BUSCH: Gail Davis An Active Car Owner

Car owner Davis is a full partner

HIGH POINT, N.C. (Oct. 28, 1998) Many of the 23 women listed as car owners in the current NASCAR Winston Cup Series and NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division standings are tethered to their programs in "marriages of convenience," to side-step NASCAR's multiple-car owner restrictions. Their active involvement in the day-to-day operations of their respective operations is minimal.

But Gail Davis, owner of the No. 93 Amoco Pontiac team on the NASCAR Busch Series, and co-owner, with her husband Bill, of the No. 22 MBNA Pontiac in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series, has played a major role in the direction of both teams in whose ownership she shares. She also wields a majority of the management responsibilities for Bill Davis Trucking, a nationwide operation based in Batesville, Ark.

The notion of filling a figure-head position in either of the Davis' successful businesses is foreign to Gail Davis, who splits time between her two offices nearly 1,000 miles apart to make sure that the common dreams shared by she and her husband continue to stay on track.

"We have always looked at both our businesses as true partnerships and I think we compliment each other's strengths in both," said Mrs. Davis, who oversees the majority of the financial matters for both the racing and trucking ventures, as well as the day-to-day management of the latter's massive dispatching duties. "Bill has kidded in the past that it's his job to spend the money and my job to pay the bills but I think that's a reflection of our roles in both racing and in our trucking company.

"Bill was and is the one with the dreams. It was his dream to have a successful trucking company and after 23 years, we have built a coast-to-coast service that involves 50-plus trucks and millions of road miles a year. It was also Bill's dream to have a race team but we never imagined it would grow in 11 years to the position we're in now.

"I guess you could say he's the dreamer, but I help make the dreams happen. We've spent our careers following Bill's dreams. I love to work, have always wanted to work and to be successful, but I've never had the dream. Bill's the one with the dreams and the ambition to pursue them."

The recent success of NASCAR Busch Series Raybestos Rookie of the Year candidate Dave Blaney, as well as Ward Burton's resurgence and the No. 22 team's new sponsorship relationship with Caterpillar and Siemens, has energized the Davises as they point to the opening of the 2000 season and two BDR entries in NASCAR's top division.

"The growth of the Amoco team and Dave has been particularly rewarding because both the driver and team are in their first year and start-up is difficult regardless of what business you're in," said Gail Davis of the second BDR team, which enters Saturday's ACDelco 200 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham with two straight front-row qualifying efforts (and five top-10s in a row) and a career-best sixth-place finish for Blaney in only his 24th stock car race at Gateway International Raceway outside St. Louis two weeks ago.

"Having Amoco make the kind of commitment they did to our team and to Dave has allowed us to expand our program to the two-team level we eventually wanted to go," Gail said. "Getting Caterpillar to come on board has solidified the direction of Bill Davis Racing for some time to come.

"With the pending merger of British Petroleum (BP) and Amoco and our new NASCAR Winston Cup sponsorships, we will represent some of the largest companies in the Global 500 with our two teams.

"I never would have dreamed that we would be where we are in racing today, but this is something that Bill wanted to do badly and we have made it work. He won't give up and tries to do things the right way in a sport that sometimes won't let you take the high road. And we have been successful because with us it's two against one.

"I have always felt that 'If you don't want it, you'll never get it.' If you set goals and work hard, you can have success. Bill and I have invested 24 years with each other and it hasn't always been easy. No business or marriage is . but we're good partners and best friends. I won't say we work any harder than anyone else but it IS two against one with us. That makes a big difference."

Source: NASCAR Online