Bill McAnally

Bill McAnally (born August 28, 1965) is an American businessman and entrepreneur involved in professional auto racing and a retired professional auto racing driver. He is most famous for his ownership of Bill McAnally Racing.

Biography
McAnally grew up in Ukiah, California, and enjoyed working on cars. In high school, his shop class was given an opportunity by the local distributor to buy a tool a week and that was the start of a relationship for McAnally that has paid and continues to pay dividends over 30 years later.

McAnally’s racing career began after he moved to Roseville, near Sacramento, and got his first taste of competition.

“As a high school kid I would visit the local NAPA store and liked working on cars,” McAnally said. “We would also go and watch races and a friend of mine and I got a Bomber car and took turns driving it in races at All American Speedway.”

McAnally moved up to Street Stocks and later to Late Models in 1990 when he decided to visit a NAPA store and try and get some sponsorship for his car.

“I’ll never forget that first meeting and I asked for a NAPA sticker and that led to a meeting with a regional manager who oversaw 100 stores,” McAnally said. “We were lucky enough to win the championship that year and that started it all for me and my relationship with NAPA.”

McAnally moved up to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West which was then called the NASCAR Winston West Series and made 56 starts between 1992-1998, all the time while working as a lineman for an utility company.

McAnally had done about he could do while working a full-time job and trying to race and was about ready to put racing on the back burner when a chance meeting took place in 1999.

“I met with a father and son who wanted to go racing and I was about ready to retire and I told Gary Smith at a race at Auto Club Speedway that I was about ready to hang it up just before I met them,” McAnally said. “Sean (Woodside) and I got together in 1999 and we won the first race of the season in Tucson and went on to win my first championship as a car owner.”

This started a journey for McAnally and his longtime sponsor NAPA that continues to this day over 25 years later.

Other information
With the 2016 season complete at Bill McAnally Racing and the focus beginning to shift to next season,McAnally took some time recently to reflect on the success of the team and its past.

Patrick Staropoli rounded out the BMR effort with an eighth-place finish in the No. 99 PEAK Toyota Camry – giving car owner McAnally three top-10 finishes in the prestigious race. Staropoli had made his way to sixth after starting 18th, but got caught up in an incident about two-thirds through the 150-lap event and had to battle back in the closing laps.

Over the past two-plus decades, Bill McAnally has built a motorsports empire on the West Coast, securing 10 regional championships. Sean Woodside, Brendan Gaughan, Todd Gilliland, Hailie Deegan, and Derek Kraus are just a few that have made their names in McAnally’s multi-car organization.

Going into 2021, Bill McAnally Racing will field two cars with Cole Moore and defending ARCA West champion Jesse Love behind the wheel. No question, the teams are gunning for an 11th series title. However, they are also on the cusp of reaching 100 wins.

McAnally also has a greater vision that goes beyond the regional series. This desire is to give drivers of all ages an opportunity to blossom and land in a national division seat.

Bill McAnally has an impressive list of accomplishments as a race team owner, with 10 championships in what is now the ARCA Menards Series West topping that resume. McAnally is now using his resources and experience to open the BMR Drivers Academy, hoping to give the next wave of racers valuable seat time to climb the racing ladder.

However, McAnally’s success story comes from humble beginnings. His career started like many short track heroes, racing on Saturday nights at his local race track while working a regular job to pay the bills and fund his racing. McAnally shared his story on Speed51’s “The Bullring” Monday.

“I worked at a utility company and raced Saturday nights at All American Speedway in Roseville,” McAnally said. “I started in their entry-level Bomber division and worked my way up to Street Stocks and Late Models. I had an opportunity to contend for and win a NASCAR Winston Racing Series championship there in the premier division. I always loved racing.”

All of that nearly came to a halt in 1994. While preparing for the new season, an act of vandalism cost McAnally his race car and equipment.

“Back in 1994, we were loaded up and headed to Mesa Marin Raceway to open the NASCAR Winston West Series season. I had a dually and an enclosed trailer, and I had parked it away from my house. I had parked there many times and didn’t have a problem. Someone stole it and took it to a rice field, took what they wanted, dumped my fuel jug over and lit the truck and trailer on fire to cover their prints. It was devastating. I was working at a utility company fighting for every penny I could to go racing.”

Surprisingly, one phone call from NASCAR Cup Series team owner Richard Childress helped McAnally get back on track.

“I got home from the utility company one night, and there was a message on my phone. Richard Childress had called and said to call him back. I couldn’t sleep that night waiting to call RC back.

“I wound up flying to RCR. He had talked to Chuck Bahari. I think Michael Waltrip was driving for him at the time. Richard and Chuck set me up. RC took me over to the parts warehouse and said, ‘Anything we’re not using that can help Bill out, let him take it.’ We filled up a U-Haul truck with wheels, clutches, springs, all kinds of stuff that RC and Chuck Bahari gave me. I came back and won a Late Model race the next weekend and sent RC the trophy.”

While he enjoyed racing, McAnally made the decision to jump to car ownership in 1999. That decision immediately proved successful, winning the championship in what was then called the Winston West Series with Sean Woodside.

“In 1999, I got smart and got out of the race car and had drivers that wanted to develop and move forward, and made a business of it. I couldn’t do it driving myself. I wanted to, I just didn’t have the talent to move forward. It was too hard to get the money together, and I was too worried about crashing cars and spending the money to fix them.”

The rest is indeed history. Since then, Brendan Gaughan, Eric Holmes, Chris Eggleston, Todd Gilliland, Derek Kraus and Jesse Love have won series championships while driving for McAnally. The interactions with Childress from 1994 also spawned a friendship and a business relationship. Many of the drivers who have competed for McAnally came from a partnership with Childress.

“We struck a friendship and we started developing drivers for him. We worked with Sarah Fisher, Clint Bowyer, Kerry Earnhardt, Peyton Sellers. We had a lot of fun working with RC, and what a great organization to spend some time and learn how to build a professional organization.”