Ricky Bobby
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| - | '''Ricky David''' is an [[United States|American]] race car driver. Ricky David currently drives the #63 Chevrolet for Andrews/David Motorsports in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. | + | '''Ricky David''' (born '''Richard Dale Lee David''') is an [[United States|American]] race car driver. Ricky David currently drives the #63 Chevrolet for Andrews/David Motorsports in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. |
==Early Career== | ==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 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. | ||
Revision as of 04:39, 29 May 2009
Ricky David (born Richard Dale Lee David) is an American race car driver. Ricky David currently drives the #63 Chevrolet for Andrews/David Motorsports in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Contents |
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. After his second win, David purchased a share in RAM Ford Lincoln in North Carolina. Ricky David purchased the share from Randy MacAuley who also owned RAM Racing.
Fenwick Motorsports
David got his break in 1994, when he was signed by Darrell Vick Racing to drive the #76 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. David managed 2 top fives, and eight top tens but failed to win. At the end of the year, Don MacAuley was hired as David's crew chief.
For 1996, David managed two wins, 6 top fives, and 13 top tens.
For the 1997 season, VeFox came on board as sponsor for David's car and David was switched to the #73 Fenwick team. David's #76 was changed to the #74 and Fenwick Motorsports signed rookie, Bobby Jarrett Jr. to drive the 74 car. In 1997, David managed to win 4 races, 10 top fives, and managed to win the 1997 Winston Cup Championship.
In 1998, David managed to win 6 races and 21 top tens and won his second championship. Partway through the year, David opened his second dealership, Ricky David Buick GMC in North Carolina.
In 1999, Ricky David was on his way to his third championship. David had already won 2 races when he was involved in a horrific crash midway through 1999. David was sent to a local hospital where he was put in critical condition. By the next week he was put in stable condition. Three months after the accident, David was in good enough condition to go home. David spent the majority of the rest of the year away from the track and in rehab. David was replaced for the 2000 season with Jerry Nelson and Scott Benson Jr.
By 2000, Ricky David was in fair enough condition to race and attended the winter practice for Fenwick Motorsports. However, David only did a few number a laps before quitting practice. By February, David decided to sit out the 2000 season. Ricky David was replaced by Scott Benson Jr. David spent a lot time in 2000 getting used to racing again.
Ricky David was set to race for Fenwick Motorsports in 2001. However, he said he still was not ready in time for the Daytona 500 so he was let go from Fenwick Motorsports. David was determined to race in 2001 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 fullseason. 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. 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. Both Minute Maid and Nabisco left Ricky David Racing at the end of 2007. 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. David eventually decided to a partnership with Kyle Andrews Motorsports and switched manufacturers from Ford To Chevrolet.
For 2008, James Young drove the #53 PRG R+D Chevrolet and David drove the #63 BuzzAray/cogijo.org Chevrolet. 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
By the end of 2008, it was announced that Chase Myers would be leaving Kyle Andrews Motorsports and would be raplaced with Bobby Jarrett Jr. in the #56 Chevrolet.
In early 2009, it was announced that MJF Industries was filing for bankruptcy and would be leaving NASCAR. Kyle Andrews Motorsports purchased MJF Industries' ownership of the team. RDR merged with Kyle Andrews Motorsports and formed AD Motorsports. The team will attempt to run a total of four cars. Ricky David will drive the #63 Chevrolet, Scott Miller will drive the #56 LGYonline.com Chevrolet formerly driven by Chase Myers, Bobby Jarrett Jr. will instead drive the #53 RayJack Chevrolet formerly driven by James Young, who will move 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 sponsors. In April, a deal was made that gave David complete control over the #63 team. In June, Ricky David announced that he will be leaving AD Motorsports and will be focusing on his Nationwide team.
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.
