The JD Motorsports team, which has fielded the No. 4 and No. 6 Chevrolet Camaros in the NASCAR Xfinity Series through the opening 19 races of the 2024 season, has laid off the majority of its employees following last weekend’s race at Pocono Raceway according to sources with knowledge of the situation, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to TobyChristie.com on Monday morning.
According to the sources, JD Motorsports team owner Johnny Davis officially laid off staff members on Monday as they entered the shop. One source has said that Davis claims that he intends to field a car for this weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the source is unsure how after the moves that were made on Monday morning.
If JD Motorsports does enter a car at Indianapolis this weekend, the team will most likely be a late entry. Sources indicate the team is not expected to be included on the preliminary NASCAR Xfinity Series entry list, which is set to be revealed on Monday afternoon.
TobyChristie.com has attempted to contact team owner Johnny Davis for comment by way of phone, but the call went to voicemail. If a response is obtained, it will be included in the story post-publishing.
Prior to this past weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Pocono Raceway, JD Motorsports withdrew the team’s No. 6 Chevrolet Camaro, which was set to be driven by Garrett Smithley. According to sources within the team, the decision to withdraw the No. 6 entry was not relayed to the members of the team until the official withdrawal was reflected on the official NASCAR entry list.
The members of the JD Motorsports team prepared the No. 6 car for Pocono Raceway like they would any other race. The engine went through a full dyno shakedown, and the car was placed in the team hauler and was ready to make the trek to Long Pond, PA. The No. 6 car never left the team’s shop in Gaffney, South Carolina.
JD Motorsports did run Saturday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 225 at Pocono Raceway with its No. 4 entry. The No. 4 Chevrolet, which was driven by Thomas Annunziata, recorded a 28th-place finish in the 38-car field.
The JD Motorsports team first competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series in 1983, a year when the team ran a 21-race campaign.
While the revelations about the current state of JD Motorsports on Monday seem like a harsh, swift decision from the outside, financial troubles have been plaguing the team for a while. According to public records obtained by TobyChristie.com, JD Motorsports filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on April 8 and is being represented by the Penn Law Firm.
In the bankruptcy filing, JD Motorsports listed its 20 creditors with the largest unsecured claims. The sum of monies owed to the 20 creditors listed on the filing from April is $422,434.17.
Among the notable creditors owed by the team were ECR Engines ($50,665.19), G-Force South ($57,245.34), and TriMaxx Graphics ($32,334.84).
The largest debt owed to any creditor on the list was American Express, for which the team owed $100,884.42 as of the filing date.
According to the sources that spoke to TobyChristie.com, JD Motorsports appears to be up-to-date on payments to the employees of the team, for the most part.
While one source says that Davis intends to enter a car for this weekend’s race at Indianapolis, if JD Motorsports doesn’t appear in Indianapolis, this could spell the official end of the JD Motorsports team. The Johnny Davis-owned entity has started a total of 1,650 NASCAR Xfinity Series events in its history, has recorded seven top-five finishes, and 48 top-10s, and has competed in at least one NASCAR Xfinity Series race in 27 different seasons.
The best-ever finish for the JD Motorsports team is fourth, which it has achieved on three different occasions. Joe Thurman scored the organization’s first fourth-place finish at Martinsville Speedway back in 1983. Ross Chastain also recorded a pair of fourth-place finishes for the team, both at Iowa Speedway in 2017 and 2018.
If this is the end, the team’s lasting legacy will be the staying power of Johnny Davis over the last 20-plus years, and for serving as the springboard for many successful NASCAR National Series careers, the most successful being that of Chastain, a current NASCAR Cup Series star. In all, 90 drivers have taken turns behind the wheel of a JD Motorsports entry over the years in points-paying NASCAR Xfinity Series events.
