Motorsports
Travis Carter, longtime NASCAR team owner, dies at 75
RICHMOND COUNTY, N.C. — Travis Carter, a longtime NASCAR team owner and championship-winning crew chief, died on Tuesday, according to various racing personalities. He was 75. Carter was a native of Ellerbe, North Carolina, in Richmond County, a short drive from Rockingham Speedway. He owned Travis Carter Enterprises, a team that competed from 1990 to […]

RICHMOND COUNTY, N.C. — Travis Carter, a longtime NASCAR team owner and championship-winning crew chief, died on Tuesday, according to various racing personalities. He was 75.
Carter was a native of Ellerbe, North Carolina, in Richmond County, a short drive from Rockingham Speedway. He owned Travis Carter Enterprises, a team that competed from 1990 to 2004 and was based in Statesville.
As the crew chief for Benny Parsons, he won the 1973 NASCAR Cup Series championship. It was the lone title for Parsons, a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee.
Carter won 11 races as the crew chief for Parsons and Harry Gant, most notably the 1975 Daytona 500 with Parsons and the 1984 Southern 500 with Gant.
In 1990, Carter left the pit box to start up his own team. Carter Enterprises never won a race but was a mainstay on the NASCAR scene in the 1990s and early 2000s. Jimmy Spencer, Todd Bodine, and Joe Nemechek were some of the most notable drivers to race for Carter. Darrell Waltrip’s final two seasons were behind the wheel of Carter’s No. 66 K-Mart Ford in 1999 and 2000.
Carter left the Cup Series in 2004 and made a brief return in 2007 before dipping out for good.
Several NASCAR personalities offered their condolences and memories on social media.
“Travis added a lot to NASCAR,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on X. “It was really nice to get to talk with him in recent months. I’m in awe of the men like him that shaped the NASCAR I grew up in.”
“He is one of the reasons I exist as a NASCAR team owner,” Carl Long, owner of MBM Motorsports, said. “If it was not for Travis Carter, I am not sure how my path would have developed. I will always be grateful for his assistance.”
Ryan McGee, a NASCAR reporter for ESPN, noted that Carter would call him “Cousin McGee” for being from Rockingham, which is about nine miles from Ellerbe.