Hard work, determination the calling cards of Kertus Davis

Kertus Davis has worked his entire adult life to be a race car driver. And when Davis talks about work, it’s a different description than some other drivers.
 
Davis hasn’t just driven race cars in his career. Oh, no, that’s not the work part. He’s bled brakes, machined suspension parts, twisted sheet metal, wired electrical connections, took apart rear ends, assembled shocks. You name it on a race car, and Davis has worked on it.
 
Whatever needed to get done to make sure the race car made it to the track, Davis did. And still does. He no longer works for his father’s team, but Davis still shows up daily at Jay Robinson Racing’s Nationwide Series shop in Monroe, N.C., and gets his hands dirty.
 
While Scott Speed might enjoy manicures and pedicures, Davis’ fingernails are a different color: Black, as in dirt.
 
When Davis worked for his father’s team, Davis Motorsports, the work shifts were long and hard. Most days, there were only three people working in the shop: Kertus, his dad Johnny and longtime friend Al Varner.
 
“There would be days we could go in at 7:30 [a.m.] and not leave until 12 [a.m.] or later,” Kertus said. “Sometimes, we’d pull 24 hours, go home and take a shower and then get in a van and ride across the country. There were many times like that.”
 
Why? Davis wants badly to be a NASCAR driver, and for most of his career, this is the only way to do it.
 
“There were days we’d go in at 8 and get off at 6, but those were very few, I promise you that,” Davis said.
 
Never once did Davis think the hard work wasn’t worth it. Even after he lost a ride with Kevin Harvick Inc., Davis knew the only way to earn another ride was to work at it.
 
“I’ve never thought [it wasn’t worth it],” Davis said. “I didn’t have a personal life, lot of girls in and out of my life because a lot of them
didn’t understand.”
 
It might be hard to understand for a lot of people, but Davis gets his racing desire honestly. His father worked for Jimmy Means for many years, and his grandfather, Harold Davis, also was a racer.
 
Kertus’ parents were divorced when he was very young, and he lived with his mother for most of his youth. When Kertus was seven, he started racing karts.
 
Kertus was pretty good at it, too, and his father helped him whenever he could. By the time Kertus was a teen-ager, he had won numerous kart races and championships.
 
But a conversation with his dad changed his racing life. Kertus had just won the South Carolina state championship in 1997, and he and his father were driving back from Hanging Rock Kartway in Kershaw, S.C.
 
“My dad looked at me and said, ‘All right. You’ve got your drivers license now. What do you want to do?’” Davis said. “I said, ‘Well, I want to drive race cars. I want to drive them hard and drive them fast.’”
 
His course now set, Davis soon moved out of his mom’s house to drive for the Premier Motorsports Hooters Pro Cup team. In 2005, Kertus and his dad fielded a car in NASCAR’s second-tier series.
 
“That was pretty cool,” Davis said of his debut at Daytona. “Dreams do come true.”
 
But Davis has bigger dreams. He toiled for his dad’s underfunded team for a couple of years, doing what he could with lesser equipment. Kevin Harvick noticed and hired Davis for his Kevin Harvick Inc. team for 2007. With a good car, Davis could finally prove he belonged.
 
“I felt like I had made it, but I knew I had to prove myself,” Davis said slowly. “It was tough, it was a lot of pressure. Everybody knows how Kevin is. He’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong, and his wife’s a great person. I still can’t thank them enough every day for the opportunity they gave me. It was a life-learning experience.
 
“I see a lot of things that I could’ve done different and wish I’d have done different. There are a lot of things that I couldn’t do any different.”
 
Davis continued going to the shop every day, trying to build communication with team and sponsors. But the ride didn’t last the season, and again he was looking for a ride.
 
“It wasn’t devastating,” Davis said. “It took a lot out of me, it really did. But it put a lot of spark back into me and a lot of fuel was dumped into me. It really pumped me up to go back out there and keep digging.
 
“I step back and look and say, ‘You’ve got to keep digging. You ain’t there yet, son.’ I knew it.”
 
Davis returned to his dad’s team, but that ended earlier this year when personal issues finally separated father and son. He hooked up with Jay Robinson Racing and will again try to rebuild his career.
 
With hard work, of course.
 
“He wanted to build a second team around me as a driver,” Davis said. “He likes the fact that I come to the shop at 8 o’clock in the morning every day when the doors open and the lights come on. I’m there until all my guys leave.”
 

• Mentioned Drivers:
• Kertus Davis