Chris Davenport

Chris Davenport (born April 28, 1986 in Oakland, California) is an American race car driver currently driving full-time in the TM Master Cup Series for Mitchell & Sons Racing. He previously competed in the TM Lights ranks with Alexisports with some success.

He is known largely for his outlandish personality and his knack of finding sponsors in odd places. Davenport is also the only male driver to ever appear in a Lynxe ad.

2009
Davenport ran the first two TM Lights races with backing from a lipstick manufacturer for John Calvin's team. Davenport began to attract a lot of attention because of his very effeminate appearance, and was believed to be someone's girlfriend the first time he appeared on camera. This amused Davenport, but it made John Calvin somewhat uncomfortable.

He was not retained by the team after the sponsorship money dried up and was let go. Davenport's run at Carbondale was, interestingly, the strongest run by the struggling John Calvin Racing team all season.

Davenport acquired backing from Arden and Travert to make his TM Junior Series debut midway through 2009 driving the #112 Gasnier. His car carried a striking fuchsia and magenta, which earned his sponsors a significant amount of exposure. However, his occasionally erratic driving earned him the nickname Crash Davenport.

He began dating Alexis Rainsford in August of 2009. Perhaps mostly as a result of this, Davenport was picked up by Alexisports to drive their lead car for the 2010 TM Lights campaign.

2010-2011
Davenport scored a pair of wins in 2010, despite many claims that he was in the ride for the wrong reason. However, he proved himself to be a strong fit for the team and a great ambassador for his sponsors. Davenport's Lynxe-sponsored cars carry blue and pink instead of the company's traditional blue and orange after losing a bet with a Lynxe official. His Lynxe cars continued this trend.

He famously dyed his hair pink in October to show his support for breast cancer, sparking a minor uproar in the TM Lights garage and amusing his sponsors. TM Lights regular Al Kincaid publicly hurled an anti-gay slur at Davenport during qualifying at Road America, which earned Kincaid a large fine.

Davenport made his TM Master Cup series debut in the #28 car for Volpi Racing Team at Decatur, and famously eliminated title contender Alan Hodges early in the race. Despite some claims that Davenport had been ordered to take Hodges out of the race in order to help Alexis Rainsford's title challenge, telemetry from Davenport's car did not agree with those claims.

Hodges, to his credit, did not accuse Davenport of making anything worse than a rookie mistake.

Under the split TM Lights format in 2011, Davenport went winless, but finished second in the North Division standings to Curtis Darcy, with the two just behind Thurston Blood in the unified championship. He competed for the Independent's Trophy in the #27 Alexisports car, with a best finish of 6th at Road America. After Alexis left full-time competition in Master Cup to move to V8 Champ Car, Davenport returned to the #28 Volpi, compensating for Packer Carroll's promotion to Rainsford's #1 car.

2012
Davenport did not secure a drive with the Lynxe Women's Team for the 2012 TM Lights season, as the team opted for Clair Auxier and Alli Culotta. He remained as the third Volpi driver, and showed some impressive pace in testing, suggesting he was more worthy of a full-time seat than either Packer Carroll or Divina Henton. However, Davenport did not get a chance to prove himself against Carroll and Henton until the 2012 Karjala Grand Prix.

Davenport's time in pole qualifying was not fast enough to lock him into the top 10 starting slots, forcing him to qualify in through the qualifying races. In both pre-qualifying and the main qualifying events, Davenport's erratic nature returned, but he had also driven a very defensive race. Davenport had several cars stuck following him in a parade, while only a few were fast enough or daring enough to make a move on him for position.

However, at the end of the day, Davenport and Henton qualified for the Karjala Grand Prix, whereas Carroll had not. There was talk that Volpi would swap Davenport out of the field in order to give his regular driver, Carroll, a shot at the race. However, Cyril Volpi opted to give Davenport a big shot at the biggest TM Master Cup series race of them all, in a somewhat controversial decision. "I'm grateful that Cyril (Volpi) has this much faith in me to give me a chance here." Davenport said in the media, appearing truly grateful for his opportunity.

Unfortunately for Davenport, his run at Karjala was overly eventful. Despite timing in 11th, he nearly caused several incidents in the opening laps and on one instance late in the race managed to kiss the pit wall with the left side of his car.

Davenport has been seen in the paddock for several Champ Car races in support of fiancee Alexis Rainsford.

2013
Midway through 2012, Cyril Volpi hinted that Divina Henton and Packer Carroll needed to up their game to stay at the team for 2013. For Davenport, it was a very realistic possibility that he would have been considered for the full-time drive at Volpi. However, with Leonid Roderick becoming the top free agent and with Alli Culotta taking his place in the third Volpi for Indianapolis, Davenport began looking for another drive. He found one with the new American Launch Energy Racing Team effort, and was confirmed as a Rookie of the Year candidate for 2013. Davenport was considered for one of the Lynxe Racing cars, but he had already signed the Launch Motorsports deal by the time he learned that Lynxe Racing was interested in hiring him.

Davenport's 2013 Rookie of the Year candidacy raised several eyebrows, as he already ran for the Independent's Trophy for Alexisports in 2011. However, Davenport did not file the required paperwork (he had not intended to file it at all) for a 2011 Rookie of the Year bid, resulting in the criteria for Rookie of the Year to be altered for 2012 (which allowed Independent's Trophy cars a fair shot at Rookie of the Year), and again for 2013 (where a driver is automatically counted as making a Rookie of the Year attempt if they start four races). The alterations to the Rookie of the Year criteria are being referred to as the Davenport Rules.

Davenport's 2013 Rookie of the Year challenge went on as planned, and he scored his first victory at Quincy, but his performances were less consistent than teammate and series champion Michael Sykes, while he lost out on Rookie of the Year honors to Yevgeny Kuznetsov.

2014-present
Davenport was not retained by ALERT for 2014, but the team's connections through Inglesby and Juneau allowed him to pick up a seat with the famous Mitchell & Sons Racing team, partnered with TM Lights champion Axel Andersson. His best finish came with a 4th place effort at the Chicago Motor Speedway, while his outbursts on team radio drew the amusement of Master Cup fans when they were transmitted during Channel 44's race broadcasts throughout the season. His showings of speed, in spite of his continued moments of erratic driving, convinced the Mitchells to retain him for the next five years, and in 2019 he is partnered with their surprise free agent signing, three time champion Adrien Devereux.

Personal
Davenport married longtime girlfriend Alexis Rainsford during the 2012-2013 offseason. When the two first met in 2009, Rainsford had thought Davenport was a homosexual, however that perception changed over time. Many believe that Davenport's personal relationship with Rainsford is the only reason he has a career at all.

Davenport made headlines when he publicly told Rainsford that if she won a Champ Car race in 2012, he would bleach his dirty blonde hair. If she won at New York, Davenport would get his nails painted. He stated during an interview that he was not afraid of following through with his promises, saying that; "She [Alexis] likes my hair platinum blonde, I thought I'd motivate her".