Jade M. Buford (born February 15, 1988) is an American professional racing driver with experience in

open-wheel An open-wheel single-seater (often known as formula car) is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have thei ...

, sports car, and

stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

. He last competed part-time in the

NASCAR Xfinity Series The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a ...

, driving the No. 48 Chevrolet Camaro for Big Machine Racing and part-time in the

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

, driving the No. 33

Toyota Tundra The Toyota Tundra is a pickup truck manufactured in the United States by the Japanese manufacturer Toyota since May 1999. The Tundra was the second full-size pickup to be built by a Japanese manufacturer (the first was the Toyota T100), but the ...

for Reaume Brothers Racing. Buford has also raced in the Pirelli World Challenge, British GT Championship, GT4 America Series, and ARCA Menards Series.

Racing career

Buford began his racing career when he was 18 years old, competing in

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

s; he was also an intern at the Porsche Driving School at Barber Motorsports Park. He debuted in Grand-Am's KONI Sports Car Challenge in 2009. He raced for

RSR Motorsports RSR is a three letter acronym which may refer to: *Radio Suisse Romande the Swiss French public service radio group *Railway Safety Regulator, an agency of the South African government *Retail Systems Research, a research company for the retail ind ...

in the ST class and shared the No. 196 Mini Cooper S with Owen Trinkler. In 2010, he joined Racers Edge Motorsports in the GS class of the renamed Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. He moved to Multimatic Motorsports in 2012, where he shared the No. 71

Aston Martin Vantage __NOTOC__ Aston Martin has used the Vantage name on a number of vehicles, normally indicating a high-performance version of another model. In one case, during 1972–1973, the Vantage was a distinct model, being a straight-6 The straight-six ...

with Tonis Kasemets en route to an 11th-place GS finish. The following year, he partnered with

Scott Maxwell __NOTOC__ Scott Maxwell (born January 20, 1964), is a Canadian auto racing driver. Scott has competed and won titles in Formula Vee (1984), Formula Ford 1600 (1985 and 1986), Canadian National Showroom Stock (1992 and 1993) and Grand-Am/Continen ...

in Multimatic's No. 55, during which Buford recorded a series-record seven

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

s. The two remained together for 2014. Buford's co-driver in 2015 was 16-year-old

Austin Cindric Austin Louis Cindric (born September 2, 1998) is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 2 Ford Mustang for Team Penske. Prior to competing in stock cars, Cindric raced with a v ...

, who described Buford as "someone to lean on" during the early stages of his racing career. The duo recorded a victory at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. Buford began competing in the Pirelli World Challenge's GTS class in 2016 with Racers Edge. He swept the Barber Motorsports Park weekend from the pole, followed by a third win at Lime Rock Park after wrecks took out the leaders and a cleanup truck interfered with another. He ran two Sports Car Challenge races in 2017 with Multimatic. Buford also returned to the Pirelli World Challenge, running in the GTS Pro class with Racers Edge, and won both races at Mosport. Buford joined PF Racing for the 2018 PWC season. In the GTS SprintX race at Circuit of the Americas, he scored the Mustang GT4's maiden victory when he and Maxwell passed pole sitter

Harry Gottsacker Harry Gottsacker (born July 28, 1999) is an American racing driver who currently competes for Bryan Herta Autosport in the TCR class of the Michelin Pilot Challenge. Career Early career Gottsacker was introduced to motorsports through his grand ...

during pit stops; Buford explained "some of the cars have outright pace on us, but we just executed the perfect race." Buford recorded a second win that year at Watkins Glen International after beating Ian James to the finish by .208 seconds. In 2019, Buford ran the full Michelin Pilot Challenge schedule with PF Racing, finishing 11th in the standings. He also began racing in the British GT Championship's Silver Cup for Multimatic alongside fellow American

Chad McCumbee Chad McCumbee (born October 15, 1984) is an American stock car racing driver. He currently drives in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge and has run four full seasons in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. He is also known for his portray ...

. For the 2020 MPC season, Buford shared PF's No. 40 with James Pesek and Shane Lewis. In June, he dabbled in

when he joined SS-Green Light Racing to drive their No. 07

car in the

Pennzoil 150 The Pennzoil 150 is a NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 2012. It takes place the Saturday of Kroger Super Weekend. This race replaced the Kroger 200, which had been held at the nearby Lucas Oil Rac ...

at the

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Verizon 200, and and formerly the home of the United State ...

road course. After starting 17th, Buford finished 14th in the event. Buford would make his second NASCAR start at

Road America Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, United States on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Champ ...

in the No. 6 for JD Motorsports, replacing the car's usual driver,

B. J. McLeod Darwin Benjamin Jerreld "B. J." McLeod Jr. (born November 17, 1983) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner of B. J. McLeod Motorsports and Live Fast Motorsports. He competes part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, drivi ...

. In 2021, Buford joined the newly-formed Big Machine Racing for the full Xfinity season. His first race with the team came in the second round on the Daytona road course as he was not approved for the season opener on the oval.

Personal life

Buford is a graduate of

Auburn University Auburn University (AU or Auburn) is a public land-grant research university in Auburn, Alabama. With more than 24,600 undergraduate students and a total enrollment of more than 30,000 with 1,330 faculty members, Auburn is the second largest uni ...

. An avid

rock climber Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and ...

, he participated in the show '' American Ninja Warrior'' in 2017 (Daytona Beach) and 2018 (Philadelphia), but was eliminated on the third obstacle in both attempts.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Xfinity Series

Camping World Truck Series

Season still in progress

ARCA Menards Series

(

) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. ''Italics'' – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

ARCA Menards Series East

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Buford, Jade Living people 1988 births 24 Hours of Daytona drivers American Ninja Warrior contestants Auburn University alumni British GT Championship drivers NASCAR drivers Rolex Sports Car Series drivers People from Brentwood, Tennessee Racing drivers from Tennessee Multimatic Motorsports drivers