Darlington businesses support JD Motorsports at Darlington Raceway
Darlington businesses logos on the JD Motorsports car. PHOTO BY HUNTER THOMAS/THEFOURTHTURN.COM
By Hunter Thomas
It takes a village, and this week, three Darlington businesses came together to help JD Motorsports compete in the NASCAR Xfinity Series Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 at Darlington Raceway.
JD Motorsports is a Gaffney, South Carolina-based team that fields the Nos. 4 and 6 cars on a weekly basis in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Team owner, Johnny Davis has been an owner in the series since the early 1980s and has helped a very large number of drivers fulfill their lifelong dreams of competing in NASCAR.
Entering this weekend’s race, he was searching for a couple of businesses who could help out with the tire bill and other expenses, and his good friend, Hal Goodson who owns Goodson Tire & Auto in Darlington, rallied his friends together to fund the effort. Goodson is a former driver as well, so he was quite familiar of the task at hand. As a result, the Dairy Bar and the Darlington Packing Company came together, and now their company’s logos were featured on the C-post of each of JD Motorsports’ race cars on Saturday.
“I hadn’t talked to him (Hal) in a long time,” Davis said. “I gave him a call, and I said I need some help. I need somebody to help buy these tires. You know how expensive they are. He put a list together for him of his friends that might could help, and we’re fortunate enough that Hal did that for me and got me with the Dairy Bar. I went down and had breakfast at that place and enjoyed it. Great restaurant. I totally suggest that anybody who comes into Darlington goes down there and has a meal. We went down to the Darlington Package store down there. I bought a lot of meat. They had a lot of good fresh meat in there, man.”
The Darlington community is extremely passionate about its NASCAR racing, and Davis’ team is passionate about people, so the partnerships were a natural fit. NASCAR Labor Day weekend at Darlington is one of the most popular stops on the schedule, so local companies will get more ‘bang for their buck’ when they’re involved with teams and events surrounding the race; however, this effort wasn’t about money. It was about helping a fellow South Carolinian race at the legendary track that’s Too Tough To Tame.
“It’s just a thrill to have local people who still want to be involved in such a big atmosphere,” Davis said. “They get their names on the cars. Helped us out. It meant a lot to my heart. We care about people, and local people is where it’s at.”
Davis continued and said, “It was neat, man. They all talked highly of each other. They all talked highly of the sport for racing and NASCAR and were just glad to be a part of it and have the opportunity. I just can’t say enough about them.”
Darlington Raceway is really special to Davis because it was the first NASCAR track he ever attended. Davis used to sit underneath the metal shed that was located over in Turn 2, which would have been Turn 4 when he was attending. He recalls his body and clothes were black as could be due to the rubber that covered him throughout the race.
This weekend, Brennan Poole, who has raced at Dillon Motor Speedway prior to becoming a NASCAR driver, rolled off the grid in 31st and finished 20th. Kyle Weatherman piloted the No. 4 Chevrolet, to a 31st-place finish.