Bill Davis Racing
Bill Davis Racing was a racing team that participated in all three of NASCAR's top divisions until 2009.
The team had run Toyota-branded stock cars and trucks in the Camping World Truck Series since 2004 and Sprint Cup Series since 2007. Dodge, Pontiac and Ford previously backed the team. The team was notable for running the No. 22 since its inception and its long relationship with Caterpillar, Inc. BDR was competitive throughout the 1990s and early 2000s with Ward Burton before fading due to an increase in competition and a fallout with manufacturer Dodge. The team was sold to Triad Racing Technologies in late 2008, which shut down the team's racing entries and now produces engines and chassis for various Toyota NASCAR teams.
Beginnings
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 from racing, but returned to hire Martin to drive his Busch Series car for 15 races with sponsorship from Carolina Ford Dealers. In 1990, Davis moved the team to High Point, North Carolina, while his wife Gail stayed in Arkansas to oversee the trucking operation.Sprint Cup Series
Car No. 22 history
;Bobby LabonteUpon arriving in Carolina, Davis was asked by Ford to hire up-and-coming Midwest driver Jeff Gordon, who won the NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year in 1991 and won eleven pole positions the next year. Davis was hoping to move him 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 1991 Busch Series champion Bobby Labonte, who finished 2nd to Gordon for Winston Cup Rookie of the Year driving the No. 22 Maxwell House-sponsored Ford. The team switched to Pontiac the following season. After 1994, Labonte left to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing. MBNA replaced Maxwell House as the sponsor.
;Randy LaJoie
Originally, Davis went with another rookie — Busch Series standout Randy LaJoie — to drive the car. Midway through the year, LaJoie was fired from the team and replaced by a series of rotating drivers including Wally Dallenbach Jr., who finished second at Watkins Glen. Finally, Ward Burton was hired to finish out the year. He scored the team's first win at North Carolina Motor Speedway in late 1995.
;Ward Burton
With Burton driving, the No. 22 team slowly began to improve, despite not winning any races. In 1998, the No. 22 team cracked the top ten in the final Winston Cup points standings and matched those results in 1999 and in 2000, when the team finally returned to victory lane at the spring Darlington race. Burton's second career win was the team's last victory in a Pontiac as they joined several teams in switching to Dodge Intrepids for the following season.
Burton returned to victory lane the following season, winning the 2001 Southern 500. This would become Dodge's second win since returning to NASCAR, but the team's streak of consecutive top ten points finishes was broken at three, as the No. 22 finished fourteenth. Burton added 2 more wins in 2002, scoring a victory in the Daytona 500 and later in the year at the New England 300 at New Hampshire, but a series of inconsistent finishes dropped the team to twenty-fifth place in the points standings. Burton's win at New Hampshire, in addition to being his last win in the Cup series, was also BDR's last in Cup racing.
;Scott Wimmer
The team's struggles continued in the 2003 season, and with four races left in the season Burton, who had already signed on to drive the No. 0 for Haas CNC Racing the following season, departed for that team and was replaced with Davis's Busch driver Scott Wimmer, who raced full-time in 2004 and finished third in the first race of his rookie season. In late-2005, BDR announced it would part ways with Wimmer at the end of the year.
;Dave Blaney
Dave Blaney, who previously drove the No. 93 for BDR, was hired to drive the No. 22 beginning with the 2006 season. He had two top tens and finished twenty-sixth in the points standings. In 2007, the team switched to Toyota. Blaney won the pole for the 2007 Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire, making this the first pole for Toyota in the Sprint Cup Series. Blaney scored his first top ten with Toyota at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 29 and later that season, he finished third at Talladega, the best finish of any Toyota in 2007. Additionally, Blaney was the only Toyota driver in the top thirty-five in owner points after the 2007 season. The team had a rough start to the 2008 season, as they missed the Aaron's 499 which was a hard hit for the team. They returned the next week at Richmond to finish in eighteenth. The following week at Darlington, they finished ninth, scoring their best of the year. In June of that year, Caterpillar announced that it would leave the No. 22 Bill Davis Racing Toyota to sponsor the Richard Childress Racing's No. 31 car, starting in 2009. On December 22, 2008, it was announced that Bill Davis sold majority ownership of his NASCAR teams to Mike Held, a California businessman, and Marty Gaunt, an executive with BDR. That same day, Gaunt and Held announced that they would also be buying into Triad Racing Technologies. Blaney would leave TRT to drive for Prism Motorsports, and Penske Racing would buy the owners points of the No. 22 and transfer them to the No. 77 of Sam Hornish Jr. The addition of Davis would change the team name to Penske Championship Racing.
