There was one driver that Bill Davis wanted to keep more than anyone else in his 20-year tenure as a NASCAR team owner. But he couldn’t compete with another more successful and better-financed team owner, and the rest became NASCAR history.
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That driver was Jeff Gordon, and that fellow team owner was Rick Hendrick. But had Davis found a way to keep Gordon past his second Busch Series season with his team in 1992, who knows what Davis’ eventual NASCAR legacy, and Gordon’s for that matter, would have become.
The retired Batesville, Arkansas, trucking company owner passed away early Sunday after a lengthy illness at the age of 74. William Davis III is survived by his wife, Gail. The couple had no children.
“A championship-winning leader and owner, Bill Davis made a lasting mark on our sport through his passion and unwavering belief in the people around him,” NASCAR said in a statement Sunday afternoon.
“His teams celebrated some of NASCAR’s most prestigious victories, including the Daytona 500 and the Southern 500. Bill was more than a competitor — he was a friend to all in the garage, respected for his kindness, generosity, and genuine love for racing,” the statement added.
“NASCAR extends its deepest condolences to his wife and business partner Gail, the Davis family, and Bill’s many friends during this difficult time.”
Just five wins as a Cup team owner, including the biggest of the big
In 16 seasons (1993-2008) as a Cup Series team owner, in 722 starts by a plethora of drivers, Davis earned only five wins. But without question, one was the hallmark of Davis’ career: Ward Burton’s victory in the 2002 Daytona 500.
It was not only the first edition of the Great American Race after Dale Earnhardt’s tragic death a year before. It also showed that every now and then, even the little guys can beat the big guys in the sport’s biggest race.
“To me, the biggest thing and the thing I’m most proud of is we were just some hillbillies from Arkansas, and we took it to the top,” Davis told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 2002. “We worked hard and are proud of what we’ve accomplished.”
All five of Davis’ Cup wins came with Ward Burton behind the wheel. Not just the Daytona 500, but also the 2001 Southern 500 at Darlington (they also won the spring 2000 race at Darlington), plus Davis’ first win as a Cup owner in 1995 at Rockingham (North Carolina) and his final win as a Cup owner at New Hampshire in 2002.
His teams also won 11 races in the Xfinity Series, three each by future NASCAR Hall of Famers Gordon and Mark Martin, plus five by Scott Wimmer. In the series he had the most success in, the Truck Series, his team took the checkered flag 24 times (14 by Benson, nine by Mike Skinner, and one by Scott Speed), giving Davis a career total of 40 wins across all three of NASCAR’s top tiers.
Davis fielded cars for a veritable Who’s Who of NASCAR drivers, including Gordon, Martin, Burton, Bobby Labonte, Randy LaJoie, Dave Blaney, Hut Stricklin, Kenny Wallace, Benson, Skinner, Wimmer, Jeremy Mayfield, Bill Lester, and former CART and F1 champ Jacques Villeneuve, among others.
After competing for several years in both local and national motorcycle racing events, Davis, by then a very successful trucking company owner, started his NASCAR organization in 1988, with headquarters in High Point, North Carolina, 60 miles north of Charlotte. Davis remained there until he dissolved the racing organization after the 2008 NASCAR season, one year after he dissolved his trucking company.
Davis’ NASCAR ownership career began in 1988 with future NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin in a part-time Busch Series ride. Martin earned Davis his first three race wins as a fledgling team owner between 1988 and 1990.
Davis and Martin were both natives of Batesville and were lifelong friends. In fact, Davis previously helped support Martin during his early years in the American Speed Association, before Martin would go on to achieve success in NASCAR.
Gave Gordon his start in NASCAR
Gordon became Davis’ first full-time driver at the age of 19, earning Busch Series Rookie of the Year honors in the 1991 season. He then won three races (and a record 11 poles) in the 1992 Busch season, finishing fourth in the final standings.
As much as Davis tried to keep Gordon and his crew chief, Ray Evernham, he eventually wished them well after the driver and crew chief package both signed with Rick Hendrick to compete full-time in the Cup Series in 1993.
Gordon went on to win 93 races and four Cup championships. Three of those were with Evernham as his crew chief, and both are NASCAR Hall of Famers today.
Davis then signed a promising driver out of Corpus Christi, Texas, to replace Gordon in 1993, while also making the jump to the Cup Series. That driver went on to become another NASCAR Hall of Famer: Bobby Labonte.
Davis is also known as one of the key individuals who attracted Toyota to NASCAR racing in 2004 in the Truck Series, which eventually led to Toyota going full-time in the Cup Series in 2007.
Although his teams won races in all three of NASCAR’s top-tier series (Cup, Busch, and Trucks), Davis won just one championship as an owner: The 2008 Truck Series title with Johnny Benson Jr. behind the wheel of the No. 23 Toyota Tundra.
Davis always dreamed about going out on top as a team owner, and he did just that. After Benson’s title, Davis called it quits, sold off all his racing assets, and rode off into retirement with his wife.
Remembering Bill Davis
A couple of personal notes from my memories of Bill Davis:
I interviewed Davis numerous times as a team owner. Our last conversation was about six or seven years ago, long after he had retired. And surprisingly, he told me he had long moved on from NASCAR after that final 2008 season.
So much so that Davis said he hadn’t been to a NASCAR race in person in over a decade, and barely watched it anymore on TV. He said that he got his racing fix those days by returning to his racing roots, attending grassroots racing events in and around his beloved Arkansas, and in the same way he first started following racing: As a fan.
In more than 40 years of covering motorsports and other sports, I’ve collected many souvenirs. But one stands out, and it has a Davis connection.
It was during the 2003 NASCAR Preseason Media Tour stop at Davis’ headquarters in mid-January. All NASCAR teams gave out free swag to reporters during the Media Tour in those days. Davis’ team gave out what I found to be a puzzling but unique gift to the media: A beautiful and obviously pricey boxed set of poker chips.
I couldn’t quite figure out the connection between the chips and Davis, and it was something that nagged at me for years afterward. Finally, when I spoke with Davis for the last time, I just had to ask him about what the poker chips meant.
At first, he didn’t seem to remember them, saying it must have been something his team’s marketing people gave away to the media. But after a few seconds, the story of the chips came back to Davis, who was known to be a poker player of sorts, not only with cards, but also as a NASCAR team owner.
Now remember, I received those chips 11 months after Davis and Burton won the 2002 Daytona 500.
And I’ll never forget Davis’ recollection about the meaning of those chips: “Son, we gambled and pushed all our chips onto the table at Daytona that day, and came away with the biggest hand we’ve ever won.”
True story, and that box of poker chips still sits on top of my bookcase to this very day.
Rest in Peace, Bill.
