He Lived in a Truck to Chase the NASCAR Dream: Inside Bobby Dotter’s Race Shop

moved down here by myself and I lived in the back of a pickup truck and it was like he was mad at me about it. Our cars never touched each other. So, we're here with Bobby Daughter at his race shop and he's got a pretty cool story that like most people probably never heard before. We moved to Moresville originally in '89 and been moving around a little bit till we landed here and been pretty solid here now since 2001. You came from the ASA world. Yes, I did. And that is extremely fascinating to me especially this this era of ASA stuff. Yeah, I was very fortunate in ASA. I had some good car owners and that particular year was Jerry Gunderman. Mark Martin when he moved back up to the Cup Series kind of helped me secure that ride and had u really busy that year. That year we ran like a 100 races, ran ASA, ArtGo, Slinger Nationals, specials. So, we stayed real busy and we had some success. It's not nearly a success Mark Martin had, but it was a good year for me and it kind of opened the door for me to be able to move down south here. It's pretty amazing with that uh how many people from the little sphere of gunman came out and came down here and did something. Absolutely. He um Jerry was just a great guy. Did everything in his power to help his people once the opportunity came for them to move up or move on. And you know, without his help, I don't know that I would have been down here. But I had so many car owners through the years that each one has their own important part of it and stuff. So I don't want to make one sound better than the other, but it just that particular year having Miller and meeting a lot of people and some people down south, it was just kind of open the door for me to make the move. That's Danny Sullivan. Why Why are you with Danny Sullivan? Well, Danny was um the driver for Pensky and that's Naz Nazareth Speedway, the first race they ever paved it. So he had been there doing some test laps on his Indie car and stuff and decided he wanted to run the race and Jerry was always open to putting a star driver in the other car. So we put brought it down for him and short story he actually qualified better than I did. We were in the same that he races like our 100 lappers and at the start of his race, our race um Mike Eddie got into him and spun him and he caused like a massive crash. Well, he ended up spinning and just getting away from it with no damage and my car just got hit on every end of it. So, um, he pulls up next to me in his car and he's like, "Man, man, I feel terrible." He said, "Why don't you jump in this car and go ahead and finish the race?" And I'm like, "No, no, we'll fix ours and we'll be back for tomorrow for the big race." So, we stayed up pretty much all night, worked on the car, got it fixed, ready to go the next day for the main event and um, it rained out, they never ran it. The most rememberable experience is when I won my first ASA race. It was uh Sanduski, Ohio. And I'd been trying for like three years at that point to win a race. And I was with Gunerman, the Miller team, and there was a lot of pressure on me to win a race, and I hadn't done it yet. And it got late in the race, and I was leading, but we had a little older tires than some of the other guys. And Nhard, Senior, was had a good wrench car. He hunted me down pretty good. And it got to be, you know, five laps to go or something. and he come up on me pretty fast and ducked under me going in the corner and I just had the feeling that he was going so much faster than I was. He wasn't going to make the corner. So instead of just trying to stay there, I checked up and he went in the corner and he went in way too hot. He slid way up. I went back by him and there was only a couple laps left. He never got back to my back bumper before the race. So I got my first win ever. and you know, you win the race, you're really excited and stuff and it was like he was mad at me about it and I had never our cars never touched each other and stuff. So, I really felt like man that was kind of not what I was expecting out of him. But then what did he come did he come up to you and say something? No, he just that's why I said he wouldn't I mean we were in the three in winner circle like first, second, and third and he was acting like he was mad at me. So, but then you know I at that time like I told you I was driving the truck and trailer and stuff. Well, my car owner Jerry Gunman was flying home. He went to the airport to fly home and when he was at the airport he saw um Nhard there and supposedly Nhard said, "You know, that's a pretty smart driver you got." So, it really kind of helped me keep the ride for the rest of the year, I think, cuz I was on shaky ground at that point. So, he was kind of banking on using eight tires instead of four. Absolutely. You didn't let him do that. Again, not that I purposely tried to do anything to him. I just didn't think he was going to make the corner, so I checked up. What's with the uh the theme of the O numbers, 07 and08. Well, be honest with you. Um I got a ride from a guy. Okay. I came down here and I was actually number 79. That was my number. I came down and tried to run the um it's that time it was called the Bush Series in like 88. And I was doing it just I got a friend of mine that gave me a garage stall to use in Canapapolis over here. I had a pickup truck next to it that had a camper shell on it. That's what I lived in. I stayed in a camper or backup pickup truck really. I'll call it a camper. But and um I'd have help come from Chicago, Indiana, wherever and meet me at the track for the weekend. And we ran about 12 races or so that year trying to get my foot in the door with Bush Series. Well, um, at that time, like I said, I was number 79. Well, at the end of that year, I mean, I was broke. It I had won a poll at Louisville, Kentucky. I had had some good top 10 runs, but nothing that sparked any interest where I was had a ride or nothing. So, I