Davison excited to make NASCAR Whelen All-American Series debut at Hickory Motor Speedway ‘Fall Brawl’ on Saturday, Oct. 20

By:
On:
In: Racing News
Hickory Motor Speedway is known as “The Birthplace of Stars,” with many drivers who went on to race in the NASCAR Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck series having gotten their start in motorsports at the legendary .363-mile oval. Carter Davison of Elizabethton, Tennessee, hopes to shine brightly this weekend when he makes his NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car debut Saturday, Oct. 20 at Hickory (N.C.) Motor Speedway.

Davison will be competing in the Cosmo Motors Fall Brawl Championship Night presented by Calico Coatings, Cargo Transporters and NAPA Auto Parts. The headlining NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Cars will race 200 laps, plus there will be Limited Late Model (100 laps), Super Truck (50 laps), Street Stock (30 laps) and 4-Cylinder (25 laps) racing action.

 
Gates open at 5 p.m. with racing at 7 p.m. Adult grandstand tickets are $16, teens and seniors $14, with kids 12-and-under admitted free. For more information you may visit the Hickory Motor Speedway website at www.HickoryMotorSpeedway.com.  
 
After a phenomenal campaign in 2017 racing at Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn, Virginia, in which Davison won the Mod 4 track championship at just 12 years old, plans were formulated during the winter offseason for Davison to chauffeur a full-sized stock car in 2018 competing in the Limited Late Model division at Hickory Motor Speedway. Davison wasn’t eligible to race in the premier NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car division during the regular season because he was only 13 years old. .
 
Davison made the most of his rookie season while running a partial schedule in the Limited Late Model. He ran less than half the races, but nonetheless finished 13th in the point standings on strength of four top-10 finishes in his seven starts, with a best finish of fourth-place. … Davison also ventured across the mountains from Northeast Tennessee to the Palmetto State to race on one occasion at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, where he brought home two top-10 finishes in twin features.
 
“Yeah, I guess overall you could say our first year running the late model at Hickory Motor Speedway was pretty good,” said Davison earlier this evening after winding up a long day at school and then basketball practice, followed by attending midweek church services with family. “We knew going into the season what we were up against, with me being a rookie competing with guys with much more experience. I needed seat-time, it was just that plain and simple. With each practice session we had before start of the season, it helped to build my confidence and got me comfortable driving the car.
 
“Our goals racing were to try and run every lap, just be there at the finish. Because if you’re sitting parked in the pits with a torn-up race car, you’re not getting the valuable track-time you need. Sure, we wanted to be competitive, but try to not put ourselves into situations where we would get in a wreck and tear the car up. And, really, everything worked out quite well for us. We kind of got some front-end and fender damage along the way, but nothing major. Mainly we just got caught up in (racing) deals with other drivers, but that’s just part of short-track racing.”
 
The Fall Brawl this weekend at Hickory Motor Speedway will be a 200-lap race for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Cars, and Davison is looking forward to the event.

“There’s really going to be a strong field of cars for the ‘Fall Brawl’ and it’s going to be quite a challenge competing against such a quality group of Late Model Stock Car drivers,” Davison stated. “It’s looking like possibly the biggest field at the track this season. We’ve got practice day on Friday to get the car dialed-in, and then on Saturday hopefully we qualify well to get a good starting position for the feature.

 
“Running 200 laps is a long distance race, and with the track surface at Hickory Motor Speedway kind of worn-out, tire wear will come into play – which means the handling on the car will change later in a green flag run. In the Limited Late Model races we ran this season, the class used (scuff) tires which already had laps on them. We didn’t race with new rubber on the car. I kind of think from running on the scuffed tires, it might help in this Saturday’s race when the tires start to wear as the laps accumulate. Because I’ve got a pretty good feel for how our car drives on tires with laps on them. We’ll see. I’m going to give it my best effort.”
 
Davison turned 14 in September, thus becoming of age to compete in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series. Just a couple of weeks after turning 14, Davison ran the last race (non-points) of the season at Kingsport (Tenn.) Speedway, where he finished third in the 60-lap event that ran caution-free.
 
He’s an honor roll 8th-grader at T.A. Dugger Junior High in Elizabethton. In 2015, Davison was the Math Olympics Champion and in 2016 was honored with the President’s Academic Award. 
 
Besides his academic achievements, he’s also a member of the school basketball team. Plus, this past summer he worked a part-time job at B. Terry Vintage Automotive in his hometown, while also finding time to race on weekends and hone his basketball skills on the court.
 
Modern day NASCAR has evolved into an influx of young drivers coming into the sport, and it’s all about getting exposure with the public and promoting yourself. During the 2017 season when Davison competed at Lonesome Pine Raceway, he was being filmed at each event for a starring role in a reality television show called “Left Turn Livin’.” The show was about Carter and his family, and was televised in Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and Western North Carolina on Saturday nights on the CW Network back earlier this year in January and February.
 
“That was a pretty cool deal getting to do the show,” Davison said. “But, would my family and I want to do it again? Probably not. Knowing the camera was rolling and filming every little thing you did at the track and even away from the track, it was kind of distracting. I’m a pretty focused individual at the track, it’s all about racing. 
 
“But I will admit, the exposure we got from the show was great. It put me in the households of many people who maybe didn’t know who I was, and possibly didn’t even know anything about racing. All the feedback received was very positive from the show.”

The climb up the racing ladder for Davison began at age 5 when he started racing BMX bikes, where he won 11 times in 16 races. His next step in racing was go-karts, and between 2011-13, he recorded an incredible 100 wins in 136 starts. 

As an 8-year-old in 2012, Davison had top-three finishes in all 22 races he competed in, which catapulted him to his second Tennessee State Championship. At age 9, Davison won the season-opening World Karting Association World Championship event at Daytona International Speedway driving for NASCAR veteran racer and television announcer Hermie Sadler.

After that 2013 season of go-kart racing, Davison stepped away from racing for a couple of years while his family geared-up focusing on the next step for Carter in motorsports. In 2016 he got back behind the wheel of a Bandolero and won three times in three starts. He also ran a few Legend races late in the season at Kingsport Speedway.

With obvious talent to drive a race car, plus having the marketing intangibles outside of the car, Davison has put himself on the radar of the NASCAR Next program for promising young drivers.

Carter Davison is thankful for the support in 2018 on the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series No. 57 Chevrolet SS Late Model Stock Car: Tour Carter County, Citizens Bank, Racing Electronics, Pop A Lock, Dempsey’s Jewelers, Double C Western Supply, Simple Blessings General Store, Highlander BBQ, Whetsell’s Fabrication, Barnett’s Guns & Indoor Range, Champion Chevrolet, Fish & Clips, Ahlsome Design Concepts, Randall Perry – RPM Photos, and RW Motorsports Communications.

To learn more about marketing opportunities with Carter Davison, contact Dean Davison at (423) 480-4448. Follow Carter Davison Racing on social media, with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.

Carter Davison PR

Speedway Digest Staff
Follow Me
Latest posts by Speedway Digest Staff (see all)
Post Views: 71