From karting and Busch North to Cup starts, an IndyCar season with Team 3G and a long career in Hollywood stunt work.
Stanton Barrett is an American stock car driver and Hollywood stuntman, born in 1972 and the son of stuntman Stan Barrett. He has raced across NASCAR's Busch, Xfinity, Cup and Truck series and in IndyCar, and he co-owns Barrett-Cope Racing.
Few drivers have combined a NASCAR career with a Hollywood stunt career, but Barrett has done both, and the two careers have run side by side for decades. His racing has ranged across Busch, Xfinity, Cup and Truck events, plus a season in IndyCar, and he now co-owns a team.
Who is Stanton Barrett?
He was born on December 1, 1972, and is the son of the former stuntman Stan Barrett. Alongside racing he has built a film career in skiing, motocross and snowmobile events.
His competitive start came in karting. From the age of sixteen he won 21 races in 28 starts, and in 1991 he stepped up to the Daytona Dash Series, the first rung of his NASCAR climb.
A Hollywood stuntman who has raced across NASCAR, IndyCar and sports car events and now co-owns his own team.
How did his NASCAR career begin?
In 1992 he entered the Busch North Series, making his debut at Oxford Plains Speedway aged 19. He crossed the line 21st, eleven laps down on the winner, Joe Bessey.
The same period brought the Goody's Dash Series, where his entries were paid for with stunt earnings from the film Freejack. He ran as high as second in points, but collisions involving other drivers pushed him down to sixth in the final standings.
Clifford Allison's death in a crash at Michigan International Speedway opened a Busch Series ride. Barrett then made a handful of starts with his own team over the following years.
What did the early Busch Series years look like?
His sixth start in the series brought a fifth-place result at the spring race in Atlanta in 1996. Afterwards he drove for Pro-Tech Motorsports and NorthStar Motorsports, and NorthStar gave him an eighth at Bristol.
In 1999 he took a partial Busch schedule with Galaxy Motorsports, then quit the team mid-season after management hinted he would be dropped for an event at Watkins Glen. Galaxy later struggled to make races and went out of business.
How did the Roush and DCT seasons go?
A 2003 deal with Roush Racing produced four top-ten finishes, but Odoban pulled its sponsorship after fifteen races and the team folded. Barrett then drove his own car on a part-time basis.
He kept running his team in 2004, then joined DCT Motorsports for 2005, where his lone top ten came at New Hampshire. In 2008 he also fielded a car for his father, Stan, in the NAPA Auto Parts 200, driving the No. 61.
What did the 2008 season involve?
In 2008 he became SKI Motorsports' main driver in the No. 30. He made the field for 26 of 29 races he tried, averaging a start of 29.3 and a finish of 25.7, with five retirements and two laps led.
He also ran his own No. 31 that year, with 18 starts for the car. Kenny Hendrick drove 14 of them, and the rest went to Barrett, Jeff Fuller and Shane Huffman. The season ended with Barrett 22nd in the points.
| Year | Series | Team | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Busch North Series | - | 21st on debut at Oxford Plains |
| 1996 | Busch Series | Own team | Fifth at the spring Atlanta race |
| 1999 | Cup Series | Donlavey Racing | Did not qualify for the Daytona 500 |
| 2003 | Xfinity Series | Roush Racing | Four top-ten finishes |
| 2008 | Xfinity Series | SKI Motorsports | 22nd in points |
| 2009 | IndyCar Series | Team 3G | Twelfth on debut at St. Petersburg |
| 2015 | Truck Series | Own team | Credited with 29th at Talladega |
| 2019 | Cup Series | Rick Ware Racing | First superspeedway start at Talladega |
How did Barrett approach the Cup Series?
In 1999 he said he would run part-time in the Winston Cup Series with PBH Motorsports, aiming for Rookie of the Year honours. Testing at Daytona International Speedway put him sixth-fastest at 185.624 mph (298.733 km/h), yet he did not make the 1999 Daytona 500.
A late-season arrangement with Donlavey Racing produced eight race attempts that year. In 2000 he entered the Budweiser Shootout qualifier and crashed on the opening lap in an incident involving Jimmy Spencer, Rick Mast and Kenny Wallace. He then joined Tri-Star Motorsports for the 2000 Daytona 500.
In 2004 he went back to Cup in the No. 94 Chevrolet for W.W. Motorsports, helping prepare the car in his own shop, Stanton Barrett Motorsports. He did not complete a race for the team before Derrike Cope took over the driving and he left.
Later that season he drove the No. 92 for Means-Jenkins Motorsports at Dover, but missed the field. In 2005 he helped Front Row Motorsports from his shop before running Cup races under his own banner.
He tried the 2007 Daytona 500 with Rick Ware Racing. A planned 2017 return with Ware produced no start, but in 2018 he returned to Ware's team for the Charlotte Roval 400.
In 2019 he made his first superspeedway Cup start at Talladega, in the GEICO 500. In August 2020 he signed on with Spire for the Daytona road-course event known as the Go Bowling 235.
What happened in his Truck and IndyCar runs?
His Truck Series debut came in 2015 at Talladega Superspeedway, in the No. 91 Chevrolet Silverado. After a 21st-place qualifying effort, he was caught up in the Big One on lap 86, hit the wall and Matt Crafton, and was credited with 29th.
In 2009, a year after the IndyCar series merged with Champ Car, he joined Team 3G full-time in the No. 98, while also running 19 to 21 Nationwide races. His IndyCar debut at St. Petersburg saw him start 21st and finish twelfth, four laps behind winner Ryan Briscoe.
The season was tough. He missed the Indianapolis 500 field, and a practice crash ruled him out of the A.J. Foyt 225. Sponsorship trouble led to Jaques Lazier taking his seat, but Barrett returned for the Indy Japan 300, finishing 19th after a broken hub cost several laps.
Did Barrett race outside stock cars?
In 1996 he raced in the IMSA GT Championship at Road Atlanta, in a Chevrolet Camaro run by Shaver Motorsports, with Jack Willes as co-driver. He qualified fourteenth, and the car finished thirteenth overall and fifth in GTS-1. He also finished fourth at Road Atlanta in the same season.
By 2017 he was back in sports car events, in the Trans-Am Series's TA class, driving the No. 33 Chevrolet, and he qualified on pole at Homestead with the track record. In 2006 he also took part in the Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge, a fundraiser for the Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, and finished third overall. Nine other NASCAR drivers were in that field.
In July 2021 he tested with Stadium Super Trucks, and the following month he made his debut at the Music City Grand Prix.
What did his film career involve?
His stunt career covers skiing, motocross and snowmobile work, and his film and television credits run to more than 300 productions, including commercials. He has also been credited as a stunt coordinator and second unit director. His stunt work has included doubling and coordination on The Dukes of Hazzard.
He also worked on Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3, and he doubled William H. Macy in The Lost World, earning a Red Bull Taurus Stunt Award for water work in that film.
In 2015 he directed his first feature, the direct-to-video film Navy Seals vs. Zombies, which became a Starz number-one movie for several weeks in 2024.
