PUEBLO, Colo. – Just as the NASCAR circuit that General Manager Austin Dillon hails from, racers (riders) have to endure the perils of the regular season slate while positioning themselves in a favorable spot in the standings in order to punch their ticket to postseason glory.
And with the PBR Teams league expanding from 8 to 10 teams ahead of next month’s return, this summer’s standings-based scenarios couldn’t be much spicier …
… as only eight of said squads will find themselves competing inside T-Mobile Arena come October (with the bottom four-ranked teams at the end of the 12-event regular season set to compete in a brand-new “win or go home” shootout in southern Las Vegas inside South Point Hotel Casino & Spa to kick off the anticipated weekend).
Having enjoyed some championship-level success throughout his automotive career in his own right, Dillon and the Richard Childress Racing unit have also experienced plenty of seasons where Dillon or one of its team members fail to end the season in the ultimate winner’s circle.
Just the same as his Carolina Cowboys squad has, despite being named amongst the circuit’s favorites in each of the first two seasons of PBR Camping World Team Series action.
Ranked No. 5 overall via PBR.com’s PBR Teams preseason power rankings, they have a quality team assembled top to bottom, no doubt.
But with six or seven squads bringing similar firing power in the third summer of the head-to-head format’s slate, they’ll very much need to fight for their right to party if they want to raise the coveted gold buckle this fall.
RELATED: 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series preseason power rankings
And while the back-to-back regular season champion Austin Gamblers have assembled quite the talented grouping of heavy hitters in Jose Vitor Leme, Dalton Kasel and Kaique Pacheco – each of Carolina’s noted competitors are very much aware of the Cowboys’ top-tier trio of All-World talent in Daylon Swearingen, Cooper Davis and Sage Steele Kimzey.
“We’re pretty excited about the new year rolling in,” Carolina Head Coach and bull riding legend Jerome Davis shared last month.
“We got Cooper coming back. Sage, Daylon. The good thing about our team is that we’re starting to heal up. Starting to get sound again and I just feel like the timing is going to be better this year for us, so I feel good rolling into the 2024 season.”
A team doesn’t exactly stumble into acquiring the talents of three of the world’s Top 15 or so riders in Swearingen, Davis and Kimzey.
This team was assembled, piece-by-piece, dating all the way back to the inaugural 2022 PBR Teams Draft, when Dillon and company pulled the trigger on acquiring the 2022 World Champion in Swearingen.
And he hasn’t been afraid since, making plenty of moves ahead of last year’s 2023 iteration of the talent-selecting showdown in positioning the organization to select Kimzey No. 1 overall just over a year ago.
“We got an all-star GM. Somebody who has a true spirit for our sport. He’s dedicated and he loves it. That dedication is what it takes to us to accel as far as putting this team together,” the Cowboys’ skip said.
“We’ll talk about it and there’s a guy out there and he says ‘Let’s see what we can do or trade this’ or ‘Let’s see what we can do to make it happen.’ He’s dedicated and I don’t know if there’s a GM out there that tries as hard as he does. And he’s a good guy. He’s got a lot on his shoulders with that racing team and he don’t carry it (the stress) over when it comes to this business. He’s a good guy.”
With the 2024 PBR Teams Expansion Draft looming earlier this spring, Dillon made the difficult decision to send one of the franchise’s year one pillars in Boudreaux Campbell to the Missouri Thunder in exchange for the squad’s first-round selection in last month’s draft.
RELATED: Reloaded Thunder ready to win with Boudreaux Campbell, Tristin Parker and company
Knowing Carolina was able to protect just three riders in the talent-leaching event, Campbell was nearly guaranteed to be taken from the squad with no return, so cashing out on the talent made the most sense.
Especially when it set the squad up to select Ethan Winckler as the fifth overall selection in the 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft. And when you consider the team had essentially gotten its draft stock back via the Campbell trade before losing Josh Frost during the Expansion Draft (who now rides for the Oklahoma Wildcatters), Dillon ensured his team got younger and healthier as the puzzle pieces seemed to have been played perfectly.
RELATED: Carolina Cowboys add three riders to team’s roster at 2024 PBR Teams New Rider Draft
“It’s good that our sport is growing and getting bigger. You can just see it climbing and getting bigger,” Davis said.
