Newt Moore brought on as crew chief
GAFFNEY, S.C. (January 27, 2012) – JD Motorsports has been a whir and blur of activity the last few weeks at their South Carolina shop.
Johnny Davis, team owner, has hired on some key personnel to build on the achievements from the team’s 2011 season. Mike Wallace, entering his fourth season driving for the team, has been a solid competitor during his tenure. The new addition to the team is veteran crew chief Newt Moore.
Davis has 411 NASCAR Nationwide Series starts as an owner. Wallace has 416 NNS starts as a driver. Moore has 408 combined NASCAR starts atop a pit box. That makes for a good combination of experience between the three. They, and their refurbished team, are all hoping their merged know-how leads them to more success in the 2012 season.
“I have to tell you, this team has been working hard as can be to get ready for the season opener at Daytona and the rest of the year,” Davis said. “We added Newt (Moore) as our crew chief and that’s been going pretty good. We also added two crew members of the team that won the Daytona 500 last year and I’ve been pretty happy with their work, too.
“You combine all of that with Mike’s talent at the big tracks, and we’re all feeling pretty good for the start of the season. And, just like other teams, we are looking to add some partners to complete our season to be even more successful. We have a room on the car; trust me.
“We’re a single-car team with no Sprint Cup team affiliation. So, when we have a good day like we did many times last year, we’re that much happier and prouder of our efforts. We finished 13th in points last year, and that was over some teams with a much bigger budget and affiliation ties to big teams. There’s a sense of optimism in the shop right now that is stronger than ever…I like it.”
Wallace, who has four NNS wins to his credit, earned one of those wins at Daytona in July 2004. In addition to making his 400th NNS start last year, he won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Talladega Superspeedway in October. So, the ability to win for Wallace never went away.
“No, the desire and ability to win has never faded after 22 years in Nationwide competition,” Wallace said. “We come to the track each week to compete to the best of our ability and represent ourselves and marketing partners the best way possible.
“Johnny has made some changes in the off-season everyone has been very pleased with since it happened. I have to give our owner a lot of credit – he manages to give us what we need to be competitive every week.”
Wallace was very competitive in the Talladega NNS race last spring. He worked his way to the front and was leading on the second green/white/checkers restart for the win. However, after the white flag flew, Wallace was pushed from behind, spun and hit sideways causing the car to do a single barrel roll before driving it to an 18th-place finish.
“I still wish we had that one back again,” Wallace said. “But, that’s the nature of the beast in restrictor-plate racing. I know we can do what did last year by running up front and leading laps at both Daytona and Talladega. I just have a funny feeling this JD Motorsports team is on to something for the Daytona race and we’re doing all we can to make it a great race; which would lead to a great season.
“Somebody has to win the race at Daytona – why not us? That’s the way I see it for starting off our 2012 season.”
