Menu
What’s happening, Daily Downforce readers? As we all know, racing in NASCAR can often put a lot of things on a driver’s plate. NASCAR drivers are busy individuals who work non-stop to hone their craft throughout a brutal 38-week grind every year. It’s hard to imagine drivers in NASCAR having much time to do anything else outside of racing, especially throughout the racing season. But did you know that many drivers own a business, some of which are related to racing and some of which have nothing at all to do with the sport we love? We here at the Daily Downforce thought it would be cool to break down some of the companies in which the biggest names of our sport have invested. Here is a list of companies that NASCAR drivers own.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is one of the most popular figures in the history of the sport. And his reach goes far beyond what he accomplished both behind the wheel, in the broadcast booth, and as a NASCAR Hall-of-Famer. Here are the companies in which Dale Jr. has invested or owns at least a minority stake.
The big one here is obviously JR Motorsports. JRM was founded in 1998 in a shed on the campus of Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. Initially, it was started as a merchandising company for owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. The company did not enter as a race team until 2002. In those early years, JRM operated as a street stock team for driver-turned-NASCAR spotter T. J. Majors. The team joined the NASCAR ranks in 2006 following the closure of Chance 2 Motorsports, a Busch Series team co-owned by Dale Jr. and Teresa Earnhardt. They’ve been running in the NASCAR Xfinity Series ever since.
Today, the team currently runs 4 full-time teams in the NASCAR Xfinity Series and 1 part-time entry for various drivers. The fifth entry includes races driven by team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. himself. They also field teams in the CARS Tour, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series, and occasionally in the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series. Formerly, in partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing, the team fielded the number 00 in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
Many NASCAR drivers (especially retired ones of the ’90s and ’00s generation) own car dealerships. Dale Jr. is no exception. With his former team-owner Rick Hendrick through his HendrickCars.com company, Little E owns Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet in Tallahassee, Florida. As the name suggests, it’s a Chevy dealership that primarily sells General Motors-manufactured cars.
Whiskey River Beer & Wings is a restaurant chain owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. They sell, you guessed it, beer and wings, among other bar dishes. There are currently 2 locations, both being in airports. The airports in which they are located are the Charlotte Douglas International Airport and the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
Along with fellow NASCAR driver Blake Koch, Dale Jr. owns FilterTime, which is a subscription-based air filter service. Basically, the idea is that FilterTime will ship new air filters to your door at your chosen rate. You pay only for the price of the air filter, which is comparable to most store brands. There are no additional fees, and shipping is free.
DEJ Management/DEJ Holdings is a programming and management company created to handle the various assets of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Recently. The company was in the news for buying the rights back to the font and logo of the DEI number 8 car. Though Jr. has said there are no plans to produce new merchandise, anything on that front can change.
The zMAX Cars Tour was founded in 1997 and is most commonly known by its former name, the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series. In January 2023, the series was acquired by DEJ Management, Jeff Burton Autosports Inc., Kevin Harvick Incorporated, and Trackhouse Holdings, all companies owned by high-profile NASCAR drivers/team owners. The series is the largest sanctioning body for late model stock car races in the country.
Dirty Mo Media is a company owned and operated by DEJ Management/Holdings. It is a production company best known for its various podcasts. Its podcast properties include The Dale Jr. Download, Actions Detrimental, Door-Bumper-Clear, The Teardown, Speed Street, Dirty Mo Dough, and The Next Level Podcast. DJD is its most popular podcast, and Dirty Mo signed a distribution deal with NBC Sports in 2018.
High Rock Vodka is a joint venture alcoholic beverage company between Sugarland Shine and DEJ Holdings. It is a premium vodka, and, as Dale Jr. has often said, it does mix well with a can of Sun Drop.
Unsurprisingly, Kevin Harvick has invested greatly in our sport in various ways. He’s still giving back after his driving career, not only in the FOX Broadcast Booth but also through his various companies.
As everyone knows, early in Kevin Harvick’s driving career, he founded a race team called Kevin Harvick Incorporated, along with his wife, Delena Harvick. The team was founded in 2002 as a team in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The team later expanded into the NASCAR Nationwide (Now Xfinity) Series in 2004. As a race team, they won 2 Truck Series Championships in 2007 and 2009, both with Ron Hornaday Jr. In the Truck Series, they have won 43 races while scoring 10 race victories in the NASCAR Xfinity Series.
