Ricky Bobby

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Revision as of 22:17, 1 January 2009

Ricky Bobby is an American race car driver. Ricky Bobby currently drives the #62 Ford in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Early Career

Ricky Bobby started his career in NASCAR in 1988 as a jack man on the #54 Chevrolet driven by Cale Parsons. In 1991, Ricky Bobby moved over to the #26 Chevrolet driven by Terry Cheveaux. In 1995, Cheveaux was feeling ill and decided to sit out the race. However, not enough time was given to pick a proper driver so Ricky Bobby was picked at random to drive the car. Ricky Bobby qualified 32nd and was able to finish 12th in his first start. Ricky Bobby continued to drive the car for two more weeks finishing 7th and 8th.

This caught the eye of Sadler Racing and signed Bobby to a contract starting the next year. Bobby recorded 6 wins and placed as high as eighth in the final standings.

1998-2002

In 1997, Bobby was signed with Hendrick Motorsports to drive the #25 Chevrolet sponsored by GMAC. Ricky Bobby won one race in 1999 and two in 2000.

For the 2000 season, Wonder Bread came on board as sponsor for Bobby's car. Hendrick also signed a new teammate, Cal Naughton Jr. to drive the #47 Old Spice car. Ricky and Cal soon became best friends and created the "Shake and Bake" move. Bobby's career took of in 2001 when he recorded 7 wins in one season and won the championship. 2002 was much the same and recorded 8 wins and won the championship just ahead of Cal Naughton Jr.

2003-2004

Ricky Bobby was on his was to win his third straight championship in 2003 already having 3 wins. However, mid season Bobby was caught up in a major crash where his car hit the wall straight on at 190 MPH and rolled four times before coming to rest upside down. Bobby was unconscious at the time and was sent to a nearby hospital where he was put in serious condition. Bobby spent the rest of the year recovering.

In 2004, Bobby was invited back to Hendrick Motorsports and attended a team practice at Daytona in February. However, during the practice, Bobby began feeling ill and quit the practice early. By the end of February, Bobby decided that he felt that he was not fit for racing yet and wanted to sit out the 2004 season. In March Bobby was let go of Hendrick Motorsports and was replaced by Casey Mears. Partway through the season, a F1 veteran named Max Papis was signed by Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates to drive the #42 Dodge. Papis won 2 races and finished 8th in the final standings. Max Papis was believed the be the next Ricky Bobby.

2005

In 2005, Bobby decided that he wanted to go back to racing. Ricky Bobby decided to make his return in October at the UAW Ford 500 at Talladega Superspeedway. However, when the time came, Ricky Bobby was not signed on to any team. Bobby decided in September that he would start his own team named Ricky Bobby Racing. Ricky shopped around and finally bought a car from Robert Yates Racing and was unable to find a primary sponsor for the car. Ricky qualified 35th in his #62 Ford but had to start 42nd due to an engine change. Bobby was in place to win the race when he was caught in a late race crash also involving Max Papis.

After this Bobby decided to race a few more races. Bobby would start three more races in 2005 and finished as high as 2nd at the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 at Atlanta in October. In December it was announced that Bobby would return full time in 2006 with his own team and that Cal Jr. would be leaving Hendrick Motorsports and joining Ricky Bobby Racing. It was also reviled that Jean Girard would be leaving NASCAR and returning to F1. Jean Girard was replaced by another F1 driver, Juan Pablo Montoya.

2006-2009

At the end of 2005, Ricky Bobby purchased a few cars from Robert Yates Racing to be used in 2006. Ricky Bobby would drive the #62 Ford sponsored by Shell and Penzoil while Cal Naughton Jr. would drive the #67 Ford sponsored by Old Spice. In 2006 Bobby went on to win two races and Cal Naughton Jr. won his first race at Daytona in July. Ricky Bobby finished 4th in standings and Cal Naughton Jr. finished 8th. Shell and Penzoil left at the end of 2006 to sponsor Kevin Harvick.

Ricky Bobby started 2007 with high expectations and sponsorship from NIVEA (28 races) and Gillett (5 races). However, the crew at Ricky Bobby Racing had a difficult time with the Car of Tomorrow especially the first COT race at Food City 500 where they finished 37th and 40th. The overall performance of Ricky Bobby Racing began to fall around July. Ricky Bobby only won one race and finished 17th in the final standings while Cal Naughton Jr. finished 23rd. By the end of 2007, Ricky Bobby Racing was looking for a new partner to buy cars from. Ricky Bobby decided to stay with Ford and started a partnership with Roush Fenway Racing. Gillett left at the end of the year.

For 2008 the NIVEA sponsorship was reduced for the number of races to just 15. In 2008, the performance of Ricky Bobby Racing improved slightly. However Ricky Bobby had bad luck in the first half of the season with a best finish of 3rd at Atlanta. Ricky Bobby failed to win a race and finished 15th in the standings with Cal Naughton Jr. in 13th. At the end of 2008 the Old Spice sponsorship left Cal Naughton Jr. for Tony Stewart and Stewart Haas Racing.

Ricky Bobby Racing will return in 2009 with Bobby and Naughton Jr. It is not known what the sponsors will be. There has also been rumors that they may only run a partial schedule or may only run one car with Bobby and Naughton Jr. sharing the ride.

Personal Life

Ricky Bobby was born in North Carolina to parents Reese and Lucy Bobby. When Bobby was young his parents split up and began living with his mother. In 1998 Ricky Bobby was married to Carley Edwards and they have two sons.

Movie

In 2006, a movie about Ricky Bobby was released. The movie was called Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and stars Will Ferrell as Ricky Bobby. Originally, the movie was going to be a documentary about Bobby but the script was changed part way through the making of the movie. There are some differences in the movie and real life.

• Ricky Bobby was racing at Hendrick Racing not Dennit Racing. Rick Hendrick would not allow his name to be in the movie.
• Ricky Booby used number 26 in the movie and 25 in real life. At the time of the movie release, Jamie McMurray drove the 26 car.
• Ricky Bobby's unsponsored Talladega car was different than in the movie.