was pretty much ready to pack everything up, move back home. And I got a call from a gentleman in Florida, and he said he wanted to talk to me about driving his car. and he wanted to do a year of like late model racing and what was then called the AllPro Series and if things went well we could move to the Bush Series the next year. So I went down and met with him and ultimately we put together a deal. Well, he was number eight. That was his number. He insisted on being number eight and I was like, "Okay, you know, I'm good with that." So we ran that year and we won some races. We won some polls. Really had a great year. But through that year, we had bought some bush cars and we went to like four bush races, three or four bush races, and didn't qualify for any of them. So, as it got later in the year, like September or so, he's like, I really feel like we need to do another year of all pro racing. You need to stay here. And I'm like, I didn't really just I didn't enjoy being down in Florida. And um my fiance, we'd already set up here in Morsville with her son in school and stuff. I said, "I really want to move to Morsville next year." And he's like, "Well, we got one more race. We're going to try to go to Martinsville. Let's see how it goes and then we'll re we'll revisit this." So, I went to Martinsville and just things fell in place. I qualified for the race out of like 50 cars. I made it on time and then in the race I finished top 10. So, that was before cell phones of course and stuff. So, and he wasn't there. Even though he's my owner, he lived in Florida. He never come to other races. So I got as quick as I could after the race, I got to a cell phone and I called him up and I said, "Yeah, yeah, we did this, did this, finish top 10." He says, "Let me guess. Now we're wanting to go bush racing next year, right?" And I said, "Well, that's what I definitely want to do." And he said, "Okay, why don't you stick around there another week or so and see if you can find a shop?" So that was kind of the start of how I got the deal to go back bush racing again. And he was a great owner for like four or five years. DeWalt, he he was the owner of the cars when we ran DeWalt. And ultimately, we looked like we were gonna really go somewhere. And um after two years, DeWalt decided they were going to go in a different direction. 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He says, "You know, we got a that brand new tractor trailer and stuff." He says, "If you can find somebody to buy that to take it off my books, you can just have all the race cars and stuff." Wow. So, that's how I became a car owner. And that was the origin of what you're doing now. Right. And that was at that time his team was called Team Racing. And pretty much, I don't know that we had a name for Oh, no. I did. I took to buy the uh semi-trail and truck. I had a gentleman that was helping me with some tractor stuff from um Illinois, Lloyd Kenny and Paty Kenny. It's called P&L Transportation. Well, they came aboard and they helped me out by buying the truck and trailer and becoming my new partner, so to speak, to go racing for a little bit. Well, then um they because where he was from and where I'm originally from, Chicago, we called the team Midwest Motorsports. So, that's the name we went with for a while. And then like I said once I um ended up going truck racing I started driving for a guy it was called Green Light Racing. So we kind of inherited the name Green Light Racing. Well then when he decided his time had come up to move on to something else. I took on a new partner and his team was called SNS Racing. So we kind of put the two together and became SS Greenlight Racing. Huh. I always wondered about that because I' i'd see the sign and I knew about the team, but I didn't know that you were that it was your team. Yeah. And and for the first time ever, about four years ago, uh Ken Smith was my last partner with SN SNS Racing. And he was in a lot of ways by far the best partner I ever had cuz he made me learn about spreadsheets and accounting and things that I had never really been doing before. and he took me to a whole new level of how to run the race team. And then after a few years when he decided he was ready to get out, he sold me all his assets for a very good price to where I could afford to do it to become the sole owner of the team without a partner. So it was the origin of the '08 because 8 was already taken. That's where we were going with that. It was when and a funny story about it too was he he put in for the number and he come up with 08 and at that time nobody really ran oh any things and stuff so I wasn't excited about it. So after we got moved in and everything down here I um was getting going for the next year and I did some checking and I called him up and I said you know the 88's available instead of 08. Why don't we go to 88? You know, that was kind of a neat looking number, right? And he's like, "Well, you know, if you want to do that, that's okay. Why don't you go find another team and drive for them for 88?" My number is eight. I want to stay eight and 08 is still eight. H. So, I said, "No, I like that number." And then the 07 was just We decided to add a second car and it was either seven or, you know, seven or nine or whatever and we went with a seven. This is like for our meetings and stuff like that. We don't use this office all the time, but a lot of my, you know, uh, special type collectibles are up here. Kind of trophies from special races. Um, the year I drove the Miller car for, um, Jerry Gunerman, we won part of the Slinger Nationals, and that's the trophy in the pitcher from winning the first leg of the Slinger Nationals. So, Gunnerman didn't have any problem switching the number from two to 79. No, I it's funny that you would have thought he might have had some but he you know was very open to if you you know all your success had been with 79 let's stick with it. But was your dad still racing Arca when you were doing this stuff? Oh yeah, he raced