O'Reilly 300 - Stanton Barrett Notes

Barrett Hopes Movie Career Helps Racing Career
‘Dukes of Hazzard’ due out soon

SPARTANBURG, S.C. – While the two jobs often involve cars, the goals of Stanton Barrett’s two jobs are radically dissimilar.

“True, you are getting cars to do what you want them to do but the desired results are different,” said Barrett, whose primary occupation now is driver of the #36 DCT Motorsports Chevrolet on the NASCAR Busch Series. He also is an award-winning veteran Hollywood stunt man, whose most recent work is the soon-to-be-released Dukes Of Hazzard movie, starring Jessica Simpson, Sean William Scott and Joe Knoxville.

“In racing, you are directing the car to where you want it to go and doing it time and time again,” Barrett said. “You get a break in between takes on a movie set. In the Busch Series, you are hitting your mark time and time again, lap after lap.”

Barrett, who is set to start Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway, drives for the team owned by John McGill and his wife, Nancy. The couple is the first car owners from Cleveland, Ohio, in the history of NASCAR’s top two racing divisions. McGill is a major real estate developer.

The two are working together to continue building DCT Motorsports, which has evolved into a full-time NASCAR Busch Series team, one of the few new full-schedule teams in the series the past few seasons. They are not only growing in a competitive sense on the track but also in the development of sponsorship opportunities for corporations.

“While I have been in more than 100 movies, as well as television shows and commercials, everything I have done my adult life has been directed towards driving full time in NASCAR,” said Barrett. “DCT Motorsports is an opportunity for me to do that with a solid race team and one with its sights set on a great future.

“I worked in Hollywood to get enough money to come racing,” he said. “There were a lot of times when I worked on the set all night, then spent the day working the phones, trying to put together deals so I could race. I’d sleep an hour or two, then go back to the set that night. When I did Batman, it seems that was all I did for several weeks. It is draining physically, sure. But it is the type of hard work you have to do if you are going to be successful – not just at racing but at anything in life.”

Said John McGill, “You hear drivers all the time saying, ‘I’d do anything to make it. I’ll work as hard as I can work.’ Stanton is one of those drivers who has actually followed through on that. He has worked really hard to get where he wants to go. We’ve recognized that at DCT Motorsports, and we’re going to keep working hard ourselves to get him, and our race team, there.”

“This is a phenomenal organization, and there is a tremendous amount of potential here,” said Barrett, who has a great deal of racing and marketing experience.

“John and (crew chief) Ricky Pearson are very dedicated to the program, just like I am,” Barrett said. “There is a lot of experience here – racing and marketing – and a lot of desire to make this work for everyone.”

One of those ways is utilizing Barrett’s Hollywood connections with team sponsors. Coming from a family known as the “Earnhardts of stunts” in Hollywood, Barrett has a multitude of ways to incorporate team sponsorship. The release of Dukes Of Hazzard this summer will bring a tremendous amount of attention to Barrett and the team – and to its sponsors.

In addition, McGill’s business-to-business acumen would work well in a variety of ways for sponsors.

On the track, the team is growing as well.

“We are growing in a smart way, and more of the equipment you need to run competitively is getting to us,” Barrett said. “Hendrick Motorsports does our over-the-wall pit crew. We have a great engine program with Fischer Engineering. We have some really good people working on the cars, and it’s starting to show up on the race track.

“Everyone here is very dedicated to making this as good a program as we can possibly make it,” he continued, “and that dedication is going to really show. Ricky Pearson has a lot of experience winning races and championships, and his family legacy is among the top in the sport. John McGill is a great businessman and has a highly successful real estate development business, and is showing that excellence in the building of DCT Motorsports.

“This is a race team going some pretty great places, and a tremendous opportunity for a potential sponsor.”

McGill, meanwhile, has developed sponsorship packages that could incorporate the full remainder of the season or blocks of races. Utilizing his own business and marketing acumen, McGill brings creative and fresh approaches not just to team sponsorship itself but areas such as hospitality, cross-promotions and business-to-business possibilities.