Bobby Labonte Explores Bill Davis Racing's First NASCAR Race Shop with Crew Chief Chris Hussey

Bobby Labonte may be known for the Joe Gibbs Racing 18 car, but he made his NASCAR Winston Cup debut with Bill Davis Racing in 1993 based out of this very building in Thomasville North Carolina! In 1994 his crew chief was Chris Hussey who met us at the building to see what it looks like today and paint the picture of how it looked back in the 1990s glory days of NASCAR! Bill and Gail Davis the car owners started this race team with Mark Martin as the driver in the late 80s. Then Jeff Gordon became the driver for BDR in the Baby Ruth car with a young Ray Evernham as his crew chief. At the same time Mark Martin started his iconic Winn Dixie number 60 Busch Series team out of this same building with his cars being worked on side by side with the Gordon/Evernham Baby Ruth car! Mark and Bill Davis go way back from their hometown of Batesville Arkansas. Bill worked for Mark's father Julian Martin's trucking company (J Mar Express) before starting his own trucking company which he used to form this race team and continues to operate today.

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[Stapleton]

Cars end up in museums but the buildings they came from are often forgotten. It is so fun to shed some light on these iconic structures and the roles they played in motorsports! Help history grow and hit the thumbs up button!

[jeffbergen]

I always liked Bobby Labonte. This video was excellent as a driver/crew chief duo. Thanks again Mitchell and Logan!

[jcp]

Chris is an awesome guy! We became friends in the mid 90s while racing RC cars. He pushed me into pursuing an engineering degree. I owe this good man so much for guiding a young kid.

[Mistapetey]

This was one of the best of your exploration of old nascar shops. You can see the 90s guys really look fondly of the old times, it with hesitation of how hard it really was. As a kid these were the stories that I wanted to know. Anything, and everything Cup racing.

[Timster]

My girlfriend at the time and I toured Bill Davis Racing in that building not long after Ward Burton’s first win in the MBNA car. They let us walk anywhere we wanted and encouraged us to ask questions of the people working. We walked into the hauler where a guy was building shocks. My girlfriend installed shocks at the local GM plant, and they discussed shocks while he was working. It was definitely the best NASCAR shop experience I ever had!

[woodyhampton]

Really liked this one, just as you mentioned because you had Bobby & Chris together going through the memories. Appreciate all of the people involved with these committing their time to do them.

[KEngle]

Can't beat this. It's cool to just see the memories unlock from those guys on the fly. Excellent job as always!

[mikekenyon]

Thank you! I've used the #44 since 1985 after ' Texas Terry' won the Cup Championship. Long time 'Labonte' fan.

[geothefisher]

Another great video! Bobby is definitely a class act, I'm so glad you featured him! Thank you for keeping the history of NASCAR alive. As the people and places fade away into the past, your preservation of the people, places and the stories are here for us to remember, long into the future!

[RayTuttle-ofqd]

Your videos are the only videos I watch from start to finish and thoroughly enjoy ! Thanks for jarring old memories from the golden years of NASCAR racing

[Longsnowsm]

This is great! Well all your vids are great, but these people really are amazing. Sometimes just doing what you have to do turns out to be amazing. That is what most of these NASCAR legends are. It comes through just how hard this was and even more how remarkable when you know how it all turned out. Great interviews. Great seeing Bobby and Chris. Talking about Bob gave me chills. Good people.

[jonwood]

2 great guys. I remember racing against Bobby in the All America Challenge series.in 89.A black camaro with a silver roof. BOBBY LABONTE and ASSOCIATES was on the side.Good days

[MikeSkateTV]

Oh sweet, Bobby Labonte, one of my favorite drivers! Excellent origin story! :D

[MadMykesWorld]

Love this, Bobby was my second favorite behind Dale in the 90s. Such a cool dude, always seemed down to earth and a nice guy. Glad he got a championship

[lucky-rowe]

I hope you read the comments. As a.50+ year old in Idaho I want to thank you so much for all of these videos. I get zero info from the local media and the History you have captured is so important. Thank you from a long distance life long Fan of Nascar.

[marcfryar]

Awesome video! I worked there in 1995 with Chris and worked with Bobby a few years prior. Two great guys and great memories!!

[sumptersmith]

Thank you for doing videos like this! My first Motorsports job out of high school was in Hagen's old shop on ballpark road, and my next job was right across the street from Bobby's building in this video. We used those guys for all of our engine work that wasn't what we specialized in which was Porsche. Super cool to hear all the stories first hand. Out of all the stories, everyone seemed to always talk about when Terry almost won the championship in the Piedmont airlines car out of Hagen's old shop on ballpark. I did find some old numbers above the office when we were cleaning the shop one day if you ever do a video over there I bet they're still there.

[juniorbarrett]

Once again another fantastic historic NASCAR video and its absolutely chef's kiss and i have a bunch of Bobby Labonte 1:24s sitting on my shelf

[geesss]

I watch these videos and when he said... we has 17 people... the break table was right here. Just amazing

[scottmaz]

Your videos of the good old days are great. Love watching how things were. Thank you