A North Carolina team built by a truck rental owner, home to Ward Burton's Cup wins and a 2008 Truck Series title, before a 2008 sale ended its racing run.
Bill Davis Racing ran entries in all three NASCAR national divisions until 2009. Ward Burton brought the team Cup wins, and Johnny Benson took its 2008 Truck title.
Bill Davis Racing was a team that competed in all three of NASCAR's top divisions until 2009. It was built by a truck rental owner and ran the No. 22 for most of its life, with a long relationship with Caterpillar. The team won Cup races with Ward Burton, a Busch Series title battle with Jeff Gordon's rise and the 2008 Truck Series championship before its sale ended the operation.
What was Bill Davis Racing?
Bill Davis Racing, or BDR, was a racing team that ran in NASCAR's Cup, Busch and Truck series. Its Truck entries ran Toyota Tundras from 2004, and its Cup entries ran Toyota Camrys from 2007, after earlier backing from Dodge, Pontiac and Ford.
The team was notable for running the No. 22 from its inception and for its long relationship with Caterpillar Inc. It was competitive through the 1990s and early 2000s, before fading as competition rose and its relationship with Dodge broke down.
A truck-rental owner's team that won Cup races, ran three series at once and ended with a 2008 Truck title.
How did the team begin?
Over the years the team kept its identity while its drivers, sponsors and manufacturers changed many times. BDR was formed by Bill Davis, a truck rental owner who had once been a motocross racer. Davis helped a friend and business partner develop a young driver's racing programme, and then returned to racing himself with his own team.
In 1990 Davis moved the team to High Point, North Carolina. His wife Gail stayed in Arkansas to run the trucking operation, which kept the family business and the racing team in two places.
Who drove the No. 22 in the early 1990s?
Upon arriving in Carolina, Davis was asked by Ford to hire the up-and-coming driver Jeff Gordon. Davis hoped to move Gordon and crew chief Ray Evernham up to the Winston Cup Series, but Rick Hendrick lured them away. Davis still moved up to the Cup Series full-time in 1993.
He signed the 1991 Busch Series champion Bobby Labonte, who finished second to Gordon in the 1993 Winston Cup Rookie of the Year race. The team switched to Pontiac the following season, and Labonte left after 1994 for Joe Gibbs Racing.
How did Ward Burton give the team its Cup wins?
Ward Burton was hired to finish the 1995 season after Randy LaJoie was released. He scored the team's first win at Rockingham Speedway in late 1995, and he drove the No. 22 for most of the next eight years.
Burton's team slowly improved. It returned to victory lane at the spring Darlington race in 2000, and Burton won the 2001 Southern 500 after the team had switched to Dodge Intrepids.
Burton won the 2002 Daytona 500, which broke a long drought for Dodge at that race. He added the New England 300 at New Hampshire later that year, and it was the last Cup win for the team. Burton left after 2003 to join Haas CNC Racing.
Why did the team struggle after 2003?
The team's struggles continued in 2003, a year when its sponsors and drivers kept changing. With four races left Burton departed, and Davis's Busch driver Scott Wimmer replaced him. Wimmer ran the full 2004 schedule and took third in the first race of his rookie year, but BDR parted ways with him at the end of 2005.
In 2006 Dave Blaney, who had previously driven the No. 93 for BDR, took over the No. 22. He had two top tens that year and finished 26th in points. The team's bigger change came in 2007, when it switched to Toyota.
What did Toyota bring to the No. 22?
Blaney won the pole for the 2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire, which was the first pole for Toyota in the Sprint Cup Series. He scored his first Toyota top ten at Indianapolis and later finished third at Talladega, the best Toyota result of the year.
Blaney was also the only Toyota driver inside the top thirty-five in owner points after 2007. The team had a rough start to 2008, missing the Aaron's 499, but it finished ninth at Darlington later in the season, its best result of that year.
How did the Cup operation end?
In June 2008 Caterpillar announced that it would leave the No. 22 to sponsor Richard Childress Racing's No. 31 car from 2009. Later that year Bill Davis sold majority ownership of his NASCAR teams to Mike Held and Marty Gaunt.
Caterpillar's exit left the team without its longest-running sponsor, and that loss, together with the sale, closed the Cup chapter of the operation.
On December 22, 2008, Held and Gaunt also announced that they would buy into Triad Racing Technologies. Blaney left for Prism Motorsports, Penske Racing bought the owner points of the No. 22, and the team name changed to Penske Championship Racing.
How did the second car and the No. 27 work?
