The next time you see Marc Davis on a NASCAR track, it will be in the Sprint Cup Series.
Davis’ dad, Harry, told Full Throttle Autos Online that Marc Davis Motorsports has no further plans to compete in the Nationwide Series at this time.
“We got out of Nationwide because essentially except for the price of the engine it costs the same to go Nationwide [racing] as it does to go Cup [racing],” Harry Davis said.
When that Cup debut will be is yet to be determined. Marc Davis is still under contract with his two primary sponsors, The Word television network and Howard University’s WHUR Radio. But the team is seeking additional funding because it isn’t interested in joining the start-and-park brigade.
“If we wanted to start-and-park, we would have done that months ago,” the elder Davis said.
Any appearance by the 19-year-old former Joe Gibbs Racing developmental driver would be noteworthy, as he would be the first African-American driver to compete in NASCAR’s top series since Bill Lester in 2006 and only the second since 1986. But that debut won’t be made hastily. The team has the cars it needs but wants an engine situation that will offer competitiveness.
“A competitive engine leases for $60,000 for one race,” Harry Davis explained. “What the start-and-park guys do, they still pay the $60,000, but they keep running it for five or six races….We’re going to run ours once.”
Marc Davis was originally scheduled to make his Cup debut last month at Sonoma. Two weeks prior, a collision between Davis and Brendan Gaughan on pit road during a Nationwide race at Nashville turned uglier when Gaughan crew chief Bryan Berry was accused of using a racial slur. Berry was suspended by NASCAR, received sensitivity training and was eventually reinstated.
While admitting it was a “distraction,” Harry Davis said the timing of the Berry incident and forgoing Sonoma was mere coincidence, and skipping the race was purely finance-driven. He said he hasn’t been asked about Nashville when meeting with potential sponsors, and last month the team added the driver’s former developmental backer, Outback Steakhouse, as an associate sponsor.
Now the team just needs “one or two” more sponsors to get back to the track.
“From a marketing standpoint it just makes a lot more sense to put all your eggs in one basket and go to Cup and make the best of it,” Davis
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