| Kertus Davis | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.JPG) Davis atNew Hampshire Motor Speedway 2008 | |||||||
| Born | (1981-02-26)February 26, 1981 (age 44) Gaffney, South Carolina, U.S. | ||||||
| Achievements | 1998South Carolina State Karting Championship | ||||||
| NASCARXfinity Series career | |||||||
| 117 races run over 8 years | |||||||
| 2009 position | 59th | ||||||
| Best finish | 31st (2005) | ||||||
| First race | 2001Nazareth 200 (Nazareth) | ||||||
| Last race | 2009U.S. Cellular 250 (Iowa) | ||||||
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| Statistics current as of July 2, 2012. | |||||||
Kertus Davis (born February 26, 1981)[1] is an American formerNASCAR driver. He was the competition director forJD Motorsports before the team went bankrupt.
Davis began racing in go-karts at the age of eight, competing in his hometown of Gaffney around various tracks. He raced in the karts for a number of years, and finished 3rd in theWorld Karting Association finals at the age of 17. In 1998, Davis began racingLate Model Stock Cars in various Southeastern tracks, gaining experience and a handful of top-five finishes. He mostly competed atMyrtle Beach Speedway,Greenville-Pickens Speedway, andTimmonsville Speedway. During the 1999 season, he made three starts in theUSAR ProCup Series.
He competed for Rookie of the Year in 2000 in the USAR ProCup, competing in 20 events. Davis finished the season 17th in points with top ten finishes. In 2001, he finished 11th in the Southern Division points standing with eight top-ten finishes. After a part-time USAR run in 2002, he joinedPremiere Motorsports to run a full-time schedule 2003. He won his first race atSmithton, Pennsylvania and finished third in the Northern Division points, thirteenth for the entire sanctioning body.
Davis made his NASCAR debut in 2001 atNazareth Speedway forJimmy Means. He qualified the No. 52Broadway MotorsFord Taurus in 34th place, but finished 36th after an early engine failure. In the next two races, he finished 42nd atDover International Speedway and 40th at theMilwaukee Mile. He made the switch over to the No. 77GestenerFord forMoy Racing at the second Dover race, where he finished 34th after a crash.
Davis made five starts in 2002. He ran the No. 77Docutech/Gestetner Ford in his first 2002 race atRichmond, and had the best weekend of his career at the time with a 29th place start and 26th-place finish. For the rest of the season, Davis only drove the No. 0 Chevrolet for his father's race team,Davis Motorsports. In four starts, his best finish was a 24th atMemphis Motorsports Park. Davis did not race at all in 2003, due to his USAR commitments, but he played a large role asDavis Motorsports began to run full-time in the series. He worked in the shop and every now and then on the pit box[citation needed], as the team made its first full season.
He raced again in 2004, starting atIndianapolis Raceway Park for his father's team, where he had a 29th-place finish, followed by a 27th at Dover and a 34th at Darlington. Davis moved to the No. 0 full-time in 2005, withRaceGirl serving as sponsor. He failed to qualify for five races, but had a career-best tenth-place run atTalladega Superspeedway, and finished thirty-first in points. He also made one start in the No. 12Supercuts/Hot Tamales Dodge atTexas Motor Speedway forFitzBradshaw Racing, but finished in 40th due to a transmission failure. For the 2006 season, Davis attempted to race full-time. The team used former Busch Series championRandy LaJoie to get in the race at Mexico, and atAtlanta,MacDonald Motorsports aided the Davis team with MacDonald's pit crew. Davis also took one-race deals, driving the No. 34 Sport Clips Chevrolet forFrank Cicci Racing at Darlington, the No. 43Ollie's Bargain Outlet Dodge for theCurb Agajanian Performance Group at Dover, and at Nashville, he prepared the No. 20Rockwell Automation car for NEXTEL Cup driverDenny Hamlin. He returned to his own car at Milwaukee, where he finished out the season. He also attempted races forMorgan Shepherd,CJM Racing, andFront Row Motorsports at the Nextel Cup level, but did not qualify for any of those races.
In 2007, Davis signed to drive forKevin Harvick Incorporated in the No. 77Dollar General Chevy for 13 races, sharing the car withBobby Labonte andKevin Harvick. Davis ran at Fontana starting 33rd but collided withEric McClure who ironically was driving the No. 0 car that Davis drove before. He recovered to finish 30th, last on lead lap. He then made his first road course start at Mexico where he started 37th and finished 31st one lap down. He was replaced byRon Hornaday Jr. prior to the race at Milwaukee. Shortly after that, it was announced that Davis had been released by KHI, due to Dollar General wanting only Cup drivers in the car. He ran the rest of the season in the No. 01 car fielded by his family team.
For 2008, Davis began the season in the No. 0 car, but moved over to the No. 01 after one race with RaceGirl sponsoring. This came after his team in the opening race of 2008 was penalized due to an illegal oil tank. The team was penalized 25 driver & owner points, and crew chiefGene Allnut was suspended for 6 races. In the interim, Davis had the 1st ever female crew chief in NASCAR's top touring series at Las Vegas.[2] Kertus at Talladega in 2008 avoided the "Big One" again like in 2005 and he finished 12th on the lead lap falling out of the top 10 in turn 4. Following the race at Nashville where he blew his engine, Davis left his father's team to pursue other racing options. He was 24th in points at the time. He spent the rest of the season driving the No. 49 for Jay Robinson. In 2009, Davis returned toJay Robinson Racing in the No. 49 car.GetMoreVacations.com sponsored the car for a few races in the beginning of the season. After 14 races in 2009 with JRR, Davis went back to his father's team to drive the No. 04 Chevy. He did not race in 2010, but served ascrew chief for the No. 0JD MotorsportsChevrolet driven byChrissy Wallace in theAaron's 312 atTalladega. In 2011, he became the team's competition director.
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
| NASCARNextel Cup Series results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | NNCC | Pts | Ref | ||
| 2006 | Shepherd Racing Ventures | 89 | Dodge | DAY | CAL | LVS | ATL | BRI | MAR | TEX | PHO | TAL | RCH DNQ | DAR | NA | - | [3] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| CJM Racing | 72 | Dodge | CLT DNQ | DOV | POC | MCH | SON | DAY DNQ | CHI | NHA | POC | IND | GLN | MCH | BRI | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Front Row Motorsports | 34 | Chevy | CAL DNQ | RCH | NHA | DOV | KAN | TAL | CLT | MAR | ATL | TEX | PHO | HOM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)
| ARCA Re/Max Series results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | No. | Make | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | ARMC | Pts | Ref |
| 2004 | Hylton Motorsports | 48 | Chevy | DAY | NSH | SLM | KEN | TOL | CLT | KAN | POC | MCH | SBO | BLN | KEN | GTW | POC | LER | NSH | ISF | TOL | DSF | CHI | SLM | TAL DNQ | NA | - | [12] | |
| 2005 | DAY DNQ | NSH | SLM | KEN | TOL | LAN | MIL | POC | MCH | KAN | KEN | BLN | POC | GTW | LER | NSH | MCH | ISF | TOL | DSF | CHI | SLM | TAL | 183rd | 25 | [13] | |||
