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NASCAR On Dirt

Inside Jonathan Davenport's Cup Debut & If He'll Race NASCAR Again

Inside Jonathan Davenport's Cup Debut & If He'll Race NASCAR Again

Jonathan Davenport finished 36th in his NASCAR Cup debut on Easter Sunday. Here's what went right and what went wrong at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Apr 10, 2023 by Kyle McFadden
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BRISTOL, Tenn. — Jonathan Davenport finished 36th in his NASCAR Cup Series debut on Easter Sunday night at the dirt-covered Bristol Motor Speedway, a race that ended prematurely following a collision with fellow dirt driver Kyle Larson on lap 176 of 250.

Here’s a rundown of Davenport’s NASCAR experience, which details what went right and what went wrong, as well as the likelihood of the Dirt Late Model superstar racing in NASCAR again.

What Went Right For Jonathan Davenport At Bristol

For never racing a NASCAR Next Gen Cup car prior to Saturday’s 15-lap qualifier, Davenport did well for himself in Sunday’s nationally televised main event.

Last year’s top-ranked Dirt Late Model driver ran as high as 19th — sandwiched between February’s Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum winner Martin Truex Jr. and reigning Cup champion Joey Logano on lap 50 — after starting 21st.

“How fast of a learner he was has been pretty impressive to me,” Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice said. “I knew he was good, but these (cars) are different. If it wasn’t for the missed shift in the heat race, starting 14th would have probably changed his whole race because he wouldn’t have been in the back.”

In Saturday’s qualifier, the second-running Davenport missed fourth gear on a restart with six laps left, which burdened him enough for Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric to slip by. Before that, Davenport separated from Busch and had been within striking distance of eventual heat winner Bubba Wallace. Davenport hoped to use his dirt-racing prowess to exploit windows in open track on Sunday, but that never materialized.

“I just could never really get going to where I could pass cars,” Davenport said. “I could pass two or three and then get into a lull and just kind of ride. I was just trying to learn and make the laps. … Just couldn’t really get the right feel for my car. The guys did a great job making changes I wanted. We were definitely getting better.”

Davenport’s ovation in Sunday’s driver introductions reinforced the steady support he received from his followers all weekend long.

"My wife (Tammy) told me he got the biggest cheers when they announced him, which is cool,” Rice said. “Working with Davenport is a little bit of a dream come true for us at Kaulig Racing.

“I thought he did a good job. He beat himself up a little too much. He did a fabulous job all weekend. He did a fabulous job leading up to it. It’s hard. This is the best racing in NASCAR. I think, the way the race turned out, he learned you putt-putt around in these cars. In the Super Late Models, you give it all you got, all the time. If you watch Jonathan throughout the first and second stage, he would have progress at the start of the run and then fall back at the end of it. I think he was able to learn that. 

“You never know, this may not be the last of his tenure driving one of the Kaulig Racing cars,” Rice added.

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VIDEO: Jonathan Davenport recaps his busy Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway. 

What Went Wrong For Jonathan Davenport At Bristol

At the end of the day, Davenport’s dirt expertise was never going to trump seat time in a NASCAR Next Gen Cup car.

“I was never confident enough in the car,” he said in the final analysis.

Davenport spun on his lonesome trying to make something happen from 24th on lap 82, which hindered the rest of his race when he restarted 35th.

“It’s just a whole different car,” Davenport added. “It’s almost like you’re on a really, really slick asphalt track out there now. There’s not like no big cushion and you can’t really move off of it and turn down the racetrack. But that’s the way these cars race. That’s something I had to get accustomed to really quick.”

“I just never had open track to go up to the very-extreme top,” Davenport continued. “I was trying to adjust my car for one way, then when we got to where we could finally move up to the top… it’s no different than if I’m, or anybody in a Late Model, is toward the front of the field… and if they have a flat, go to the back, they get back there in dirty air. They get back there in all the grit moving across the racetrack, and they can’t really go anywhere. I just felt like that’s where I was stuck at the whole time. I was a dirty fin the whole time. Once we wrecked and I watched a few laps of the leaders, it was cleaned off and you could move around to do what they needed to do. In that aspect of it, it was just like a dirt race.”

Davenport added while he’s grateful for the opportunity and would do it all over again — on dirt or pavement — that the Cup cars “ain’t made to race on dirt.”