Arca for a long time after that. And won uh three championships and I think his last was like 83, 84, something like that. And he probably raced about four more years after that. And then he um moved to being crew chief for Andy Hillenberg and they won the championship with him as the crew chief. And then he um he actually started helping me quite a bit there and he got sick with cancer and then ended up that was the end of it. If he was running Arca, why were you doing late models instead of running Arca? How did that how did that pass come out to you? Yeah, we always went the only reason I ever even got to race period was because he got in a ride in Arca. See, my dad was a truck mechanic. We had a small like one and a half car garage behind the house. We had one race car and so when I got old enough to drive, he'd always said, "If you stay in school, you stay out of trouble, you help me on the race cars, I'll give you a chance." Well, he still was wanting to race though. So, we kind of started the year with the idea that I could race on Saturday nights and he'd race on Friday nights. Same car, same whatever. Well, then he got this Arca ride and he started being gone Arca racing a lot more. So, probably a third of the way through the season, um, he let me go try this other track that he didn't really like at all. It was a little quarter mile rock place and you tore the car up a fair amount. So, what was it? Raceway Park, Blue Island it was called. I did fairly well the first night, but the night we were there, which was a Sunday night, the owner, promoter of the track comes up and says, "You know, starting this week, we're going to run Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday." I'm like, "Four days a week, man. I I want to do this." My dad's like, "No, no, we're going to stick to here and here." And the only reason we went there that Sunday was cuz Friday got rained out, Saturday got rained out. So, Sunday they were one of the only tracks running, so that's why we went there. So, as Monday's coming and Tuesday, I'm just on him and on about, you know, the car's still set up, the tires are on it, the right tires, everything. Let me go back Wednesday. You know, what's it going to hurt? And stuff. So, reluctantly, he kind of got mad about it. And he's like, if you want to go, go ahead and go. If you crash the car and tear it up very bad, your season's over. You're done. So, and at the time, I guess I was pretty bold. I decided that, well, I got to go. So I I had an older uh gentleman helping me, Norm, and the two of us go there, and Sunday I'd run, there was probably like 30ome cars, and I qualified like 10th or 12th or something like that. Made the race, you didn't have to run the last chance or nothing. So when we go there on Wednesday, there's only like 14 or 15 cars or something. So qualifying, I qualify first. So it's like, man, and in Chicago back in that time, all of our tracks, they started the slowest on the front and the fastest in the back. So, I started dead last. I'm like, "Okay, I hang back, let everything clear out, and then I'm going to go racing because I don't want to tear the car out." So, finally, I start passing a couple cars and there's a big wreck. I see it. I slow down. Guy behind me just runs into me, pushes me into the wreck. My crew chief friend comes out. Oh my god, your dad's going to kill us. Oh, the whole front end's all tore up and this and that. So, they finally get us unhooked and apart and stuff. And he's like, "Well, get it back in the garage and we'll load up and go." I said, "This might be my last race. I'm going to run it cuz that car wasn't that I mean, it was banged up, but it wasn't." So, I started last again, ended up winning the feature. So, I go home that night and my dad wakes up and I tell him the story, kind of go through the whole thing. He's like, doesn't say a word, doesn't say good job, doesn't say nothing, right? Just goes back to bed. So, next day he comes home from work, Thursday, and I'm out there working like crazy on it and stuff. And he's like, "Okay, well, you know, I got to get this and this. I got to change the gear. I said, "Well, aren't you going to let me go to raceway? I I mean, I won. Aren't you going to let me go there tomorrow night, Friday?" He says, "Do you not listen to nothing I tell you? You're going to run Saturdays at this walk speedway and I'm going to run Fridays at Grundy County." And I'm like, "Even after I won?" So, yeah. So, we get the car ready and he goes and runs it there. I go Saturday to the Walkegan Speedway and it turned out it was a class that was like we had a super late model but they had put smaller tires on them and called it limited late models and that's what he had me running in. Well, I was setting fast time and winning like quite a bit. Well, a lot of the people there didn't really appreciate that I was doing that cuz my car was a better car than a lot of theirs. So, that week they had had a rule change and no quick changes, no this. So, we get to the track and they tell me all this and I'm there with my crew, my crew guy. My dad's off Arca Racing again before cell phones or anything. And um you know, I'm like, "This rule's against us." He says, "Well, next week you got to have it all changed or you can't run. We'll let you run tonight." So, I wanted to load up and go to the other track, which was about an hour and a half away. And my guy's like, "No, no, your dad said this is what you got to do. Just So, I ran." And I ended up winning that night, but not without I got in like three or four different accidents. And I had I mean a number of the drivers unhappy with me. And after I won the race, I was getting the checker flag and this flagman says, "When you go back to go in the pits, do not go in the pits. Just go right down the road. Your truck and trailer are stand out there and there's a security guard out there. Otherwise, you're going to get your ass beat." What did you do to make the Why are people so mad? Well, they everyone was like…