As he was preparing to leave Richard Childress Racing in the Cup Series, Kevin Harvick sold his KHI race team to RCR in 2012. After the sale, the very nature of KHI changed. Rather than being a race team, the company became KHI Management, which still operates today. KHI Management is a sports management agency now, and its clients include several UFC fighters, including Jeff Burton, as well as current NASCAR drivers, including Harrison Burton, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ryan Preece, and Ty Dillon.
Kevin Harvick Incorporated re-launched as a race team in 2023. Currently, the team fields 2 cars in the CARS Tour: the #62, which is fielded for various drivers, including Harvick himself, and the #29 for Brent Crews.
As mentioned in the Dale Jr. section of this article, Kevin Harvick and his KHI Management were part of the ownership group that purchased the CARS Tour in 2023. With this racing series’ ownership, Harvick re-launched his historic race team, Kevin Harvick Incorporated.
Tony Stewart has long been involved in many different business ventures. Since ending his driving career in 2016, Stewart has been either directly or indirectly involved in various ventures. Here are all the companies/operations owned by Smoke himself, Tony Stewart.
Yes, Tony Stewart still technically owns a team in NASCAR, but the team’s days are numbered. Tony Stewart bought into CNC-Haas Racing in 2009 to form the rebranded Stewart-Haas Racing. Tony Stewart scored the team their first NASCAR win that same year and even went on to win his third and final Cup Series title with the team in 2011. The team also had a championship victory with Kevin Harvick in 2014.
Currently, the team fields 4 full-time entries in the NASCAR Cup Series and 2 in the Xfinity Series. Following the conclusion of the 2024 season, however, the team will cease to exist. Tony Stewart opted to leave NASCAR, liquifying his involvement with the company. The Haas Factory Team will continue on in 2025 but as a one-car operation.
Tony Stewart’s other racing team, a solo venture named Tony Stewart Racing, was formed in November of 2000. Throughout its existence, the team has mostly fielded teams for the World of Outlaws dirt racing series as well as USAC-sanctioned series. In 2021, the team announced the intention to expand into the NHRA. Drivers for their NHRA program include Leah Pruett and Tony Stewart himself.
In addition to owning race teams, Tony Stewart owns a few racing facilities/tracks. Most notably, he is the owner of Eldora Speedway, located in Rossburg, Ohio. Eldora hosted the charity race Prelude to the Dream from 2005-2012. It also hosted the Dirt Derby for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series from 2013 to 2019.
Stewart also owns the Paducah International Raceway, a 3/8 mile clay oval located in Paducah, Kentucky.
Custom Works is a remote-control chassis-building company owned by Tony Stewart. Though the company was founded in 1984, Stewart joined the business as an owner in 2003. Their slogan is “DOMINANT FORCE” as, since 1988, their cars have won 90% of the National Championships they have competed in.
Denny Hamlin is often touted as a modern-day Dale Earnhardt. That’s not because of his success on drafting-style tracks, either. What many fans and industry insiders mean by dubbing Hamlin a “modern-day Dale” is that he’s an active race driver for one team but owns another in collaboration with NBA legend Michael Jordan.
23XI Racing was founded in 2021 with driver Bubba Wallace. The team then expanded with the number 45 car, driven first by Kurt Busch and then later taken over by Tyler Reddick. As of September 6, 2024, the team has 7-victories to its name. Team owner Denny Hamlin is one of the more outspoken members of the NASCAR garage, both as a driver and as a team owner. In 2024, they fielded their usual 2-full-time entries (the #23 for Wallace and the number #45 for Reddick) and the number 50 car for select races. Throughout the year, Silly Season rumors have suggested that 23XI might be expanding into a 3-car operation come 2025. Whether or not that comes to fruition remains to be seen.
If Denny Hamlin is the modern-day Dale Earnhardt, as some might say, then Brad Keselowski has gone down the Tony Stewart route. Like Smoke in 2009, Brad Keselowski joined forces with Jack Roush and the Fenway Group to become a part-owner/driver for the rebranded Roush-Fenway-Keselowski Racing, or RFK.
