Ricky David

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Revision as of 17:19, 23 July 2009

Ricky David (born Richard Dale Lee David) is a American race car driver. Ricky David most recently drove the #86 99 Universe Ford for L.E.T. Motorsports in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.

Early Career

Ricky David started racing when he was a teenager. He worked on his uncle's race team at a local short track. David raced in five races before he started racing in his own car.

Ricky David started his career in the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series in 1987 as a jack man on the #54 Chevrolet driven by Cale Parsons for Ne Motorsports. In 1989, Ricky David was hired by RD Motorsports to the #84 Chevrolet driven by Terry Miller. In 1990 David was switched to Miller's teammate, Mark Johnson and the #74 Chevrolet.

In 1991, Ricky David was hired by RAM Racing for the #31 Ford driven by Jake Rogers. Partway through the season, Rogers was suffering from the flu and decided to stay out a few races. RAM Racing picked three different drivers to drive the three races and one was Ricky David. David performed the best finishing 10th.

In 1992, Ricky David was hired by RAM Racing to drive the #81 Ford part-time in the Busch Grand National Series. David earned four top fives including one 2nd pace finish.

In 1993, RAM Racing was able to run full time with Ricky David in the Busch Grand National Series. David managed to win two races and six top fives.

Fenwick Motorsports

David got his break in 1994, when he was signed by Darrell Vick Racing to drive the #67 Pontiac in the Winston Cup Series. David managed to score two top fives and six top tens but failed to win a race. In mid 1994, Darrell Vick Racing was purchased by Fenwick Motorsports.

In 1995, David's team switched from Pontiac to Chevrolet to align with Fenwick Motorsports. At the end of the year, Don MacAuley was hired as David's crew chief. For 1996, David managed two wins, 8 top fives, and 17 top tens between 1995 and 1996.

For the 1997 season, VeFox came on board as sponsor for David's car. Fenwick Motorsports signed rookie, Bobby Garrett Jr. to drive the 76 car. In 1997, David managed to win 8 races, 21 top tens and 21 top tens between 1997 and 1998. Partway through the year, David opened his second dealership, Ricky David Buick GMC in North Carolina.

In 1999, Ricky David had already won four races when he was involved in a crash near the end of the season. David unable to race for the remainder of the season and was replaced with Jerry Nelson and Scott Benson Jr. David Finished ended up third in points. By 2000, Ricky David was back in the #67 VeFox car. 2000 began to show a decrease in Ricky Bobby's performance with only 4 top ten finishes. Ricky David started the 2001 season with Fenwick Motorsports. However, David's performance was even worse. Ricky David was eventually replaced by Scott Benson Jr. in May.

David was determined to go back to racing however, he could not find a ride. So in mid 2001, Ricky David formed Ricky David Racing. A month later, Ricky David purchased a Ford race car from Robert Yates Racing. Ricky David made his return at the Fall race at Talladaga. Ricky David managed to qualify 26th in his unsponsored #82 Ford. David was running in the top 15 late in the race when he was caught up in an accident and failed to finish the race. Ricky David stayed out the next race and announced that he was preparing his own race team for the the next few races and has bought more cars from Robert Yates Racing. However, he only attempted the final race at Homestead-Miami Speedway where he finished 12th.

Ricky David Racing

Ricky David announced that he would attempt to race the full season in 2001 and would keep using cars from Robert Yates Racing. David started driving the #82 Lowie-Kola Ford in 2001. However, David only managed to qualify for half of the races. For 2002, Ricky David returned and successfully ran the full season. David managed one top five and three top tens. For 2003, Lowie-Kola scaled back their sponsorship to a lower number and PRG R+D brought sponsorship to the car. In 2003, David managed 3 top fives and 6 top tens. By the end of the year, David was also purchasing cars from Roush Racing. At the end of 2003, it was announced that Ricky David had purchased a small share of RAM Racing which runs in the NASCAR Busch Series. David also purchased a share in RAM Ford Lincoln in North Carolina. Rumors began that David was going to compete in the Busch Series or David was going to help bring RAM Racing up to the Winston Cup Series.

