David Stremme

David Andrew Stremme
David Stremme (right)
Born	June 19, 1977 (1977-06-19) (age 34) South Bend, Indiana
Awards	2002 American Speed Association Rookie of the Year 2003 NASCAR Busch Series Rookie of the Year
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
Car no., team	30 - Inception Motorsports
2009 position	32nd
Best finish	24th - 2007
First race	2005 USG Sheetrock 400 (Chicago)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 3 0
NASCAR Nationwide Series career
Best finish	10th - 2004
First race	2003 Pepsi 300 (Nashville)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 49 2
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
Best finish	56th - 2008
First race	2006 Kroger 250 (Martinsville)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 1 0
Statistics current as of April 13, 2010.

David Andrew Stremme (born June 19, 1977) is an American stock car driver. He is most notable as the 2003 NASCAR Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year, winning the award while running a part time for several different teams. He currently drives the #30 Chevrolet Impala for Inception Motorsports.

Early life

Stremme was born in South Bend, Indiana. His racing roots can be traced back to Midwestern short track racing, where he followed in the footsteps originally cast by his Great Uncle in the 1950s. Stremme’s first stock car victory came in the early 1990s at New Paris Speedway, while behind the wheel of his mother’s street stock ride. Once track officials realized that he was only 15 years old however, he was forced to temporarily give up driving.

Once he became of legal age, David moved to the Midwestern short tracks scene. David is an avid race car builder and has a great understanding of the cars he races. Being part of a racing family (father, mother, and brother) racing is his life. During his career, he earned 24 feature wins, two Rookie of the Year titles and two track championships in just four years. From the local tracks, Stremme became a winner in the Kendall Late Model Series and soon joined American Speed Association (ASA), where he was named the 2002 ASA Rookie of the Year.

During 1998, 1999, and 2000, David raced for the ISES Performance Group, Inc. The team was made up of David's racing friends and sponsored by Industrial Safety and Environmental Services, Inc. New cars were purchased and David initiated alliances with top suppliers of engines, chassis, and shock manufacturers.

In only his first start in a Kendall Late Model Series car completely assembled by David at Winchester Motor Speedway, he set a new track record and finished 4th in the race. Subsequent to this event an even larger strategy was set forth. Under the direction of Tris Gour, President, Industrial Safety and Environmental Services, Inc. a new car was purchased to compete in the NASCAR November Phoenix International Speedway race. The new car was completely built by David with help from friends. It was the first time the team had ventured significantly far away from home.

As a budget did not allow for Crew Chiefs or fabricators, Tris and David formed an alliance with Robert Hamke. Robert is a well renowned chassis builder, racer, and crew chief. Although the car built was not a Hamke Chassis, Robert accepted the opportunity to work with David and the crew. Robert accepted the challenge based upon reference from Performance Technologies (engine builders) and the owner of LeftHander Chassis. Robert had a great respect for the owner of LeftHander. In addition, Performance Technologies had built several engines for both chassis builders (Hamke and Lefthander) clients.

While at Phoenix, the team qualified fourth and led several laps during the race. David led the majority of the race and was passed on the last lap coming out of turn three by Scott Hansen. Subsequent to the race, it was found that Hansen was disqualified as his car was equipped with an illegal carburetor spacer plate giving him an unfair horsepower advantage.

The local news media reported on this issue but only a financial penalty was given to Hansen. Although upset by the loss, the ISES Performance Group, Inc. and David had gained the respect of the Hansen Group. Scott later called upon David to race his car at the Winchester Motorspeedway due to a conflict with his racing schedule.

As respect to David, an old website still exists outlining his accomplishments. Although the site has not been updated in over 10 years, it is still a great tribute to all the accomplishments David has made. The website can be visited at http://www.isesracing.com.

2003-2005

After signing a driver development contract with Chip Ganassi, Stremme started 15th in his Busch Series debut at Nashville Superspeedway in April 2003, driving the #1 Dodge for Phoenix Racing, and finished 7th in the race. He finished 14th in both of his next two starts, before coming to 6th at Nazareth Speedway. He led 32 laps in that race, which were the first in his career.

He finished 4th after starting 3rd at Nashville in June, and duplicated the result at the Milwaukee Mile. He had a 10th at Kentucky and a 9th at Memphis. Stremme's worst finish that year was a 31st at Dover. Due to a contract obligation, Finch had Jamie McMurray back in the car for the final two races, and Stremme moved to Braun Racing for the remaining two races. Stremme led 48 laps at Rockingham, finishing 5th, and in addition drove the #30 Sport Clips Dodge home in 14th, enough to secure the Rookie of the Year award, despite competing in only 18 of the 34 races.

