By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
Tad Geschickter '86 celebrates 2023 Daytona 500 win with staff from his JTG Daugherty Racing Team
Tad Geschickter grew up hooked on stick-and-ball sports. Auto racing had neither, so he wasn't interested.
Not until he graduated from William & Mary in 1986 and began selling soap.
That was for Procter & Gamble, which right around that time joined beer, tobacco and motor oil companies in sponsoring race cars. Geschickter was in Tennessee running Southeast sales at the time, so he became heavily involved.
He was nearing his 30s and growing weary of traveling, especially as a newlywed. He learned the sport and, more importantly, the business model. In 1994, he and his wife, Jodi, started their own race team.
Their first building was a chicken coup with dirt floors. "Literally," Tad said.
In 2008, former NBA star Brad Daugherty joined them. The team changed its name to JTG Daugherty Racing, and there were some ups and downs along the way. By far the biggest up came Feb. 19 when their lone car, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s No. 47, won the Daytona 500 — a.k.a., "The Great American Race."
Geschickter carries the replica of the Harley J. Earl Trophy his racing team earned for winning the 2023 Daytona 500
"We run 38 races a year, and they're all important and pay the same number of points," Geschickter said. "But in our sport, probably all motor sports, there's no bigger win than the Daytona 500. For the rest of your life, you're announced as a Daytona 500 champion. It doesn't happen when you win at Watkins Glen, New York, or Martinsville.
"Kind of funny how the Lord works. I wasn't planning to be a soap salesman, but it turned out that way."
That Sunday was a whirlwind from waking up just after the crack of dawn to bedtime, which came just before the crack of dawn. Champaign was flowing, pictures were being taken, there were press obligations, and everyone wanted to hold the trophy. There was nothing like it.
JTG Daugherty Racing Co-Owner Jodi Geschickter, Tad's wife, shares the trophy celebration with JTG staffer
Actually, there was. Kind of, anyway.
In 1983, Geschickter was a catcher on William & Mary's baseball team. The Tribe not only had its first winning season in 12 years, it won the ECAC South championship and made the program's first trip to the NCAA tournament.
Granted, several million fewer people cared. But for Geschickter, who was 21 at the time, those memories have stuck with him.
"Having done that, where it's a magical and unpredicted run, I know my fondest memories were the people I did it with," he said. "To this day, the people on that team are some of my best friends.
"That was a unique perspective because I took the time to step back, look at the people I work with and the sponsors who have stuck with us through thick and thin, and enjoy it. Having done that at William & Mary really gave me a perspective to want to soak this in."
It was JTG Daugherty's first Cup Series win since 2014, when A.J. Allmendinger took first at Watkins Glen International. The team had several close finishes in the meantime, but the checkered flag was elusive until Stenhouse broke through.
It was a tough wait, and the pandemic didn't help. JTG Daugherty made what some considered a questionable call to become a one-car operation. And on Feb. 19, JTG Daugherty became the first single-car team to win the Daytona 500 since Wood Brothers Racing in 2011.
"COVID took a pretty heavy toll on sponsorships and our whole model," Geschickter said. "We contracted last year to just one team and focus our resources on one effort. It's contrary to popular thinking, but it turned out right for us.
"The downside is you can't afford as many engineers or people with one team. And certainly, you get limited track time, so you're gathering half as much data. But at the end of the day, you still have those resources to operate and focus on one car."
The win at Daytona was a big deal for everyone involved. It was for Stenhouse, who hadn't won in the Cup Series since 2017, a string of 199 races. He's now all but assured of a spot in the 16-driver playoff.
it was for Daugherty, who became the first African American owner to win at Daytona. A racing fan practically since birth, he wore number 43 as a tribute to Richard Petty in his playing days at North Carolina and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
And it was for Tad and Jodi Geschickter, who invested plenty of blood, sweat and tears to make JTG Daugherty Racing a winner.
"Including marketing staff and accounting people, we have a staff of 65," Geschickter said. "We race against teams that have 400 employees. Pretty special for a small group of people who work hard to pull off the biggest win in the sport."
