Stanton Barrett

Stanton Barrett (born December 1, 1972 in Bishop, California) is a NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series driver and Hollywood stuntman. He currently drives the #30 SKI Motorsports Busch Series car and will drive the SKI Motorsports #30 NASCAR Nationwide Series car and #50 SKI Motorsports Sprint Cup Series car in 2008 with primary sponsor NOS Energy Drink.

NASCAR

#95 Stanton Barrett passes the spun out car of #49 Brent Sherman after Bobby Labonte's blown engine at the 2006 Bristol spring race, courtesy of flickr contributor

Barrett made his NASCAR debut in the Busch Series at the 1992 Food City 250 at the age of 19, finishing 26th out of 29 cars following an accident on lap 39. He made a few limited starts with his own small team in the Busch Series for several years, finishing a career best 5th at the spring race at Atlanta in 1996 with Petro Express. In 1999, he ran several races replacing Kerry Earnhart in the Channellock Chevy for Darwin Oordt but was replaced by Butch Miller after 15 races, soon after the team failed to qualify for many races and shut down. He finished out the year for Steve Coulter, competing in the final three races of the season for him. 1999 was also the year he made his Winston Cup debut, at the Las Vegas 400 for Junie Donlavey, starting 42nd and finished 30th in the #90 Nestle NesQuik/HILLS BROS. Coffee Ford Taurus. After only qualifying for two of the several races he attempted with Donlavey that year, he joined Tri-Star Motorsports for the 2000 Daytona 500 with sportcut.com as a sponsor. He attempted the Bud Shootout qualifer for drivers who ran the fastest in 2nd-round-qualifying in 1999, but crashed, and did not make the 500. In 2003, he signed with Jack Roush's Busch Series team and won two poles, but sponsorship woes forced the team to close down. In 2004, Barrett returned to Nextel Cup driving the #94 car owned by Dave Watson that Barrett managed and ran out of Barrett's shop. For 2005, Barrett attempted another part time Cup Schedule with the #92 Chevy for Front Row Motorsports. Watson sold to Barrett and Barrett started his own team His first race in the #95 at Bristol qualifying 23rd. The next race he got in he finished 42nd, due to engine problems in the SBM Chevy. The last race of the year he got it for was the Phoenix race, which he got funding from CHEETAH Electrical Speed Systems, but blew a tire early, putting him out of the race. He started his year in the Busch Series in the #36 DCT Motorsports Chevy, was 20th in points, when he departed and signed for a one race deal with #40 car at FitzBradshaw Racing. In 2006, Barrett attempted most of the races on the schedule, before sponsorship woes caused him to cut back on his schedule and run select Busch races. After running a limited partnership with Rick Ware, Ware bought out Barrett's Cup team and will field cars for Barrett on a limited schedule. He also ran seven races for MacDonald Motorsports, his best finish 21st at Nashville Superspeedway. In 2007, he will run a part-time schedule driving for his own team and SKI Motorsports.

Ownership

Nextel Cup Series

Barrett started his own Cup team the #95 Chevrolet, in 2004 following his year of racing as a team owner in the Nextel Cup he helped Front Row Motorsports run the team from Stanton's race shop. Stanton and Front Row decided to part ways for management and racing differiances. The team made four races of the seven races it attempted with his best finish being a 41st at Bristol Motor Speedway in August. In the 2006 season, SBM has attempted 16 of the 20 races that have been run and has made six races with a best finish of 33rd at Phoenix before signing a deal to race for Ware.

Busch Series

The team began in 2002 as Red Racing in the NASCAR Busch Series fielding the #91 Bojangles'/Odoban Ford. The team ran tweleve races that year with a top finish of 21st at Nashville and Charlotte. The team returned again in 2003 after Stanton's release from Roush Racing do to sponsorship lack of payment. Stanton after 15 races with 4 top ten finishes and climbing from 43rd in points to 17th. For seven races and ran various manufacturers. The team would only end up finishing one race and that would be in the 30th position at Charlotte. For the 2004 season the team returned to the Busch Series as Stanton Barrett Motorsports for 16 races. The team ran Pontiac's and Chevrolet's throughout the season and received most of the sponsorship from AmericInn Lodging Systems. SBR would have a best finish of 18th at both the Milwaukee Mile and Richmond. 2006 SBM fielded cup cars for Barrett in six Nextel Cup events and race again for Front Row at Dover in 2007, then Barrett returned to race many Busch races and revamp the SBM teams future. The team returned to the Busch Series in 2007 finishing in the top 20 seven times with many strong runs plagued with pit trouble. Barrett finished in the top 20 at Gateway, Bristol and Montreal.

Stuntman career

Stanton has performed as a stuntman in skiing, motocross and snowmobile racing. He has worked in nearly 150 motion pictures and television series [1]. He has worked additionally in stunt doubling and stunt coordinating for many of Hollywood actors in films such as: The Dukes of Hazzard, Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3, Jurassic Park 2 and 3, Rat Race, Blade, Batman, The Nutty Professor, Volcano, Extreme Jumanji, Fastlane, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.

Family

His father, Stan Barrett who was also a Hollywood stuntman raced in 19 Winston Cup series races between 1980 and 1990, posting two top ten finishes. Stan was the first person to exceed the speed of sound in a car. He is the godson of Paul Newman, and the grandson of Dave McCoy and Roma McCoy, the founders of Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort. Barrett is pursued an opportunity to help us bobsledding. He is currently competing on the America's Cup circuit and participated in the first annual Geoff Bodine Chevrolet Bobsled Challenge in January 2006 at Lake Placid. His team SBM sponsored Bob Sled team with help from 4caring.org charity allowed the resources for his driver Grayson Fertig to qualify and compete in FIBT World Cup Bobsled events in 2007. SPEED produced a show in coordination with World Cup Bobsled that featured Stanton Barrett going from NASCAR to Bobsledding in efforts to obtain press and expose the needs of USA Bobsled program.

2008 Plans

Barrett is slated to drive the SKI Motorsports #50 NOS Energy Drink NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car in four major events next season, beginning at the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500 in February. He will also be at the helm of the SKI/SBM Motorsports #30 NASCAR Nationwide Series car for an undetermined number of races as well.

External links

• Racing Reference
• imdb.com page
• NOS Energy Drink - Stanton Barrett 2007 press release
• NASCAR.com article discussing Barrett & SKI Motorsports 2008 Sprint Cup plans