BDR was founded by Bill Davis, then a truck rental owner and former motocross racer. Davis helped his friend and business partner Julian Martin develop his son Mark Martin's ASA racing programme. When Martin signed with Jim Stacy, Davis stepped back from racing before returning to hire Martin to drive his Busch Series car for 15 races under sponsorship from Carolina Ford Dealers. In 1990, Davis relocated the team to High Point, North Carolina; his wife Gail remained in Arkansas to manage the trucking business.
Davis moved BDR to full-time Cup competition in 1993 with 1991 Busch Series champion Bobby Labonte, driving a No. 22 Maxwell House-sponsored Ford. Labonte finished second to Jeff Gordon in Winston Cup Rookie of the Year voting. The team switched to Pontiac in 1994. Labonte departed after 1994 to drive for Joe Gibbs Racing, with MBNA replacing Maxwell House as sponsor.
Randy LaJoie was hired for 1995 but was released mid-season and replaced by a rotating roster including Wally Dallenbach Jr., who finished second at Watkins Glen. Ward Burton was then hired to close the year and scored the team's first Cup win at Rockingham Speedway.
With Burton driving, the No. 22 team steadily improved. In 1998 the team reached the top ten in the final Winston Cup points standings, repeating the result in 1999, by which time Caterpillar had come aboard as sponsor. In 2000 the team returned to victory lane at the spring Darlington race. Burton won the 2001 Southern 500 — Dodge's second win since returning to NASCAR — then added two more victories in 2002: the Daytona 500 (Dodge's first Daytona 500 win in 28 years) and the New England 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The New Hampshire win was both Burton's last Cup victory and BDR's last in Cup racing. Inconsistent results across 2002 dropped the team to 25th in points.
With four races remaining in 2003, Burton departed for Haas CNC Racing and was replaced by Busch driver Scott Wimmer. Wimmer ran full-time in 2004 and finished third in the first race of his rookie season. BDR announced it would part ways with Wimmer at the end of 2005.
Dave Blaney, who had previously driven the No. 93 for BDR, took the No. 22 from 2006. When the team switched to Toyota in 2007, Blaney won the pole for the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire — the first Sprint Cup pole for Toyota. He scored his first top-ten finish with Toyota at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on 29 July 2007, and finished third at Talladega, the best result for any Toyota that season. Blaney was also the only Toyota driver in the top 35 in owner points after 2007. In June 2008, Caterpillar announced it would leave the No. 22 to sponsor Richard Childress Racing's No. 31 car from 2009. The team missed the 2008 Aaron's 499, then returned the following week at Richmond to finish 18th and at Darlington to finish ninth.
On 22 December 2008, Davis sold majority ownership to Mike Held and Marty Gaunt, who also acquired Triad Racing Technologies. The No. 22's owner points were transferred to Penske Racing for the No. 77 of Sam Hornish Jr., the combined entity becoming Penske Championship Racing.
The second car debuted as the No. 93 in 2000 with Blaney driving; he finished third in Rookie of the Year standings despite failing to qualify at spring Rockingham. The team flirted with the win in 2001 before Amoco declined to renew. Hut Stricklin drove a renumbered No. 23 in 2002, recording five top-20 finishes but also missing Watkins Glen and failing to qualify at Daytona. Kenny Wallace joined mid-2002 with Stacker 2 sponsorship and drove the No. 23 through the 2003 season, posting one top-ten at Bristol. The car ran part-time in 2004–05 with drivers including Shane Hmiel and Tony Raines. Michael Waltrip was announced for the No. 55 in 2006, leading to the short-lived Waltrip-Jasper Racing arrangement, but Waltrip took the points to his own Toyota team in 2007. Jacques Villeneuve was scheduled to drive the No. 27 in 2008, but the deal collapsed when sponsorship could not be found, and the team folded four races into the season.
BDR began Busch Series competition in 1988 with Mark Martin driving 13 races in the No. 06 Carolina Ford Dealers Ford, posting two top-tens and one win. Martin won the spring race at Bristol in the No. 1 the following season. In 1991, Jeff Gordon went full-time with the team, taking Rookie of the Year honours with five top fives. In 1992, with Baby Ruth as sponsor, Gordon won three races including the spring Atlanta event, where Rick Hendrick took notice and subsequently signed him. Dave Blaney drove the No. 93 Amoco Pontiac from 1998, finishing sixth three times. In 1999 Blaney improved further, winning multiple poles and finishing eighth in points; Davis also ran a second car for Burton that year, the No. 02, which finished in the top ten in every race and won a pole at Darlington. Scott Wimmer eventually took over the No. 23, winning four races in the second half of 2002 and finishing third in points, then winning at Pikes Peak in 2003. Kenny Wallace drove in 2004, posting ten top-tens before the equipment was sold to Keith Coleman Racing.
BDR's No. 5 truck originated at Bang! Racing as the No. 42 with Mike Skinner driving in 2004, before Davis purchased it mid-season. In 2005 Skinner won seven poles and two races (Bristol and Richmond), finishing fifth in points. He won at Las Vegas in 2006 with 13 top-tens and nearly won the 2007 championship before tyre failures in the finale.
The No. 22 truck debuted in 2004 with Bill Lester driving; he failed to crack the top-ten that year. Tyler Walker started 2007 in a renumbered No. 36 truck before being suspended for violating NASCAR's substance abuse policy. Rookie Ryan Mathews replaced Walker and posted two top-tens, one top-five, and a pole at Kentucky before giving way to Villeneuve, the truck renumbered No. 27 as a tribute to his 1995 championship season. In 2008 Scott Speed won BDR's first NASCAR truck victory at Dover, and Michael Annett added two top-tens.
Johnny Benson became the full-time No. 23 truck driver from 2005 onward. He won five races in 2006 with Exide backing and finished runner-up to Todd Bodine for the championship. In 2007 he won four races and finished third in points. In 2008, Benson, crew chief Trip Bruce, and truck chief William Hagerthey Jr. won five races and held off defending champion Ron Hornaday Jr. to clinch the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship — BDR's first NASCAR title. It was announced before the championship win that Benson would not return in 2009; both Benson and Bruce subsequently joined the No. 1 truck at Red Horse Racing.
In 2003, Dodge parent DaimlerChrysler filed a lawsuit against BDR after discovering the team was constructing Toyota trucks in preparation for entering the Truck Series in 2004. BDR had also continued running Pontiacs in the Busch Series through 2002 and Chevrolets in 2003–04, as Dodge provided no manufacturer support in those series. Dodge pulled manufacturer support in October 2003. BDR continued racing Dodges through 2006, removing Dodge logos after a Detroit District Court ruled in DaimlerChrysler's favour in February 2006, requiring Davis to pay $6.5 million. Davis and Dodge settled out of court in November 2006, terms undisclosed. The team completed its switch to Toyota in the Sprint Cup Series in 2007.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
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