Journeyman Appreciation: Bobby Dotter
Following the theme of my last post in this series, I wanted to spotlight somebody else who found another niche in racing after the end of his driving career: Bobby Dotter.
Born in Chicago, Bobby Dotter was the son of a midwestern legend, Bob Dotter who despite having just one arm won three ARCA championships in the 1980s. While dominating Illinois short tracks in late models, Bobby spent much of the 1980s making sporadic starts in the ARCA series in which his father had had so much success, with a best finish of 5th at Pocono 1983 and a handful of top 10s but never running more than 4 races in a season.
In 1988, Bobby began racing in the Busch Grand National Series which would be his home for a number of years going forward, driving a car owned by his father in a limited schedule focused on the short tracks, showing real flashes of promise with a pole at the tricky Louisville and top 10s at the legendary Hickory and IRP tracks. In 1989 Bobby made just one start, but it was a top 10 finish at Martinsville and the first start for the car owner he’d spend a bulk of his career with, Ed Reizen in his number 08 car.
In 1990 Dotter and Reizen would run their first full season together. Although they DNQ’d at two of the biggest events on the schedule, the Daytona 500 and World 600 support races, Bobby proved very good on the short tracks picking up 8 finishes inside the top 10 over the course of the year and best finish of 4th at Myrtle Beach Speedway, ending the year 14th in points. Still under sponsored, Dotter backslid in terms of average start, average finish, and had half the top 10s in 1991 but tied his career best finish of 4th at South Boston and once again came home 14th in the final standings.
In 1992 Bobby had his crowning achievement in NASCAR, winning a race at the New River Valley Speedway in Southwest VA (later better known as “Motor Mile Speedway”, and the hometrack of this writer where he has been multiple times to catch local racing) in convincing fashion but putting up identical top 5 and top 10 numbers as the year before and seeing his average finish drop a bit, placing 16th in points.
In 1993 Reizen and Dotter finally picked up substantial sponsorship from DeWalt tools which led to a dramatic turnaround for that team, matching career highs in top 10s (8) and a best ever top 5 count (3) and placing solidly in the 7th place in points, a feat that would be replicated with one less top 5 in 1994, in both years managing to outpoint numerous better known drivers with wins to their credit. In 1995 DeWalt was replaced by Hyde Tools, and while the team still managed 6 top 10s they had a dramatic increase in DNFs including a number of engine failures and a DNQ at Richmond and slid back to 14th in points. Reizen’s team shut down at the end of the year.
Thus began the true journeyman portion of his career, having consistently driven for the same owner for most of his time. While Bobby started 1996 with Dennis Shoemaker’s number 64 Dura Lube car, he failed to qualify for two out of the first three races and they soon parted ways. Bobby then hooked up with Ray DeWitt whom you might remember from the Tim Fedewa entry, replacing Johnny Chapman in the 55 car for 15 events in ‘96 with a best finish coming in his first race with the team at Nashville where he placed 10th. Bobby also made a start at Hickory driving a 08 car he owned himself to a 13th place finish and made two starts for Cup legend Kenny Schrader with a best finish of 12th at Dover.
The rest of the 90s were pretty lean for Bobby. Through 1999 he made just 3 Busch Series starts, all coming in an 08 car he owned himself with a best finish of 15th, one lap down, at Milwaukee in 1998. He made 9 Truck Series starts, 8 of which coming for Carl Wegner, with his best finish being a pair of 16ths. He also scored a couple of top 10 finishes in the ARCA series in 4 starts and ran a partial schedule in the NASCAR Winston West series in 1999 with 3 top 10s in 6 starts. Presumably it was this last stint that led to what would be the third stage of his career.
In the 2000 season Bobby Dotter finally returned to full-time racing with a second car fielded by owner-driver Gene Christensen in the Winston West Series, sponsored by Christensen’s People Against Drugs organization. The combo proved potent, with Dotter winning four times: at the legendary Laguna Seca road course, twice at Irwindale and one at the Rocky Mountain Raceway in Utah. He also finished in the top 10 in 9 out of 12 events on the schedule, and finished runner up in points to the young off-road hotshot Brendan Gaughan. Dotter and Christensen also ran a couple of Truck series races together with a best finish of 17th at Bobby’s “home track” (Chicagoland Speedway and Chicago Motor Speedway weren’t built until the early 00s) of Milwaukee.
This led to the entire organization moving into the Truck series full-time with Bobby’s iconic 08, once again primarily sponsored by People Against Drugs, in 2001. The team had a number of mechanical failures and just one top 10 finish, a 10th at IRP, but still likely exceeded expectations by proving a regular fixture within the top 20 and coming home 15th in points, with Bobby also scoring a 27th for Fred Bickford in his first Busch Series start in several years at Phoenix. In 2002, the team scored more consistent outside sponsorship and generally improved their pace in most areas, scoring Bobby and the team’s first top 5 finish at Martinsville and collecting 3 more top 10s en route to 14th place points finish and much higher average finish.
In 2003, Bobby stepped back from full-time driving while in his early 40s to focus on his role as the General Manager of Christensen’s Green Light Racing. Between ‘03 and ‘04, he ran 13 races for the team, primarily when they lacked sponsorship on one of their two entries. In 2004 Bobby also made his final Busch Grand National start, coming home 26th, 6 laps down for Rick Ware at his beloved Milwaukee Mile. Bobby’s final Truck starts would primarily be field filler start-and-park entries for the team in ‘07-08.
Sometime around the 2008 season, Gene Christensen sold his interest in Green Light Racing which had merged with SS Racing to Bobby Dotter, who dedicated himself full-time to being a truck and car owner. In 2014 the team moved into Xfinity series racing where they would later get their first win at any level in 2002 with Cole Custer driving for the team in a partnership with Stewart-Haas Racing, and having provided a home for many young and veteran drivers both in the midpack of the series for nearly a decade.
