Season Preview: Bill Davis Racing
Entering into their sixteenth season in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Bill Davis Racing has yet to find the keys to success to put them on a more competitive level with NASCAR’s elite. The organization hasn’t won a race at this level since 2002 – the season that Ward Burton captured the Daytona 500 – and even worse, they’ve only had 12 top-ten finishes over the last 5 years.
Business wasn’t always so bleak for this race team, however. In 2001, Burton finished 14th in the points standings for Bill Davis, but then dropped down to 25th in ’02, and the two parted ways in 2003, replacing Ward with Scott Wimmer. Burton’s 2002 performance would be the last time a Bill Davis Racing team finished the season inside the top 25 in owner points.
In 2005, the team only ran the no. 22 car of Scott Wimmer full-time, starting their no. 27 team in only 10 races with Mike Skinner behind the wheel. In ’06, they scrapped the 27 team completely, but decided to bring it back as the no. 36 last season in the inaugural debut for Toyota into the Cup Series putting Jeremy Mayfield behind the wheel. Mayfield would later be relieved of his driving duties with just four races left in the season, replacing him with the combination of Skinner and Johnny Benson. It didn’t really matter at that point, though. 2007 was a complete catastrophe for the entire organization, as the two race teams combined for a total of only 50 of a possible 72 starts. The 36 team failed to record a single top ten all season long, while Dave Blaney – now driving the no. 22 – finished 31st in points, making him the only Toyota to finish last season inside the top 35.
2008 is looking a little better, though, with the addition of Joe Gibbs Racing to the Toyota mix and some extra horsepower behind the Camry engines, and it’s shown so far in the pre-season practice sessions. The 36 team has gone back to the no. 27, and Davis has brought in former IndySeries star Jacques Villeneuve to drive the car full-time. The organization will be looking for a win or two at some point in the season – particularly at the superspeedways with Blaney and the road courses with Villeneuve – but, more importantly the primary focus has to be making sure that both teams finish inside the top 35 in owner points and getting things in line for the 2009 campaign.
Cup Series Roster:
22: Dave Blaney – He looked extremely well at quite a few races last season, and was really the main guy to give us an early glimpse of the muscle that Toyota was capable of providing. He won the first pole award for Toyota at the race in New Hampshire and scored a total of 4 top ten finishes, including a Toyota-high 3rd place finish at Talladega in the fall. With the exception of the Joe Gibbs cars, he’s also the only Toyota driver that will begin the season inside the top 35 in owner points, which will guarantee him starts in the first five races of the season. He’s also looked great so far in the Daytona Speedweeks, and if he can keep his nose clean, should contend for at least a top five spot in that race. In my mind, with the changes that have been made to the engine package of the Toyota’s, Blaney’s a shoe-in to remain in the top 35, and I wouldn’t be extremely surprised to see him finish up somewhere around 20th in points. As overlooked as this guy’s always been throughout his career, it could be him – not Villeneuve – that actually gets Bill Davis Racing on the map.
27: Jacques Villeneuve – The former F1 Series Champion got his start in professional racing back in 1990 racing in the Italian and Japanese F3 Championships and has raced in the F1 Series since 1996, but until the end of 2007, he’d never sat behind the wheel of a stock car. Last year he competed in 2 Sprint Cup Series races, finishing 21st at Talladega and 41st at Phoenix. This year he joins 3 other former open wheel stars in one of NASCAR’s most highly anticipated rookie classes of all-time, but he’s going to have a long road ahead of him due to the fact that his car is not currently in the top 35 in owner points, which means he’s going to be forced to qualify his car every week based on time alone. That could be a huge factor on Jacques’ first full season in the Cup Series, and ultimately I would expect him to spend the majority of the season flirting with the bubble for the top 35 spot.
Driver Roster: C
Off-Season: B
2008 Outlook: C+
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5 opinions for Season Preview: Bill Davis Racing
mike
Feb 11, 2008 at 7:07 pm
The casual NASCAR fan is going to see Blaney run extremely well this year and think “where did he come from?”, but this is three years in the making. I’m with you, a top 20 is very realistic.
Tim Zaegel
Feb 11, 2008 at 9:51 pm
I agree. I’ve always thought Blaney was a much better driver than given credit for, and before the end of this year I believe he’ll be one of the top options as a “sleeper” pick in most weeks.
roc
Feb 12, 2008 at 10:46 am
I agree if blaney is given the cars to drive i’m sure he’ll be my sleeper on multiple weeks.
stephen smith
May 10, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Did you know that Bill Davis Trucking was not forced into Bankruptcy. He filed for Bankruptcy to get out of paying the hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills he owed, due to an injury accident that caused a couple in California to now be permantly disabled and in Bankruptcy themselfs. He was not forced into Bankruptcy, he choose to !!!! No ethics or morals at all!!!
Tim Zaegel
May 11, 2008 at 1:23 am
Actually, Stephen, no I didn’t know that. Thanks for the tidbit, though … very interesting stuff!
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