Car No. 22 results
Car No. 27 history
;Dave BlaneyThe second full-time team made its debut in Winston Cup as the No. 93 with an Amoco sponsorship in 2000, with Dave Blaney driving. 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.
;Hut Stricklin
The car returned for the 2002 season with a new sponsor, number and driver. Hut Stricklin moved over from Donlavey Racing and brought sponsorship from Hills Brothers Coffee with him. Stricklin started off 2002 by failing to qualify for the Daytona 500 and was inconsistent for much of the season. He recorded five top twenty finishes, but also finished 35th or worse 6 times and did not even attempt the race at Watkins Glen. Stricklin left the team after the Sharpie 500 at Bristol, and Hills Brothers announced they would be pulling sponsorship.
;Kenny Wallace
Around this time, there was another driver looking for a full time ride that had a sponsor ready to back him. Kenny Wallace had not raced a full season in Cup since Andy Petree released him following the 2000 season, and had been racing primarily in the Busch Series for Innovative Motorsports in their #48 Stacker 2 Chevrolet. However, he had been active as a long-term injury replacement for Steve Park in the #1 Pennzoil Chevrolet at Dale Earnhardt, Inc. earlier in 2002 and had also made several starts in Cup races for his Busch Series team in the #98 car.
Davis and Wallace began to negotiate terms since both sides had ends that each other was desiring, as Wallace was able to bring his backing from Stacker 2 to his new team and Davis needed a driver for his second car. First, Wallace would immediately join BDR and run the #23 for the remainder of the 2002 season with Hills Brothers Coffee remaining as sponsor. When the new season began, Stacker 2 would come aboard to sponsor the #23 with Wallace driving.
Wallace ran at the Southern 500 and nine other races in the #23 to close out the year. He missed the Old Dominion 500 at Martinsville due to conflicts with the Busch race weekend at Memphis Motorsports Park, and he had already agreed to run the EA Sports 500 at Talladega Superspeedway for Andy Petree in conjunction with a promotion by AT&T. In those ten starts, Wallace's best finish was eleventh at Phoenix. Scott Wimmer and Geoffrey Bodine ran the #23 in the other two events, with Wimmer recording a 17th-place finish at Talladega.
Wallace ran all 36 races in 2003 with one top ten finish, which he recorded at Bristol. After the season, BDR moved Wallace and Stacker 2 to the Busch Series full-time to replace Wimmer, who was promoted to Cup racing. Following the year, Davis shut down his second-full time operation.
;Part-time
Dave Blaney made several starts for the team in 2004, including the Daytona 500. In 2004 and 2005 the car ran 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.
;Michael Waltrip
In the fall of 2005, it was announced that the team would return to full-time competition as the No. 55 car in 2006 with Michael Waltrip driving and NAPA sponsoring. Plans changed, however, in January 2006, when it was announced that Jasper Motorsports owner Doug Bawel would sell the owner's points of his No. 77 team to Waltrip and Davis to form Waltrip-Jasper Racing. Although this helped the No. 55 get into the first five races of 2006, it did not help the team, as BDR's expansion was painful and occurred without Dodge support, with Waltrip failing to qualify several times and failing to finish in the top 35 in points. The Waltrip-Jasper name was later dropped mid-season, as Bawel was never truly involved with the racing operations. With Waltrip starting his own Toyota team in 2007, and BDR also switching to Toyota, Waltrip took the points with him to MWR.
;Jeremy Mayfield
Jeremy Mayfield was hired drive the car full-time in 2007, with the car renumbered No. 36 for a new sponsorship from 360 OTC. Due to Waltrip taking the team's points, Mayfield needed to qualify on time for the first five races of 2007. After four consecutive failed qualifying attempts, the No. 36 car made its first start of 2007 in the Food City 500 at Bristol. Mayfield drove the car at every track except for Infineon Raceway, when the team did not enter but the R&D team used the No. 36 points. In October, Mayfield departed to Haas CNC Racing, and was replaced by Skinner and Benson for the balance of the season.
;Jacques Villeneuve
The car was then scheduled to continue full-time racing, once again in a renumbered car. Jacques Villeneuve planned to drive the No. 27 in 2008, but the deal fell through after sponsorship could not be found. Benson and Skinner were hired to take over in the interim, before the team folded four races into the season after continued financial difficulties.