Marc Davis looks to get his racing career rolling again
February 20th, 2010
According to this report, Marc
Davis will be attempting to qualify for the Las Vegas Nationwide
race.
Of course, attempting to qualify for
XXXtreme Motorsports isn’t exactly the most prestigious of rides,
but for Davis, it represents a very important step since the
sudden passing of his father.
Harry
Davis was Marc’s car owner, and most importantly,
was an outspoken advocate of diversity in racing.
After racing as a child-which was
funded primarily by Harry-Marc got a development deal with Joe
Gibbs Racing in one of NASCAR’s first years of their Drive for
Diversity program.
However, Marc’s career with JGR
wasn’t spectacular, and it obviously didn’t help that he came up
at the same time as Joey Logano. Combine the expectations by
association and a lack of sponsorship money and that equaled no ride
at JGR after the 2008 season.
So Harry stepped up and with the help
of some other teams and some sponsorship from a Howard University
radio station, the Davises made a go of it for some races in 2009.
But sadly, it was an off the track
incident-spurred by an on the track incident-that made real some
horrible NASCAR stereotypes seem very real.
While pulling into the garage at
Nashville, Davis collided with Brendan Gaughan, who was racing for
lead at the time:
Gaughan’s race chances were ruined, and his crew
chief at the time, Bryan Berry, was suspended for using a racial slur
when he went to confront Davis in the garage.
Even outside of the Nashville incident,
Marc’s season wasn’t anything to smile about, as it reflected the
realities that underfunded teams face. Davis qualified for four
races, and had an average finish of just 27.8.
Marc’s still only 19, so he
potentially still has a long driving career ahead of him. Hopefully
the next step starts at Las Vegas.
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