RFK, in its current form, started as a team in 2022 when Brad came on board as a co-owner. In his new role as an executive at RFK, Keselowski is widely credited for the team’s turnaround in performance from 2023 onward. Under Brad’s direction, the team has won 5 races, including this year’s spring Darlington race with driver-owner Brad Keselowski. RFK is considered a playoff contender year in and year out now, and some might even say that they’re Ford’s #1 team.
The team currently fields the number 6 and 17 cars full-time for Brad Keselowski and Chris Buescher, respectively. On occasion, they also field the number 60 car in select races. RFK is currently in the conversation as one of the teams that might expand to a 3-car team come 2025.
Prior to his stint as team co-owner of RFK, Brad Keselowski owned and operated another NASCAR team in the Craftsman Truck Series, Brad Keselowski Racing. The team was founded in 2007 and is largely responsible for jumpstarting drivers’ careers such as Parker Kligerman and Ryan Blaney. The team shut down following the 2017 season.
Like Harvick did with KHI, Brad Keselowski converted BKR into a separate business. That business is Keselowski Advanced Manufacturing. KAM is designed to assist clients and provide them with services such as CNC machining, quality control, engineering design, and metal 3-D printing.
Aside from famously (or maybe infamously in the eyes of many fans) being the current driver of the historic #3, Austin Dillon is also a successful businessman in his own right. Many fans and industry insiders believe that he will one day take over the day-to-day operations of Richard Childress Racing. While that may be true, and he has already shown his driver recruitment skills by nabbing Kyle Busch when he was a free agent, he also has a team management company outside of NASCAR.
Team Dillon Management is a sports management company with many clients who are current NASCAR drivers. Of course, the company owner, Austin Dillon, is signed with Dillon Management, but they also represent many other drivers. Some of their other clients include Austin Hill, Jesse Love, Anthony Alfredo, Parker Retzlaff, Christian Eckes, Leland Honeyman Jr., and Kassidy Keit. The company was founded by brothers Austin and Ty Dillon. The latter, however, left the company a couple of years ago to join KHI Management.
Ross Chastain is known widely as the Mellon Man. He also has one of the most unique victory celebrations for whenever he wins a race. This celebration includes smashing a watermelon on the start-finish line. He is an 8th-generation watermelon farmer. Hence, the celebration and that lineage are referenced in several ways in his NASCAR career. You can often see watermelons featured on his racecars’ quarter panels and side skirts. They also provide the theme for the companies he owns.
Melon Man Brands is a merchandising company owned and operated by Ross Chastain. The company makes various forms of appeal and collector’s items, from hats to t-shirts to diecast cars. Its online store is Ross Chastain’s official merch store.
JDI Farms is owned and operated by Ralph Chastain, Ross’ father, and Chad Chastain, NASCAR driver and Ross’ brother. Ross Chastain once held a stake in the company. Now, though, it is ran by his father and brother while he chases his dream of being a NASCAR champion. The farm is located in Punta Gorda, Florida, where some of the world’s best watermelons are grown.
As Martin Truex Jr. readies himself to wind down his career behind the wheel in NASCAR, I was surprised to learn that the New Jersey-native driver has a side hustle far removed from the racing industry.
Martin Truex Jr. is the proud owner and operator of MTJ Aviation. MTJ Aviation is an ARGUS Gold and WYVERN-registered transportation company that operates Delta private jets. The company specializes in medical transportation, specifically for Transplant Centers Nationwide. MTJ Aviation provides transpiration services for doctors and hospitals specializing in organ transplants. Truex was inspired to launch this company after taking part in several flights to and from racetracks around the United States.
That does it on our end, Daily Downforce readers. What company on this list were you most surprised by when it came to a NASCAR driver’s ownership? Some are pretty straightforward racing ventures. Others, though, are interesting and fun to learn about. Were there any that we missed? Let us know by commenting on all of our socials. And be sure to keep it tuned in right here at DailyDownforce.com for our race coverage and for all the latest Silly Season news and rumors.