“But I’m not making excuses. That’s the reason I didn’t do any good because the car … obviously it was my inexperience with the car,” Davenport said. “But I enjoyed the opportunity. Enjoyed everything that went along with it. I tried to take it all in. Doing the prerace show, to the driver introductions, to riding around the track in the back of a Chevrolet Silverado, it was all fun. Definitely a cool experience and grateful for the opportunity I was presented there, for sure.

“Appreciate you following me around and telling our story. Wish we would have had a better ending. I wouldn’t really expect a storybook ending. It was a bummer we didn’t get to run all the laps. That was our main objective: just finish on the lead lap and finish all the laps. It sucks we didn’t get to do that. There were quite a few cars that were in the same boat as we was. But oh well. Maybe we’ll come back and try it again some day.”

Will Jonathan Davenport Race NASCAR Again?

While nothing is guaranteed, there’s a chance Davenport could appear in a NASCAR race — either in Cup, Xfinity, or both — as soon as this year.

“Maybe. We’ll have to see,” Davenport said. “I don’t expect that to go anywhere. But if the opportunity presents itself, hey, why not? We’ll go try anything. All it can do is make me a better driver in general. We’ll have to see where that goes.”

Any further development, of course, hinges on financials.

“It’s always about partners,” Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice said. “Nutrien Ag Solutions has been a great partner of his, they’ve been a great partner of ours. To bring them both together … I’ve always said that: if we can bring two entities together and work together … being able to put that together was awesome.

“The middle of the United States is pretty big for Nutrien Ag Solutions. We have a lot of races in the middle of the states. You never know what we could do with Nutrien Ag Solutions and some of his partners. He’s a very liked man. A lot of companies love to sponsor him. And that’s what it’s about, being able to get partners.”

Kaulig Racing’s No. 13 Chevrolet Chevrolet ZL1 — the team’s third race car — is a part-time entry that’s slated to run seven total races this season. Up-and-coming driver Chandler Smith is scheduled to run five of those races, while Davenport accounted for the car’s sixth appearance on Sunday.

Rice said he’d like more races out of part-time entry — a car he’d like full-time one day — if not for a series-wide supply chain issue regarding a shortage of Next Gen cars.

“We have to get some more cars. Once we get some more cars, we definitely could run it some more,” Rice said. “Definitely a production issue and we need to be able to get some more cars from NASCAR’s end. We’ve had them ordered for a couple months, and they’ve just been so far behind.

“That car could see more races. We’re liable to go deeper,” Rice added. “That car is a test team. We’ve never really had a team where we can go test."

Rice said that now Davenport has practically a full race under his belt, he’s primed for a potential second go-round in the Cup Series.

“Now, if we can get him in an asphalt race or a concrete race, I think he’ll do phenomenal,” Rice said.

Davenport said he’d like to compete at Richmond Raceway, Martinsville Speedway or on Bristol Motor Speedway’s concrete in the fall.

“As I said, I’m not expecting anything. But I like those guys,” Davenport said. “Chris Rice is a good dude it seems like. We talked a little bit about it just joking around. We’ll see where it leads. Obviously a lot of things have to line up to do that. I don’t know if we can go straight to the Cup Series or do Xfinity. Maybe it’ll open the door just a little bit to take a dive into more asphalt stuff.”

Odds And Ends

Davenport’s endurance was never a concern Sunday as the driver who lost roughly 25 pounds since the start of the year said: “I felt like we was fine as far as mentally and physically through the end. I felt like I was good there.” … Kaulig Racing president Chris Rice, an avid watcher of dirt racing, said he’s looking forward to supporting Davenport at a dirt race in person: “I want to go to a race to see how they work, see how they act. I’m very curious now. Learning Jonathan and getting to meet his team … Steve Martin … all those guys, I want to see how it all works, how it’s all put together. I want to see how the whole weekend goes, how the whole day goes. I’ll be honest, I watch Flo a lot. I watch it a ton. That’s the one thing we watch a lot. … I want to see why (dirt racing) is the way it is.” … Rice offered additional comments on the growing state of dirt racing: “The only thing I’d like to add is I enjoy all the dirt races and I enjoy all the dirt fans. I think they are some of the most loyal fans. Everybody at Flo, we appreciate what you guys do. We get to sit at home and watch a bunch of dirt racing that we wouldn’t be able to see if you guys didn’t do it. Thanks for doing that, and for all the dirt racers in the world, keep following your dreams like Jonathan did and maybe one day you’ll get a chance to come Cup racing or Xfinity racing.”