Kertus Davis

Kertus Davis (born February 26, 1981) is an American former NASCAR driver. He was the competition director for JD Motorsports before the team went bankrupt.

Prior to NASCAR/USAR 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 third in the World Karting Association finals at the age of seventeen. In 1998, Davis began racing Late Model Stock Cars in various Southeastern tracks, gaining experience and a handful of top-five finishes. He mostly competed at Myrtle Beach Speedway, Greenville-Pickens Speedway, and Timmonsville Speedway. During the 1999 season, he made three starts in the USAR ProCup Series.

Davis competed for Rookie of the Year in 2000 in the USAR ProCup, competing in 20 events. He finished the season seventeenth in points with top-ten finishes. In 2001, he finished eleventh in the Southern Division points standing with eight top-ten finishes. After a part-time USAR run in 2002, he joined Premiere Motorsports to run a full-time schedule 2003. He won his first race at Smithton, Pennsylvania and finished third in the Northern Division points, thirteenth for the entire sanctioning body.

Early NASCAR career Davis made his NASCAR debut in 2001 at Nazareth Speedway for Jimmy Means. He qualified the No. 52 Broadway Motors Ford Taurus in 34th place, but finished 36th after an early engine failure. In the next two races, he finished 42nd at Dover International Speedway and fortieth at the Milwaukee Mile. He made the switch over to the No. 77 Gestener Ford for Moy Racing at the second Dover race, where he finished 34th after a crash.

Davis made five starts in 2002. He ran the No. 77 Docutech/Gestetner Ford in his first 2002 race at Richmond, 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 at Memphis Motorsports Park. Davis did not race at all in 2003, due to his USAR commitments, but he played a large role as Davis Motorsports began to run full-time in the series. He worked in the shop and every now and then on the pit box, as the team made its first full season.

Davis raced again in 2004, starting at Indianapolis 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, with RaceGirl serving as sponsor. He failed to qualify for five races, but had a career-best tenth place run at Talladega Superspeedway, and finished thirty-first in points. He also made one start in the No. 12 Supercuts/Hot Tamales Dodge at Texas Motor Speedway for FitzBradshaw Racing, but finished in fortieth due to a transmission failure. For the 2006 season, Davis attempted to race full-time. The team used former Busch Series champion Randy LaJoie to get in the race at Mexico, and at Atlanta, MacDonald Motorsports aided the Davis team with MacDonald's pit crew. Davis also took one-race deals, driving the No. 34 Sport Clips Chevrolet for Frank Cicci Racing at Darlington, the No. 43 Ollie's Bargain Outlet Dodge for the Curb Agajanian Performance Group at Dover, and at Nashville, he prepared the No. 20 Rockwell Automation car for NEXTEL Cup driver Denny Hamlin. He returned to his own car at Milwaukee, where he finished out the season. He also attempted races for Morgan Shepherd, CJM Racing, and Front Row Motorsports at the Nextel Cup level, but did not qualify for any of those races.

2007–present

In 2007, Davis signed to drive for Kevin Harvick Incorporated in the No. 77 Dollar General Chevy for thirteen races, sharing the car with Bobby Labonte and Kevin Harvick. Davis ran at Fontana starting 33rd but collided with Eric McClure who ironically was driving the No. 0 car that Davis drove before. He recovered to finish thirtieth, 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 by Ron 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 chief Gene Allnut was suspended for six races. In the interim, Davis had the first ever female crew chief in NASCAR's top touring series at Las Vegas. Kertus at Talladega in 2008 avoided the "Big One" again like in 2005 and he finished twelfth on the lead lap falling out of the top-ten 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 to Jay Robinson Racing in the No. 49 car. GetMoreVacations.com sponsored the car for a few races in the beginning of the season. After fourteen 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 as crew chief for the No. 0 JD Motorsports Chevrolet driven by Chrissy Wallace in the Aaron's 312 at Talladega. In 2011, he became the team's competition director.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR (key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Nextel Cup Series NASCAR Nextel 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 Pts Ref 2006 Shepherd Racing Ventures 89 Dodge DAY CAL LVS ATL BRI MAR TEX PHO TAL RCH DAR NA - CJM Racing 72 Dodge CLT DOV POC MCH SON DAY CHI NHA POC IND GLN MCH BRI Front Row Motorsports 34 Chevy CAL RCH NHA DOV KAN TAL CLT MAR ATL TEX PHO HOM

Nationwide Series NASCAR Nationwide 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 Pts Ref 2001 Jimmy Means Racing 52 Ford DAY CAR LVS ATL DAR BRI TEX NSH TAL CAL RCH NHA NZH CLT DOV KEN MLW GLN CHI GTY PPR IRP MCH BRI DAR RCH 80th 199 PRW Racing 77 Ford DOV KAN CLT MEM PHO CAR HOM 2002 DAY CAR LVS DAR BRI TEX NSH TAL CAL RCH NHA NZH CLT DOV NSH KEN 67th 353 Davis Motorsports 0 Chevy MLW DAY CHI GTY PPR IRP MCH BRI DAR RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM ATL CAR PHO HOM 2004 Davis Motorsports 0 Chevy DAY CAR LVS DAR BRI TEX NSH TAL CAL GTY RCH NZH CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW DAY CHI NHA PPR IRP MCH BRI CAL RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM ATL PHO DAR HOM 93rd 219 2005 DAY CAL MXC LVS ATL NSH BRI TEX PHO TAL DAR RCH CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW DAY CHI NHA PPR GTY IRP GLN MCH BRI CAL RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM PHO HOM 31st 1804 FitzBradshaw Racing 12 Dodge TEX 2006 Davis Motorsports 0 Chevy DAY CAL MXC LVS ATL BRI TEX NSH43 PHO TAL RCH MLW DAY CHI NHA MAR GTY IRP GLN MCH BRI CAL RCH DOV KAN CLT TEX PHO HOM 40th 1119 Frank Cicci Racing 34 Chevy DAR CLT Curb Agajanian Performance Group 43 Dodge DOV NSH KEN Joe Gibbs Racing 20 Chevy MEMQL† 2007 Kevin Harvick Incorporated 77 Chevy DAY CAL MXC LVS ATL BRI NSH TEX PHO TAL RCH DAR CLT DOV NSH KEN MLW NHA DAY CHI GTY 67th 584 Phoenix Racing 1 Chevy IRPQL‡ CGV GLN D.D.L. Motorsports 01 Chevy MCH43 BRI CAL RCH DOV KAN43 CLT MEM TEX PHO HOM 2008 JD Motorsports 0 DAY DOV 34th 1639 01 DAY CAL LVS ATL BRI NSH TEX PHO MXC43 TAL RCH DAR CLT NSH Jay Robinson Racing 49 Chevy KEN NHA DAY CHI GTY43 IRP CGV GLN MCH BRI CAL43 RCH DOV KAN CLT MEM TEX43 PHO HOM CFK Motorsports 73 Dodge MLW 2009 Jay Robinson Racing 49 Chevy DAY CAL LVS BRI TEX NSH PHO TAL RCH DAR CLT DOV NSH KEN 59th 743 JD Motorsports 04 Chevy MLW NHA DAY CHI GTY IRP 0 IOW GLN MCH BRI CGV ATL RCH DOV KAN CAL CLT MEM TEX PHO HOM† - Qualified for Denny Hamlin · ‡ - Qualified for J. J. Yeley

ARCA Re/Max Series (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 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 NA - 2005 DAY NSH SLM KEN TOL LAN MIL POC MCH KAN KEN BLN POC GTW LER NSH MCH ISF TOL DSF CHI SLM TAL 183rd 25