The second full-time team debuted in Winston Cup as the No. 93 with Amoco sponsorship in 2000, with Blaney driving. In 2002 the car returned as the No. 23 with Hut Stricklin and Hills Brothers Coffee, but it struggled to qualify and to finish.
Kenny Wallace drove the No. 23 for the team in 2002 and 2003. His best finish in those races was 11th at Phoenix, and he later moved to the Busch Series full-time when Wimmer was promoted to Cup racing.
In 2007 Jeremy Mayfield drove the No. 36 with 360 OTC sponsorship. He left in October for Haas CNC Racing. In 2008 Jacques Villeneuve planned to drive the No. 27, but the deal fell through, and the team folded four races into the season.
What did the Busch Series years bring?
BDR began fielding Busch Series cars in 1988, when Mark Martin drove thirteen races for the team and won one. In 1991 the team went full-time with a young Jeff Gordon, who took Rookie of the Year honours and an 11th place in the points.
Gordon won three races in 1992 with Baby Ruth sponsorship, including the spring race at Atlanta. Rick Hendrick noticed the win and signed Gordon, which ended the plan to move the team up to Winston Cup with him in 1993.
Mark Martin also won the 1990 Busch race at Myrtle Beach for the team. Later Busch years included Dave Blaney's eighth place in 1999 points and Scott Wimmer's four wins in the second half of 2002. Kenny Wallace finished ninth in Busch points in 2004, and the Busch operation was then sold to Keith Coleman Racing.
How did the Truck Series team win its title?
Johnny Benson became the full-time No. 23 driver in 2005 and recorded six top fives on his way to tenth in points.
Mike Skinner drove the No. 5 truck from 2004 to 2008. He won two races in 2005, at Bristol and Richmond, and won at Las Vegas in 2006. In 2007 he came close to the championship before tyre failures in the final race.
Johnny Benson drove the No. 23 truck and won five races in 2006 before finishing runner-up to Todd Bodine. In 2008 Benson won five races, and he held off defending champion Ron Hornaday Jr. to take the 2008 Truck Series championship.
The truck team's 2007 season was harder. Tyler Walker drove the renumbered No. 36 with 360 OTC sponsorship until he was suspended, and Ryan Mathews took over. Jacques Villeneuve then drove the No. 27 truck, a tribute to his father Gilles.
The 2008 title was the first NASCAR championship for BDR. Speed also won at Dover for the No. 22 truck that year. The team then shut down its truck programme over economic concerns.
What are the team's key results at a glance?
| Year | Series | Driver | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Busch | Jeff Gordon | Three wins, including the spring Atlanta race |
| 1995 | Cup | Ward Burton | First team win at Rockingham |
| 2000 | Cup | Ward Burton | Return to victory lane at spring Darlington |
| 2001 | Cup | Ward Burton | Southern 500 win |
| 2002 | Cup | Ward Burton | Daytona 500 win, Dodge's first in twenty-eight years |
| 2002 | Cup | Ward Burton | New England 300, the last Cup win for the team |
| 2007 | Cup | Dave Blaney | Pole at New Hampshire, first for Toyota |
| 2002 | Busch | Scott Wimmer | Four wins in the second half of the season |
| 2006 | Truck | Johnny Benson | Five wins, runner-up in the championship |
| 2008 | Truck | Johnny Benson | Series championship, first NASCAR title for the team |
Why does Bill Davis Racing matter?
Its record shows how a team built on a single number can move between manufacturers and still win. Its partners changed often, from Amoco and Hills Brothers Coffee to Siemens and Jani-King, and each change shaped the cars that ran.
Bill Davis Racing matters because it shows how a small team built by a truck rental owner could compete in three national series at once. Its Cup wins, its Busch Series development and its 2008 Truck title give it a real place in the sport's history. The No. 22 name stayed with the team through a long run of changes, which is part of why it is remembered.
The team's story also shows how a manufacturer dispute can shape a team's future. The fallout with Dodge cost the team money, and its later move to Toyota came at a time when the operation was already under strain.
What was the fallout with Dodge?
In 2003 Dodge's parent company DaimlerChrysler filed a lawsuit against Bill Davis Racing, after it found the team building Truck Series trucks for Toyota in preparation for a 2004 entry. Dodge pulled manufacturer support from the team in October 2003.
The team kept running Dodges through 2006, but it stopped running Dodge logos on its cars that year. A court ruling in February 2006 required Davis to pay $6.5 million to the manufacturer, and the two sides settled out of court in November 2006 with the terms not released.
