Dan Pardus

Dan Pardus
Born (1963-04-02) April 2, 1963
Port Orange, Florida, United States
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
1 race run over 1 year
Best finish 68th (1998)
First race 1998 Pepsi 400 (Daytona)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 0 0
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
18 races run over 2 years
Best finish 49th (2002)
First race 2001 Pepsi 300 (Nashville)
Last race 2002 Little Trees 300 (Charlotte)
Wins Top tens Poles
0 0 0

Dan Pardus (born April 2, 1963 in Port Orange, Florida) is a retired American stock car racing driver. He was a regular on the NASCAR Goody's Dash Series, and also competed in events in the Busch and Winston Cup Series, as well as the ARCA Re/MAX Series.

Career

A native of Port Orange, Florida, a suburb of Daytona Beach, Pardus, a graduate of Mainland High School,[1] won back to back track championships at New Smyrna Speedway in 1980 and 1981.[2] Pardus began racing in NASCAR's touring series in 1992, competing in the Goody's Dash Series, a series for four-cylinder subcompact cars.[2] He ran in the series for several years, running a Chevrolet Cavalier and, later, a Pontiac Grand Am; he joined Jim & Judie Motorsports, the team he would run the majority of the remainder of his racing career for, before the 1995 season.[3]

Pardus moved to the ARCA Re/MAX Series, a full-size stock car series, in 1997; running approximately half the series schedule, he placed third in the series' Rookie of the Year award standings and 12th overall.[4] He ran only five races in the series in 1998, as he attempted to make his debut at the top level of NASCAR competition, the Winston Cup Series;[5] he failed to qualify for a number of races through the season,[6] and was injured early in the season in a practice crash at Texas Motor Speedway.[7] In October he successfully made his debut, in what would prove to be his only start in the series, in the Pepsi 400 in October.[8] Pardus finished 36th in the event,[9] which had been delayed from July by extensive wildfires in central Florida.[10]

Pardus entered the 1999 season indending to run the full 1999 Winston Cup Series schedule, competing for Rookie of the Year driving the No. 50 for Midwest Transit Racing.[9] The team ran a limited schedule due to limited sponsorship; following his third failure to qualify in three attempts, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Pardus was released as the team's driver, moving to a management position.[11]

In 2000, driving for the Gardners, Pardus failed to qualify for the Daytona 500;[12] after running a limited ARCA schedule in 2000, Pardus and the team moved to the NASCAR Busch Series in 2001, with sponsorship from The Outdoor Channel; he made his debut in the series at Nashville Superspeedway.[13] In his second Busch Series race, at Chicagoland Speedway, Pardus was involved in a hard crash with David Donohue, suffering a broken back;[14] he returned to competition later in the year, and ran a partial schedule in 2002, competing in twelve races, all but one for Jim & Judie Motorsports; the exception being a drive for Jay Robinson Racing in the GNC Live Well 250 at Daytona International Speedway;[1] he also failed to qualify for six other races. Pardus' team hired pit crews from Winston Cup Series teams to pit their cars; at Nashville, due to a scheduling conflict, the crew for ML Motorsports pitted the car.[15]

Following the 2002 season, The Outdoor Channel ended their sponsorship of Jim & Judie Motorsports;[16] Pardus attempted to qualify for two races in 2003, at Daytona International Speedway and Darlington Raceway failing to qualify for both.[17] Pardus would make one more attempt at a NASCAR start, in 2005 at Daytona, driving the No. 73 Chevrolet for Raabe Racing Enterprises in qualifying for the Pepsi 400; he failed to qualify for the event.[18]

Personal life

Pardus is married, to Allison.[2] He has two children, Danielle and Preston. He currently works as a cable system contractor, and as a part-time commentator for radio and TV broadcasts of racing events on SPEED Channel, which he joined following his racing career.[19]

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Nextel Cup Series

Busch Series

References

  1. 1 2 "Busch Series Notes". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). July 4, 2002. p. 7B. Retrieved 2013-09-11.
  2. 1 2 3 Kelly, Godwin (May 21, 1992). "Pardus Aims For Rookie Of Year Honors On Nascar Dash Series". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 6B. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  3. ↑ Kelly, Godwin (February 16, 1995). "Pardus Out To Draft Winning Plan". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). pp. 1D, 6D. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  4. ↑ Kelly, Godwin (October 17, 1997). "Pardus calls season successful". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 6B.
  5. ↑ Kelly, Godwin (January 5, 1998). "Pardus to run with the big boys". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 2B. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  6. ↑ Kelly, Godwin (July 29, 1998). "Pardus hanging tough". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 1B. Archived from the original on 1999-04-27. Retrieved 2013-09-11.
  7. ↑ Kelly, Godwin (April 25, 1998). "Healed Pardus turns to car". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 6B. Retrieved 2013-09-11.
  8. ↑ "Pardus, at Last, Makes Winston Cup Debut". The New York Times (New York). October 17, 1998. Retrieved July 6, 2010.
  9. 1 2 Booth, Andrew (November 8, 1998). "Pardus putting plan to action: Daytona driver spent '98 learning". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 6D. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  10. ↑ Trout, Ben (October 8, 1998). "Two weeks of restrictor-plate races". Williamson Daily News (Williamson, WV).
  11. ↑ Kelly, Godwin (June 6, 1999). "Pardus is star student at school of hard knocks". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 8C. Archived from the original on 2000-08-23. Retrieved 2013-09-11.
  12. ↑ Shacklette, Buddy (February 18, 2000). "Thirteen leave before the Big Show". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 3B. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  13. ↑ Williams, D.C. (March 24, 2001). "Daytona's Pardus moves to GN series". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). p. 8B. Archived from the original on 2001-06-17. Retrieved 2013-09-11.
  14. ↑ "Getting out". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, PA). July 16, 2001. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  15. ↑ Hubler, Dale (April 11, 2002). "ML Motorsports Pit Crew To Make NASCAR Debut". Times-Union (Warsaw, IN). p. 2B. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  16. ↑ "Pardus loses sponsor". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). October 24, 2002. p. 6B.
  17. ↑ "Notes". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). July 4, 2003. p. 10B.
  18. ↑ "Nextel Cup Notes". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). July 1, 2005. p. 2B. Retrieved 2012-06-05.
  19. ↑ "Local motorsports notes: Pardus in the booth". The Daytona Beach News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL). April 9, 2004. p. 3B. Retrieved 2012-06-05.

External links

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