“We didn’t want to lose Josh, you know what I mean? We hated that it worked out like that and we’ve still tried to shake the bush to maybe see how we could get him back one day or whatever, but it was a tough deal.”
Knowing that all paths between Draft Day and the season-opener lead to each squad’s respective training camp sessions, Davis noted he wouldn’t be taking things lightly despite it being their third time gathering.
After all, this is this group’s first shared workouts as a team.
So the bar still very much needs to be set.
“Yeah, training camp will roll around here soon. We’ve got some stuff on Wednesdays (Wild West Wednesdays: weekly bull riding activities at the Davis Ranch) at the house, and we’re thinking about having a little scrimmage there one night, so it’s going to be good,” he said.
That scrimmage is tonight, as the checkered flag unit wants to not only see what they’ve got – but give local fans a taste of what their year three energy will look and feel like.
“We’ve got some good things lined up. The Navy SEALS will come out again, talk to us about mental toughness and whatnot. We’ve got some good stuff so we want to see what we can stir up.”
Via the team’s Instagram account, it appears the boys are getting in plenty of stretches, swings (as the team got in some golf action earlier this week) and smiles to balance out the home cooking and hard-fought days of practice bulls, sprints and beyond.
And with Assistant General Manager Tiffany Davis alongside Assistant Coach Robson Palermo there for each and every session, you know the cooking, and coaching, is going to be good!
Just ask Dawson Branton, who was surprised with a homemade cake as the week began to celebrate his birthday. Which speaks not only to how endearing the Davis family is in general, but how inclusive this blue and white squad is of each and every member of the team.
*Check that.
Each and every member of the family, that is.
“As far as our relationships with our guys and our GM and everybody, it’s good. We’re like a big family and that’s really cool,” he admitted.
“I think that is what carries over from their team and RCR in general. When you’re around their group, it’s like a big family and it carries right over on into the Carolina Cowboys.”
While Dillon has done all in his power to further equip his team once again over the offseason, he, and each of the men preparing to suit up for the third season of camaraderie-driven fun understand the goal isn’t to merely qualify for the postseason once again.
They’re in it to win it.
And very much have the roster, front office and coaching team in place to get the job done.
All that’s left to do is ride. 8 seconds at a time.
The biggest difference this season, other than the team’s additional overall depth?
(Which now includes the likes of Derek Kolbaba, another rider acquired via Dillon’s activity, Adriano Salgado, who’s made some noise in the past for the Gamblers and Thunder and a pair of youngsters in 20-year-old Tate Pollmeier and 21-year-old Arthur Antonialle bringing another season of experience into the fold)
The health, and focus, of 2016 World Champion Cooper Davis, who elected to sit out of the 2024 Unleash The Beast campaign in order to rest and reset ahead of this summer’s gauntlet.
“We’re excited that Cooper is so dedicated to the team. Sitting out of the rest of the season just for the team, that’s a big deal. So we’re going to have some fresh guys,” coach Davis detailed.
“I feel like almost all of last year they were hurt, and they’re just gritty tough cowboys and can ride through it. At the end of the day their bodies just couldn’t perform when we needed them to. So, yeah, I feel good about heading into the season with some fresh guys.”
Seeing Swearingen continue to work his way back to World Champion form since struggling a bit last summer bleeding into his 2024 premier series campaign, he and Kimzey, who just completed his rookie UTB season via a World Finals event-winning, No. 7-ranked effort, should have the Cowboys in pole position more often than chasing it.
“It’s good there. These guys are gritty and tough,” Davis concluded.
“And we pulled them back a little bit, but it’s hard to make Daylon sit at home. The good thing is he’s back to looking fluid and his body is starting to get built back up.”
The Carolina Cowboys are set to host the third-ever PBR Cowboy Days showdown later this fall, as the 5-on-5 tour will invade Greensboro, North Carolina, Sept. 20-22 for some late-season drama.
Fans interested in attending and supporting the East Coast-based contingent can secure their tickets today and should be sure to follow along throughout the entire PBR Teams season, courtesy of the Merit + app and meritstreetmedia.com!
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