Stremme raced in the #32 TrimSpa Dodge Intrepid in 2004. Stremme started 4th and finished 6th in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. Despite winning his first career pole at Milwaukee, and finishing that up with a second, Stremme's team began to run mid-pack with a handful of top-10s mixed in.

Stremme pits the #14 Dodge during the 2005 Kroger 200.

Braun Racing then made the announcement that they were going to replace Stremme with Shane Hmiel, who was just coming off a suspension. Ganassi then made a deal with FitzBradshaw Racing to secure Stremme a ride. For the remainder of the 2004 season, Stremme was to replace Casey Atwood in FitzBradshaw's U.S. Navy-sponsored #14 Chevrolet. For the next season, FitzBradshaw's team would begin running Dodges and Stremme would be retained to drive the #14 full-time. In 2005, Stremme posted five top-five finishes and finishing 13th in points, when it was announced he would run full-time in NEXTEL Cup.

2004-2007

David Stremme practicing for the 2007 Ford 400 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway.

In June 2005, Stremme made his Cup debut in 2005 driving Ganassi's R&D #39 Navy Dodge at Chicagoland Speedway. He started 31st and would finish 16th in his debut. He also had finishes of 42nd at Richmond and Miami, and a 36th at Charlotte. Ganassi announced Stremme would go to the Cup series, driving the #40 Coors Light Dodge in 2006.

In 2006, Stremme had a best finish of 11th at New Hampshire International Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. He finished 33rd in points after missing both road course races that season. In addition, he made his Craftsman Truck Series debut at Martinsville Speedway, finishing 32nd in the #04 Dodge Hemi entry for Bobby Hamilton Racing. In addition, he won his first career ARCA RE/MAX Series race at Michigan International Speedway, driving the #61 Hantz Group Dodge for Rusty Wallace.

Stremme started 2007 starting 6th in the 49th annual Daytona 500 and went on to finish 11th. Three weeks later he would get his best career start, 2nd in the UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway he would get his first career Top 10 finish. Two weeks later he would follow that up with a career best finish, 8th in the Aaron's 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. During that season, Stremme shared driving duties of the #41 Wrigley Dodge Charger in the Busch Series with Ganassi teammate Reed Sorenson. It ran numerous paint schemes including Wrigley's Spearmint, Doublemint, Juicy Fruit, and Winterfresh. He was able to get his second career Busch pole at Nashville but ended up 11th in the race. In addition, he drove a part-time schedule in the #22 Supercuts Dodge for Fitz Motorsports.

2008–Present

He was replaced in the #40 Dodge by Dario Franchitti 2008 after the 2007 Indy 500 Champion was signed to drive in Sprint Cup. Stremme returned to the Nationwide Series driving for Rusty Wallace Racing, in the #64 Atreus Homes & Communities Chevrolet. He was originally scheduled to run a handful of races, with Chase Austin and Max Papis driving the rest of the year, but after starting the season in the top-15 in points, the schedule was modified to allow him to run every race except the road course events. He had five top-fives and sixteen top-tens, on his way to an eleventh place points finish. In the latter portion of the year, Atreus left the team, and AVIS, Loan Star Title Loans, and the Penske Corporation became the team's new primary sponsors. He drove the #15 Hyprene Ergon Toyota Tundra in two Truck races that season as well, in addition to returning to the #40 Sprint Cup team, filling for the injured Dario Franchitti at Talladega.

In 2009, Stremme signed to drive the #12 car for Penske Racing full-time in the Sprint Cup Series, replacing Ryan Newman who moved to the #39 car for Stewart Haas Racing. The team lost its sponsor when Verizon Wireless bought Alltel, thus negating the grandfather clause. The car was blanked similar to the Penske used in the IRL, censoring their Phillip Morris USA sponsorship with "Team Penske". Stremme nearly won the 2009 AMP Energy 500 running near the front for the lead, but a green-white checkered ruined his day, causing him to run out of gas. Throughout Stremme's season, he did not score a single top 10 and missed the Texas race and failed to qualify for the Homestead race driving for James Finch in the #09 car. Stremme was released from the contract on November 3, because their new driver for 2011, Brad Keselowski, was finished with his prior contract agreements with Hendrick Motorsports.

Stremme attempted sixteen races with Latitude 43 Motorsports in 2010, failing to make five. Stremme will attempt a select amount of races with newly formed Inception Motorsports in the #30 Chevtolet starting in Richmond on April 30. He will also race in 4 other Nationwide Races with Rusty Wallace and will be sponsored by Aspen Dental. The race that Stremme will drive in include Michigan, Kentucky, Indianapolis, and Bristol. Stremme also drove two Nationwide Series races for ML Motorsports in their #70.

External links

• Official Site for David Stremme
• Stremme at racing-reference.com

Persondata
Name	Stremme, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 19, 1977
Place of birth	South Bend, Indiana
Date of death
Place of death