Dan Pardus

A native of Port Orange, Florida, a suburb of Daytona Beach, Pardus, a graduate of Mainland High School,[1] won back to back track championships at New Smyrna Speedway in 1980 and 1981.[2] Pardus began racing in NASCAR's touring series in 1992, competing in the Goody's Dash Series, a series for four-cylinder subcompact cars.[2] He ran in the series for several years, running a Chevrolet Cavalier and, later, a Pontiac Grand Am; he joined Jim & Judie Motorsports, the team he would run the majority of the remainder of his racing career for, before the 1995 season.[3]

Pardus moved to the ARCA Re/MAX Series, a full-size stock car series, in 1997; running approximately half the series schedule, he placed third in the series' Rookie of the Year award standings and 12th overall.[4] He ran only five races in the series in 1998, as he attempted to make his debut at the top level of NASCAR competition, the Winston Cup Series;[5] he failed to qualify for a number of races through the season,[6] and was injured early in the season in a practice crash at Texas Motor Speedway.[7] In October he successfully made his debut, in what would prove to be his only start in the series, in the Pepsi 400 in October.[8] Pardus finished 36th in the event,[9] which had been delayed from July by extensive wildfires in central Florida.[10]

Pardus entered the 1999 season intending to run the full 1999 Winston Cup Series schedule, competing for Rookie of the Year driving the No. 50 for Midwest Transit Racing.[9] The team ran a limited schedule due to limited sponsorship; following his third failure to qualify in three attempts, at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, Pardus was released as the team's driver, moving to a management position.[11]

In 2000, driving for the Gardners, Pardus failed to qualify for the Daytona 500;[12] after running a limited ARCA schedule in 2000, Pardus and the team moved to the NASCAR Busch Series in 2001, with sponsorship from The Outdoor Channel; he made his debut in the series at Nashville Superspeedway.[13] In his second Busch Series race, at Chicagoland Speedway, Pardus was involved in a hard crash with David Donohue, suffering a broken back;[14] he returned to competition later in the year, and ran a partial schedule in 2002, competing in twelve races, all but one for Jim & Judie Motorsports; the exception being a drive for Jay Robinson Racing in the GNC Live Well 250 at Daytona International Speedway;[1] he also failed to qualify for six other races. Pardus' team hired pit crews from Winston Cup Series teams to pit their cars; at Nashville, due to a scheduling conflict, the crew for ML Motorsports pitted the car.[15]

Following the 2002 season, The Outdoor Channel ended their sponsorship of Jim & Judie Motorsports;[16] Pardus attempted to qualify for two races in 2003, at Daytona International Speedway and Darlington Raceway failing to qualify for both.[17] Pardus would make one more attempt at a NASCAR start, in 2005 at Daytona, driving the No. 73 Chevrolet for Raabe Racing Enterprises in qualifying for the Pepsi 400; he failed to qualify for the event.[18]

Pardus is married, to Alice.[2] He has two children, Danielle and Preston Pardus, both of whom also race cars; Preston won the Sports Car Club of America Spec Miata national championship in 2017.[19][20]

He currently works as a utilities contractor, and worked as a part-time commentator for radio and TV broadcasts of racing events on SPEED Channel and HD Net, which he joined following his racing career.[21]

• Dan Pardus driver statistics at Racing-Reference