Brad Daugherty Took a Long and Diverse Road to Winning the Daytona 500

• The Daytona 500 victory for Ricky Stenhouse Jr. came 34 years after Brad Daugherty’s rookie season as a team owner.

• The former NBA star handled a wide variety of roles while pursuing a sport he fell in love with while growing up in Black Mountain, N.C., near Asheville, including working as a pit crew gas man.

• When it comes to diversity, Daugherty has stayed within himself, doing what he could to push the envelope while working inside NASCAR.

At seven feet tall, five-time NBA all-star Brad Daugherty has always been a standout, but never more than after this year’s Daytona 500.

The victory by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in the JTG-Daugherty Chevy put the little single-car team of Daugherty and his partners Jodi and Tad Geschickter at the pinnacle of stock car racing and made him the first African American team principal to win NASCAR’s biggest race.

The victory came 34 years after Daugherty’s rookie season as a team owner and his first win in NASCAR with driver Robert Pressley in a Busch Series race on the tiny oval at Rougemont, N.C. in 1989.

An upset in some eyes, the victory at Daytona was not a surprise given past performances by Stenhouse Jr. and his team.

“With five laps to go last year, we were leading and we thought we were going to win the thing,” said Daugherty, who co-launched the JTG-Daugherty Cup team in 2009. “To actually have the opportunity to win, you look back on how difficult it is to get that last lap completed under any circumstance. It was just a monumental day for our little race team and our single car company and as far as being an African American owner.”

It doesn’t just come down to the Next Gen car creating more opportunities for newcomers or smaller teams. JTG-Daugherty took its first victory with A.J. Allmendinger at Watkins Glen in 2014. The team, which uses engines from Hendrick Motorsports, built its own cars up until the changeover to universal parts and was a contender, especially on the drafting tracks of Daytona and Talladega where Stenhouse Jr. has been consistently fast throughout his career.

“We should have won Talladega three years ago,” said Daugherty. “Ryan Blaney beat us by 1/1000ths of an inch. I thought we were the best car that day. Then last year (at Daytona), we’re leading on a restart with five to go and Brad Keselowski just punted us. To finally get it done, it is a big deal for a small team.”

“We felt like last year on mile and half tracks, two or three times we were incredibly fast,” he continued. “Without a mistake here or there, it would have worked out. So, we’re hoping that after winning the biggest race of the season, to validate that even further. We think we're capable. It’s just a matter of the stars lining up and us executing.”

The former Cleveland Cavalier handled a wide variety of roles while pursuing a sport he fell in love with while growing up in Black Mountain, N.C., near Asheville, including working as a pit crew gas man. Daugherty’s current duties include media and sponsor relations and using his experience from his college basketball days as an all-American playing for UNC basketball coaching legend Dean Smith to motivate his driver and team members.

“I spend a lot of time trying to talk to our guys. (As a single car team) I try to keep the guys and gals motivated. We’re pushing uphill and we’re fighting.