Although it’s not quite like “Fast and Furious,” the automotive reality series “Street Outlaws” will have you on the edge of your seat. The adrenaline and action-packed series gives an inside scoop into the supposedly illegal street racing set in Oklahoma City, following several groups of drag racers who compete against each other to win a highly coveted title, and a hefty prize. It premiered in June 2013, winning the hearts of mainly male audiences, with remarkable feats of engineering and mind-blowing races. The show has run for 13 seasons on Discovery Channel, and besides the races, it also features pranks, jokes, and crazy antics. However, although many live for the adrenaline rush and glory that comes with racing, it’s a dangerous sport that sometimes has deadly consequences. Unfortunately, one of the numerous cast members the show features, Daddy Dave, learned this the hard way.
Who are the cast members?
Similar to many other reality series, the cast often changes from season to season – given that “Street Outlaws” has been running for nearly a decade, many original members have left, but many have joined the crew. The leader of the Memphis racing family, Jonathan Day, better known as JJ Da Boss, picks-up the street racers from South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, and the Northeast. Some of the famous and known racers are Jeff Bonnet “AZN,” Sean “Farmtruck” Whitley, David Comstock – ‘Daddy Dave’, Shawn Ellington, Chuck Seitsinger, and Joe “Dominator” Woods. Members who’ve departed the series sometimes cause a surge of rumors and controversy, pertaining to the reason they exited; two are Doughboy and Big Chief.
Who is Daddy Dave?
David Comstock, known as Daddy Dave, is a race car expert, racer, and reality TV celebrity, who came into the limelight by starring in “Street Outlaws”, listing a long-term involvement in street racing. In the racing community, he’s acknowledged as a very talented racer, who often comes out on top, and has achieved several successes in his relatively lucrative career since the 1990s. He was born on 4 April 1973, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA, to parents Marge and Peter Comstock.
The adventure-loving Dave grew up in his birthplace alongside his brothers (the exact number of his siblings is unknown). He developed an interest in cars during his teenage years, as many teens do, and obtained his driving license at 16. It didn’t take long for Dave to start racing, in his parent’s 1978 Chevrolet Impala.
How did he start his career as a racer?
Not much is known about Dave’s employment history before he became a racer. If you watch the show or are generally interested in drag racing, you know that it’s not a cheap sport, and also requires a lot of skill as well as finance to obtain expensive car parts. Dave’s first choice of car for racing was a 1996 GMC Sonoma S10 pickup truck, which he personalized to his preferences. Before “Street Outlaws,” in 2009, he was part of another street racing series entitled “Pinks: All Out,” which ran from 2006 to 2010 on Speed. However, it was not until Dave landed a spot in the Discovery series “Street Outlaws” that he began rising to fame, alongside Justin Shearer, known as Big Chief.
The show’s concept, which revolves around racers fighting for money amassed by the audience’s bets without any funding or entry fees, proved to be a winning formula, as the show earned a cult-like following. Dave has come a long way since his debut appearance in the show, and now has sponsors who source parts or finance them, which is not unusual. Not only is the show highly popular, but Dave has proven to be an experienced racer worth investing in and supporting.
What happened to Dave?
Drag racing is highly hazardous for the racers and the crowd, and can often result in severe injuries and even death. So every show episode starts with: ‘Just because we’re dumbasses, don’t mean you can be too. So don’t do any of the sh*ts we do at home.’
In August 2015, Dave participated in a race on the show driving his pickup truck, which almost had deadly consequences. He lost control of the car, hit the wall at a very high speed, and flipped six times, resulting in a total car wreck. In the No Prep spectacle that took place at the Amarillo Dragway in Texas, onlookers could be seen screaming at event staff to rush to the car. Many feared the worst had happened to Dave, which would have been an enormous blow and loss. Luckily, Dave survived the accident, but was left with heavy concussion, extensive damage to one of his shoulders, and severe lung bruising. Interestingly, one injury was caused by a loose gas bottle that came loose in the crash and hit his head – he was wearing a helmet.
He was taken to a nearby hospital and treated for the concussion while his wife Cassie posted on his official Facebook page: ‘First I need to thank all of you for your prayers! They have done X-rays and scans, we are just waiting for the results. He is in a lot of pain, pretty banged up and a serious concussion. He is talking but doesn’t remember anything or even where he is.’ After the accident, his wife pleaded with him to stop racing… but Dave refused.
Post- Recovery
Dave was released from the hospital within the month, and made a full recovery. However, unlike Dave, his Chevy was utterly totaled, which meant that even though he was physically able to race, he didn’t have a car. Faced with a tough choice, Dave opted to build his second race car, a 1963 Chevrolet Nova entitled “Goliath 2.0”, which cost $150,000, and was provided by his sponsor and construction mogul Jackie Knox. Rumors circulated that the car cost much more than quoted, but the total price was never disclosed to the public. Nevertheless, Dave has been the proud owner of the “Goliath 2.0” for years now, which has served him well, earning him the title “King of the Streets.”
What happened to Daddy Dave at South Georgia Motorsports Park (SGMP)?
In June 2021, Dave was involved in another accident racing against Fast Bobby in “Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings.” During the last moments of the race, Dave lost control of the car and hit the wall, severely damaging the vehicle, which caused the crowd to shout and yell.
