PARTNER PROFILE
BASKIN MOTORSPORTS
BY NATE VAN WAGNEN
Don Baskin is in the business
of big trucks. Trucks and trailers of
every kind, construction equipment,
tractors and all sorts of other heavy
equipment. It’s a business that’s treated
Baskin and his employees at Don
Baskin Truck Sales very well for nearly 50 years.
“We got a big truck salvage yard, and then we
got an 18-wheeler lot where we’ve sold like 3,600
trucks this year already,” Baskin says. “Wholesaling,
we build dump trucks, water trucks, a lot of
fire department trucks. Just all different kind of
trucks we build for different applications, and
we’ve been real fortunate by doing it. We got
125 workers that work here, and we’ve kept a lot
of people putting food on their plate and stuff.”
Baskin was 16 when he started buying and
selling trucks, and it wasn’t long after that he
started pursuing his other passion: drag racing.
“When I was 16 I built me an old ‘66 Chevelle
and I started drag racing,” Baskin says. “Back
then it was all outlaw stuff and we’d go to George
Ray’s over here in Arkansas, and they had a place
down there that’s called Lakeland International
Raceway and Jackson Raceway and we’d go and
run Modified Production.”
He stepped up to a ’69 Nova Pro Stocker formerly
driven by the legendary Bill “Grumpy”
Jenkins, a car he still owns after racing it for 25
years. It was the next step towards going progressively
quicker and faster.
The Tennessee native eventually found his
way to NHRA Comp Eliminator, a class he ran
for several years before deciding to move on to
something different.
“I never won a championship, but I won several
races,” Baskin says of his time in Comp Eliminator.
“But that got so expensive. So, I went over and seen
NMCA had some things over there you could run,
the same stuff, and I just started racing it, and
then really liked it.”
NMCA’s heads-up classes appealed to Baskin
and his desire to chase quicker E.T.s and faster
speeds.
“I never did get into bracket racing, I never
could get into it,” Baskin says. “So all my racing
I’ve done over all these years, it’s always been
heads up. I won 14 championships, between
NMCA world championships and NHRA. And
I plan on winning some more.”
Today, Baskin has a number of cars that he
races in different NMCA classes. In NA 10.5, he
races a naturally aspirated small-block Cobalt
on Mickey Thompson 10.5 tires. He also has a
new ’20 Camaro with steel quarter-panels, steel
doors and a nitrous-assisted 632ci engine that
runs in Nitrous Pro Street, where he finished No.
2 in points last season.
“I like to run two or three different cars,”
Baskin says. “You get more chances to win the
more cars you run.”
Baskin’s passion for drag racing led him to
start his latest business venture, Baskin Motorsports.
Following the same business model that
made him successful in the truck business, Baskin
buys and sells race cars, engines, transmissions
and other parts. And, of course, he deals in race
trailers, haulers and motorhomes.
“I’m in the market to buy anything,” Baskin
says. “Anything to do with racing, or it don’t have
to do with racing. Anything to do with big trucks,
anything like that, I’m interested.”
Baskin encourages anyone looking to sell their
racing equipment to reach out to him or one of
his sales team members. Baskin can be reached
at 901-604-7695 or by visiting BaskinMotorsports.com.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NMCA
62 | Drag Illustrated | DragIllustrated.com Issue 158