In early 2004, David opened a new race shop in North Carolina to operate Ricky David Racing and RAM Racing was also run in the same building. Ricky David Racing was also able to get partial sponsorship from Wanx Foods so Ricky David entered a part time second car as the #63 Ford driven by Michael Regan. RDR started building their own cars part way through the year but were still using used cars from other teams. David managed 4 top fives and 8 top tens and finished second at Martinsville. Due to poor finishes Michael Regan left RDR after 2004.

After Regan left Ricky David Racing, Ricky David hired rookie James Young as the new part time driver. However, new sponsorship was found, including Lyon Engine Technologies, so the #63 car was run full time. Changes were made at RDR that moved Ricky David to the #63 PRG R+D Ford and James Young began driving the #53 Lyon Engine Technologies/Lowie-Kola (formerly 82). In November, it was announced that Ricky David had purchased more of RAM Racing giving him 50% share with co-owner Randy MacAulay. David managed 3 top ten finishes with his new team.

RDR started 2006 with James Young drove the #53 Lyon Engine Technologies/Lowie-Kola Ford and David drove the #63 PRG R+D Ford. RDR was doing well despite minor sponsorship problems. Lyon Engine Technologies and Lowie-Kola left at the end of 2006.

Ricky David started 2007 with even higher expectations. James Young drove the #53 PRG R+D Ford and David drove the #63 BuzzAray Ford. However, the crew at RDR had a difficult time with the Car of Tomorrow especially the first COT race where they finished 37th and 40th. The overall performance of Ricky David Racing began to fall around July. Ricky David failed to win a race and RDR never finished higher than 14th. By the end of 2007, Ricky David Racing was looking for a potential new partner to buy cars from and share information on the COT. However, David could not find a suitable partner.

For 2008, James Young drove the #53 PRG R+D Ford Fusion and David drove the #63 BuzzAray/cojico.com Ford Fusion. In 2008, the performance of Ricky David Racing improved slightly. However Ricky David had bad luck in the first half of the season with a best finish of 16th at Atlanta. David earned five top tens. Ricky David failed to win a race and finished 17th in the standings. At the end of 2008, sponsorship was not confirmed and were still looking for sponsorship. RDR had only one top ten, with James Young, and three top 15s.

AD Motorsports

In early 2009, it was announced that Ricky David Racing was purchased by Kyle Andrews Motorsports and will operate as Andrews/David Motorsports. The team attempted to run a total of four cars. Ricky David will drive the #63 99 Universe Technology Chevrolet, Scott Miller will drive the #56 LGYonline.com Chevrolet, Bobby Garrett Jr. will drive the #53 RayJack Chevrolet formerly driven by James Young, who moved back to the Nationwide Series full-time with RAM Racing, and Justin Andrews will drive the #65 Andrews FixWay/arewayNOW.com Chevrolet.

Midway trough the year, Ricky David's car was facing sponsorship problems. ADM eventually decided to shut the #63 team down due to lack of sponsorship. In June, Ricky David announced that he will be leaving AD Motorsports at the end of 2009 and will be focusing on his Nationwide team. On July 23, 2009 Rick Andrews, President of AD Motorsports, said that it has reached a deal to sell the #63 team to Ricky David.

Personal Life

Ricky David was born in North Carolina to parents Dale and Lucy David. In 1996 Ricky David was married to Jenny David and they have two sons.

In 1993, Ricky David purchased a share of RAM Ford Lincoln in North Carolina. In 1998, David opened Ricky David Buick GMC in North Carolina. In 2003, David purchased a small share of RAM Racing. In 2005, David purchased more of RAM Racing. RAM Ford Lincoln and RAM Racing are both co-owned by Ricky David, Randy Macaulay, and Don Macaulay, his former crew chief. RAM Racing races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series. Ricky David also co-owns the RAM Ford Lincoln and Ricky David GM dealships in North Carolina.

RAM Racing

In 2003, Ricky David became part owner of RAM Racing and in late 2004 became the general manager for RAM Racing's truck team. RAM Ford Lincoln and RAM Racing are both co-owned by Ricky David, Randy Macaulay, and Don Macaulay, his former crew chief. RAM Racing races in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the Camping World Truck Series.

See Also

• RAM Racing