and-coming driver from the
Midwest named
Jeff Gordon. Gordon won the
NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year in
1991, and won 11
pole positions the next year. Davis was hoping to move Gordon and
crew chief Ray Evernham to the
Winston Cup series, but they were lured away by
Rick Hendrick. Davis still moved up to the Cup series full time in
1993 however, with
Bobby Labonte driving who finished runner up to
Jeff Gordon for Rookie of the Year driving the #22
Maxwell House Ford. After
1994, Labonte left for
Joe Gibbs Racing and
MBNA replaced Maxwell House as sponsor, and the team traded engines and chassis with
Penske Racing switched to
Pontiac. (Penske switched from Pontiac to Ford). Originally, Davis went with another rookie and Busch Series standout
Randy LaJoie to drive the car. Midway through the year, LaJoie was fired from the team and was replaced by a series of rotating drivers including Wally Dallenbach who finished 2nd at
Watkins Glen. Finally,
Ward Burton was hired to finish out the year. He impressed when he won at
Rockingham Motor Speedway before the season was out. They didn't win again until
2000 when he was the winner at the spring
Darlington race, and took home the trophy for the
2002 Daytona 500. With several races to go in a disappointing
2003 season, Burton bolted to
Haas CNC Racing, and was replaced with Davis's Busch driver
Scott Wimmer. Wimmer raced full-time in
2004, finished 3rd in the first race of his rookie season. Fans of the popular Burton were outraged when Burton and Davis split, since Burton has not had a steady ride since. Some fans have even stated that the team is too undefunded to compete in the sport, even though it has won 4 races over the past decade. Surprisingly, in late
2005, BDR announced it would part ways with Wimmer at the end of the year.
Dave Blaney, who previously drove the #93 for BDR, was tapped to drive the #22 beginning with the 2006 season.
Car #23 History
What is now the #23 Dodge started as the #93
Amoco Pontiac driven by
sprint car racer
Dave Blaney. The team moved to Winston Cup in
2000. Despite failing to qualify at the spring Rockingham race, Blaney finished 3rd in the Rookie of the year standings. The team flirted with victory lane a few times in
2001, but Amoco decided not to renew its contract, and Blaney left for
Jasper Motorsports.
The team recivied
Hills Brothers sponsorship and hired
Hut Stricklin as driver, changing the number to 23. Stricklin was so unimpressive that he was fired before the final quarter of the season had started. Kenny Wallace finished out the season for the car with help from Geoff Bodine, Scott Wimmer, and Tom Hubert. Wallace also piloted the car in
2003 with Stacker 2 sponsorship, before moving down to the team's Busch program. Since then, the car has gone mostly unsponsored, with a couple of drivers running selected events.
Shane Hmiel,
Tony Raines, and Blaney ran the car in
2004.
Mike Skinner ran six events in
2005.
In the fall of 2005, it was announced that
Michael Waltrip and his sponsor
NAPA would drive this car in
2006. Soon after, however, in order to ensure that the #55 qualified for the first 5 races, the team went under the banner of Michael Waltrip's own team,
Waltrip-Jasper Racing. That team will still receive much of its support from BDR. Instead, the #23 has carried on as an R&D team for Davis. Mike Skinner (NASCAR) failed to qualify for this year's Daytona 500, but Bill Lester became the first
African-American since
Willy T. Ribbs to compete in a Cup race at the
Golden Corral 500. He started nineteenth and finished 39th. There are also plans for Lester to run a full-time Cup schedule in 2007.
Besides Gordon's team, BDR has fielded cars in the Busch Series before. In 1996, Burton drove eight races in the #22 MBNA Pontiac, posting three top-tens. Davis did not field a Busch team again until
1998 in NASCAR Busch Series, when he fieled the #93
Amoco Pontiac piloted by
sprint car ace
Dave Blaney in the Busch Series in
1998. Running a limited schedule, Blaney finished in 6th place 3 times. Blaney had an even better
1999 season, winning the pole position several times and finished eighth in points. That same year, Davis fielded a second car for Burton, the #02 sponsored by
Siemens. He finished in the top-ten in every race and won a pole at Darlington.
In
2000, Davis opened the #20 ride sponsored by
AT&T. Rookie
Mike Borkowski started the year in the ride, but after the
Busch 200, he was released.
Dave Blaney and
Tom Hubert shared the ride for the year before Scott Wimmer took over in the final part of the season. Burton's team changed to the #22 sponsored by
Polaris, and had two top-five finishes, then closed up.
Wimmer took over the #20, renumbered the #23, for
2001, posting eight top-tens and finishing eleventh in points in a
Jani-King sponsored car. Siemens became a part-time sponsor in
2002, but the team threatened to shut down to a lack of finances. However, it remainedo pen, and Wimmer won four races in the second-half of the season, finishing 3rd in points. For
2003, Stacker 2 came onboard as sponsor, and he picked up a win at
Pikes Peak. At the end of the season, Wimmer moved to Cup, and Kenny Wallace took his place, posting ten top-ten finishes and finishing ninth in points. After Wallace and Stacker 2 left for
ppc Racing, Davis sold the equipment to
Keith Coleman Racing.
Truck #5 history
The #5 truck started out in
2004 at
Bang! Racing as the #42 driven by Mike Skinner. Skinner started the year with two top-fives, but his performance began to decline, and his team was sold to Davis, changing to the #5. He won two-poles and had a sixth-place run at the season-ending race at
Homestead-Miami Speedway. In
2005, he won seven poles and two races, at Bristol and Richmond respectively, finishing fifth in points. In
2006, he has one pole and two top-tens.
Truck #22 history
BDR's original foray into the Truck series, it debuted in 2004 at the
Florida Dodge Dealers 250, where Lester drove it to a sixteenth place run. He posted just one top-ten that year and finished 22nd in points. The next season, he won two poles (back-to-back at
Kansas and
Kentucky), had a best finish of fifth and moved up to seventeenth in points. So far in 2006, Lester is yet to post a top-ten.
Truck #23 history
The 23 truck began in 2004 when Davis purchased its equipment from
Phil Bonifield. The truck was piloted by
Shelby Howard. Howard ran eight races before he was realesed, and Benson took over. Despite running a limited schedule, Benson finished 25th in points. He began running full-time in 2005, and had six top-fives en route to a tenth-place points finish. He has two wins (Michigan International Speedway and the Milwaukee Mile), as well as five top-tens so far in 2006.
*
Racing Reference*
Official Website*
Team 22 news*
Team 23 news
