Oklahoma City might recognize Brandon Davis.

He might look like a guy who served you dinner at Red Lobster awhile back.

Maybe he sold you some shoes at Dillards, or glasses at LensCrafters back in the early 2000s.

Now 34 years old, Davis — with his shaggy hair, beard, cowboy boots and jeans — doesn't seem much different from the guy who worked all those odd jobs a decade ago.

That's what makes him unique in the world of NASCAR team owners.

In the decade since he was dishing out cheese biscuits at Red Lobster, Davis worked his way from an entry-level sales job at a Denver oil company to become the owner of his own energy business.

But on Saturday night at Texas Motor Speedway, he'll be working as the owner of Swan Racing, which operates the No. 30 car driven by racing veteran David Stremme.

Davis' path to NASCAR ownership wasn't too common, either.

He was born in Cheyenne in far western Oklahoma, and graduated from Cordell High School. He spent a year as a walk-on with the football team at Southwestern Oklahoma State in Weatherford, and took classes at Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma City Community College in his early 20s — building up about 115 credit hours, but with no degree to show for it.

Ten years ago, Davis got a job with a Denver oil company and quickly worked his way up the ladder until he started his own company in 2005. He bought Swan Energy from Oklahoma native Carl Swan, and now serves as the company's chief executive officer.

Davis' father has long been involved with dirt-track racing, and Davis always helped work on the cars, though he didn't drive much himself — “I'm not a very good race car driver,” he said.

Davis has been operating a dirt-track team for a few years, but decided to take a chance in racing's elite series.

While many first-time car owners will start in the Camping World Truck or Nationwide Series, Davis never considered that an option.

“I don't understand why anybody would get into trucks or Nationwide,” he said. “Cup is the most marketable of the three. It has the biggest purse to offset costs. It's not that much more expensive than the other two, but the marketability of it is 10 times more valuable.

“I would rather be a minnow in the ocean any day of the week than the big fish in a small pond.”

This will be the seventh race for the car under Davis' ownership, and the expectations aren't too high yet. But at the same time, the team is already accomplishing far more than a year ago.

Last year's owners, Inception Racing, put the car on the track 28 times, but was a “start and park” for 20 of them — starting the race but leaving the track after a few laps to collect a paycheck without damaging the car or spending money on extra tires.

That money-saving strategy has become more popular in recent years, as teams try to fund their racing programs for a few full-race runs through the year.

But Davis' first proclamation upon taking over was that the start-and-park days were finished for the No. 30 car.

“I still have guys in our own garage who ask me if we're racing every weekend,” Davis said. “My business philosophy is very simple. If I tell someone I'm going to do something, I do it. If I can't do it, I explain, OK, I've gone broke and can't race anymore. But I'm not gonna start and park in the interim.

“If I have a mission statement in business, it's that I do what I say I'm going to do every time.”

Davis' presence has brought a shot of excitement to the No. 30 team.

He has put a wealth of experience around Stremme, with Tony Eury Jr. now serving as the team's director of competition and Steven Lane recently named the crew chief.

“Brandon has brought a lot of excitement to the team,” Stremme said. “We see a lot of potential. It's been a roller coaster now, but a lot of that is getting a baseline and a foundation laid.”

Eury, who has been a crew chief for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and other notable drivers, is among those drawn to the program because of Davis' desire to make Swan Racing a legitimate team. Another was former NFL star Bill Romanowski, now the owner a nutrition supplement company that produces Lean1, which will be on the hood of Stremme's car Saturday.

Davis is taking the lessons he learned in building his own business into building his race team.

“When my company started, it was tough. We were barely getting by,” he said. “In 2010, we finally got our stuff together and things have been wonderful since then. Hopefully, I can turn this into something like that. We've got a great group of people and everybody's all-in.”

Source: http://goo.gl/RINF1