Luckily for his fans, in 2021, Dave launched the YouTube channel Daddy Dave Racing, which features content related to “Street Outlaws”, and updates on his career and car. For example, in one of the videos, he explained what happened and how he lost control of his vehicle: ‘To put it shortly, we had a sh*tty weekend. Right after eight miles, I got loose, turned sideways on me really quickly, and I could not recover it, and we blasted the wall. So it’s gonna be a few weeks before we can get it fixed. My chassis guy can’t get it in for another two and a half weeks’. Dave managed to cheat death again, sustaining minor injuries, or maybe he’s just indestructible!?
He added that they planned on rebuilding the car, and that the damage was less severe than initially thought. “Street Outlaws” star jokingly said of his driving performance: ‘Not sure what happened, but I ran out of talent right near eight mile, and then it got away from me, but we’ll be back.’
Unshaken by the accident(s), Dave continues to race and star in the “Street Outlaws No Prep Kings.” Although the latest fifth season is currently being filmed, the races have taken place in various locations since April 2022, and will conclude in October 2022.
Daddy Dave's Goliath 2.0 sucks…..the air out of the room! #405 #goliath #daddydave #streetoutlaws #nova #pri pic.twitter.com/FMcKzcx2LH
— Farmtruck and Azn (@AZN_Farmtruck) December 10, 2016
What happened to Doughboy and Big Chief?
Doughboy and Big Chief were regular cast members on “Street Outlaws” who gained worldwide popularity and fame for their skills and long-term presence on the show. However, after they parted, several rumors floated about, as fans were curious about their departure and, most importantly, the reason they left.
Doughboy
Josh Day – better known as Doughboy – and a fan favorite, failed to appear in the show’s fifth season, alerting many of his fans. However, given that Doughboy is not very active on his social media, some of his former cast members weighed in in his favor. JJ Da Boss disclosed that Doughboy sustained a back injury; he hurt a disk in his back, which limited his ability to move and race. Some of his fans weren’t convinced that he parted due to an injury, so they created a discussion on Reddit to further divulge his departure. Several rumors claimed that Doughboy was involved in illegal matters, and/or that he was in jail.
Big Chief
Justin Shearer, known as Big Chief, was a prominent face of “Street Outlaws”, and arguably the most famous racer. When he went under the radar, many fans were shocked, as he seemed an indispensable character in the show. Even though Big Chief initially had a significant role, as the show continued, things went much quieter for him. Because Street Outlaws has several spin-off series, fans hoped he might show up in one of those. However, he didn’t appear with his team 405 for a long time, and when he was a no-show on “Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings,” it seemed that he was done with the show.
Soon, the announcement was made that Big Chief would not be a part of “Street Outlaws: America’s List.” As he was tight-lipped at the time, fans came up with their own theories: some wrote online that he parted from the show as he wanted to focus on his family – his active involvement in the show was believed to cost him his personal life, as he divorced in 2017 after 11 years of marriage. While fans racked their brains discussing what might have caused him to leave, Big Chief eventually posted a video on YouTube, claiming that he had issues with the production team; he disclosed: ‘The point of being the race master that I took pride in was handling my sh*t. I just don’t think that I can stand up and defend that anymore. Those guys take it seriously, and while they may know in their heart that this didn’t come from me, everything’s been twisted so much.’
He didn;t stop there – Big Chief really let the cat out of the bag, adding that the production team started implementing new rules that didn’t sit with him. Allegedly, he didn’t want to participate in staged /dramatic scenes and altercations between cast members, which ultimately repulsed him from being a part of the show.
The Real Reason Big Chief left the show
After that video, many fans were convinced that the production team was picking on Big Chief. However, one of the other racers – James Goad, known as Reaper – who was also a member of the 405 team, disclosed some contradictory information. After receiving many fans’ messages asking him about Big Chief and the production team, he posted a video on his YouTube channel calling the Big Chief’s story ‘bullshit.’ According to his statements, Big Chief was very irresponsible and disrespectful to other cast members. Reaper said: ‘We’d show up with a call time of 6 or 7 o’clock, and we will race when it turns dark. We might start racing at 10 o’clock or 11 o’clock because the Chief was never there. He would not roll in until he felt like rolling in. The rest of us would just wait, and see daylight coming up the horizon.’ He continued by saying that when it was time for him to race, it always took so much time, and he was never prepared.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVOGtojpKD7/
Is “Street Outlaws” scripted?
Since the show launched, it’s received backlash for the way some aspects of the show are presented, which is not unusual with reality series. Although the show revolves around illegal street racing, and even carries the name “Street Outlaws,” nothing is quite unlawful about it. The series began with that concept of when the show started airing, but now everything is done correctly under the law and above-board.
The media outlet Screen Rant explained: ‘The show itself wasn’t actually illegal. Every race was cleared and permitted by the city the crew happened to be visiting that episode. The crew would put in for a permit, which would be either denied or approved by local officials, so if a permit is denied, they have to relocate the races. Furthermore, the police are in on the races, and usually cordon-off race sites and close sections of state highways. Similarly, the show portrays new location sites as unexplored, but this is untrue. They usually test the road before the official race.
When you are a drag racer, car crashes come with the job. Whether legal or illegal, racing is a highly dangerous sport or job; not everyone is cut out for it. Luckily for his fans and his family, Daddy Dave is as tough as nails, and always comes out on top!
