Raymond Black Jr. (born May 17, 1991) is an American professional

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 ...

driver. He last competed full-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. 07

Chevrolet Camaro The Chevrolet Camaro is a mid-size American automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, classified as a pony car. It first went on sale on September 29, 1966, for the 1967 model year and was designed to compete with the Ford Mustang. The Camaro share ...

for

SS-Green Light Racing SS-Green Light Racing is an American professional stock car racing team that currently competes in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, fielding the No. 07 Ford primarily for Joe Graf Jr. and the No. 08 for primarily for David Starr. They also have a tech ...

Racing career

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, he moved to

Palm Coast Palm Coast is a city in Flagler County, Florida. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 75,180, more than twice the 32,832 counted in 2000. The population was estimated to be 89,800 in 2019. It is the most populous city in Flagler ...

, Florida when he was nine years old. After playing

racing video game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

s on his

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

, Black developed an interest in racing professionally at age 14. In 2006, Black began racing in the

Florida Mini Cup Racing Association Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to th ...

's Junior All-Star division, winning the championship after finishing in the top five in every race. In 2013, he began racing Pro Late Models.

Camping World Truck Series

In 2014, Black made his

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

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 ...

debut at

Martinsville Speedway Martinsville Speedway is a NASCAR-owned stock car racing short track in Ridgeway, Virginia, just south of Martinsville. At in length, it is the shortest track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The track was also one of the first paved oval tracks in s ...

for

, driving the No. 07. Due to qualifying being rained out, Black started 29th based on his team's owners points standing in 2013. Black finished 24th, five laps behind race winner

Matt Crafton Matthew Justin Crafton (born June 11, 1976) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He is a three-time champion of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (2013, 2014, 2019), in which he competes full-time, driving the No. 88 Ford F-150 ...

. Black made six additional starts for the team in 2014, with a best finish of 18th at

Chicagoland Speedway Chicagoland Speedway is a tri-oval speedway in Joliet, Illinois, southwest of Chicago. The speedway opened in 2001 and actively hosted NASCAR racing including the NASCAR Cup Series until 2019. Until 2010, the speedway has also hosted the IndyC ...

and

Texas Motor Speedway Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U.S. city of Fort Worth, Texas – the portion located in Denton County, Texas. The reconfigured track measures with banked 20° in turns 1 and 2 and banked 24° ...

, the former being where he led his only lap of the season. On December 16, Black announced he would compete full-time in the Truck Series with SS-Green Light for 2015, competing for Rookie of the Year honors. In the season-opening race at

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. In addition to NA ...

, Black finished fifth after avoiding a crash on the backstretch. After not finishing in the top ten for the rest of the season, but rarely finishing outside the top twenty, he managed an eleventh-place points finish.

Xfinity Series

In November 2015, Black made his

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 ...

debut at Texas, driving the No. 15 for

Rick Ware Racing Rick Ware Racing (RWR) is an American motorsports team which currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series, WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and the NTT IndyCar Series. History The organizational roots of RWR date back to Ware & Sons Racing with ...

. On January 13, 2016, Black announced he would drive the No. 07

full-time for

. He finished nineteenth in his debut season, failing to break in to the top ten in any races. After starting the 2017 NASCAR Xfinity Series season with SS-Green Light, Black was replaced by

Todd Bodine Todd Martin Bodine (born February 27, 1964) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 62 Toyota Tundra for Halmar Friesen Racing, and current racing a ...

for the Charlotte race in 2017 due to a lack of sponsorship.

Spencer Boyd Spencer Peyton Boyd (born June 26, 1995) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 12 Chevrolet Silverado for Young's Motorsports. Boyd has previously compe ...

Korbin Forrister Robert Korbin Forrister (born November 16, 1992) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series, driving the Nos. 7 and 17 Toyota Tundras for All Out Motorsports. In ...

Andy Lally Andrew J. Lally (born February 11, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. He competes full-time in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, driving the Audi R8 for Magnus Racing and previously part-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, dr ...

Ryan Ellis Ryan James Ellis (born January 3, 1991) is a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman for the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL). Ellis was drafted eleventh overall by the Nashville Predators in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft ...

and Devin Jones also ran in the 07 when Black could not bring sponsorship. Boyd took over the ride that Black ran 21 of the 33 races in 2017 for 2018 with funding from Grunt Style. After losing his ride with Ware in the Cup Series, Black returned with B. J. McLeod Motorsports at Daytona in 2018. The team failed to qualify along with five other cars. Black returned to the Xfinity Series sporadically in summer 2018, with Isokern Fireplaces as his sponsor. In January 2019, it was announced that Black would compete full-time in 2019, driving the No. 07 car for

. Black began the 2020 season by scoring his first career Xfinity top-ten finish, avoiding late crashes to finish eighth at Daytona. Despite enjoying a strong start to the year with an average finish of 18.6 across the first five races, he withdrew from full-time racing in late May to help his sponsor and father's business CDA Technical Institute, which was struggling financially due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Monster Energy Cup Series

In September 2017, Black joined

's No. 51

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

car at Chicagoland's Tales of the Turtles 400. After qualifying 39th, he finished 40th, 16 laps behind race winner

Martin Truex Jr Martin Lee Truex Jr. (born June 29, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. He is the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Serie ...

. He made two more starts in the Playoffs, finishing 34th at Texas and 38th at Homestead. On November 22, 2017, Black joined the RWR team for a full 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season and a Rookie of the Year effort. However the deal fell through later in the offseason, as Black's family, which owned reported sponsor ScubaLife, allegedly backed out of the commitment in December. Despite no longer having a deal to drive full-time in the Cup Series for Ware, he did drive RWR's No. 51 Chevrolet Camaro Zl1 for the

2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400 The 2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400 was a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 7, 2018 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Contested over 168 laps -- extended from 160 laps due to an overtime finish with two attemp ...

, with a 16th-place finish. It is worth mentioning, that Black's car was serviced by two female pit crew members, for the first time in NASCAR Cup Series history.

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.)

Monster Energy Cup Series

Xfinity Series

Camping World Truck Series

Season still in progress
Ineligible for series points

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Ray Living people 1991 births Sportspeople from Montgomery, Alabama NASCAR drivers Racing drivers from Alabama