UARA STARS News

BMS vice president Wayne Estes, left, speaks as UARA-Stars touring series marketing director Harold Crook, center, and Coeburn's Danny O'Quinn Jr. look on Saturday night during the celebration of O'Quinn's full-time Busch Series ride with Roush Racing. Photo by Jeff Bobo.

O'Quinn celebrates new Roush Busch ride with family, friends

Monday, January 30, 2006

By JEFF BOBO
Times-News

ABINGDON - When you've got the best racing equipment that money can buy, all the pressure to perform falls on the shoulders of the driver.

That's just the way 20-year-old Coeburn racer Danny O'Quinn Jr. likes it.

O'Quinn hosted a banquet Saturday night at Glenrochie Country Club to thank his family, friends, crewman, sponsors and other supporters who have helped him reach one of the top rungs in professional stock car racing.

Roush Racing made the official announcement last week that O'Quinn - a finalist in Jack Roush's Driver X "Gong Show" contest televised on the Discovery Channel - would be driving a Roush Racing Ford full time in the Busch Series in 2006.

O'Quinn was understandably misty-eyed as he addressed a banquet hall full of people who have supported his racing career since he started in go-karts at the age of 6. First and foremost he thanked his parents, Danny Sr. and Terry O'Quinn, who put him in the position to succeed as a race car driver.

"You guys have given me anything I ever wanted and anything I ever needed, and if it weren't for you I definitely wouldn't be standing here," O'Quinn Jr. said. "I know I owe him (Danny Sr.) a lot of money back and he said my first few paychecks are going that way. I'll be walking around broke probably a few years paying them back."

Speaking of money, it's not common for racers and teams to discuss the specifics of driver salaries, but UARA-Stars marketing director Harold Crook told a story on O'Quinn that offered some insight. Crook, who has been a part of O'Quinn's racing career since the beginning, told of the driver's recent trip to apply for a credit card.

"He told the lady he'd like to have a credit card and she said just put down what you make a month," Crook told the crowd. "So Danny writes the number down and she said, ‘No son, what you make a month, not a year.' Evidently his salary must be pretty good."

Among the dignitaries joining in the O'Quinn celebration Saturday night was Bristol Motor Speedway vice president of communications and events Wayne Estes, who noted that O'Quinn made it to the top the old-fashioned way - through grass-roots local short track racing.

"Every now and then, those of us who follow short track racing at places other than Bristol or Martinsville - real short track racing - we get to see somebody do what they say the big stars have always done," Estes said. "They had to cut their teeth on the short tracks around the country, and tonight we celebrate one who really made it. ... Everybody in this room has seen you race through your teens, and in years to come millions of people are going to be watching you race.

"But these people saw you first, and that's something everybody here is going to remember, everybody's going to cherish."

O'Quinn will be driving for Roush Racing in 2006 in the new No. 50 Ford team sponsored by World Financial Group which sponsored Carl Edwards' winning Busch effort last season.

"We are all getting some new cars, but basically we all get the same equipment," O'Quinn told the Times-News on Saturday. "Some of the cars I'm going to be driving this year are cars that Carl Edwards drove last year and won races in.

"As a driver, it's every driver's dream to drive for a team like Roush Racing because they're on top of their game and that's where I want to be.

"Jack Roush gives us equipment capable of winning and it's our job as drivers to go out and win, which puts a lot of pressure on you to perform but that's the way I like it," he added.

The Roush Racing Driver X contest involved 25 young drivers testing Roush trucks last autumn with one winner to receive a full-time ride in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. O'Quinn said he still doesn't know what the outcome of the contest will be - the show is still airing on the Discovery Channel - but he knows he's better off now than if he'd landed in the truck series.

"First Jack called me and said I'm not going to be driving the truck, but he'd work on something for me," O'Quinn said. "I was kind of bummed out because I didn't know what my future held. Just a few days later Mark Martin called me about splitting a (Busch) ride with him or something, but the size difference between me and him just wasn't going to work out.

"I'm thinking, ‘Oh man, my size (6-foot-5, 240 pounds) is going to kill me here,' and it wasn't just a few day later Jack called me back and said, ‘We're working on something here and were wondering if you'd be interested in driving a Busch car.

I'm like, ‘What'd you say?' It's just awesome the way things fell into place."

O'Quinn's season begins Feb. 11 when he competes in the Daytona ARCA 200, driving the same Ford that Martin drove to victory last May in the Nextel All-Star Challenge. His induction into full-time Busch racing begins a week later on Feb. 18 when he competes in the Hershey's Kissables 300 - which will also be his first start in the series.

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