Quinn Davis brings the Dollywood butterfly to Bristol Motor Speedway for the ARCA East season finale, carrying with her a childhood connection to the park and a special tribute to Dolly Parton.
Courtesy of: Dollywood Parks & Resorts
Written By: Christopher L. Antie
PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — The Dollywood butterfly has spent decades soaring above the Great Smoky Mountains. This year, it found another place to spread its wings: the racetrack.
Throughout the 2026 season, Dollywood Parks & Resorts has served as an associate sponsor of City Garage Motorsports and driver Quinn Davis, placing one of Pigeon Forge’s most recognizable symbols on the No. 85 Ford as Davis competed in the ARCA Menards Series East.
Now, that partnership is coming home to Tennessee in a big way.
On Thursday, Sept. 17, Davis will take the Dollywood colors onto the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway for the Bush’s Best 200, the final race of the 2026 ARCA Menards Series East season.
But this one is going to mean a little more.
City Garage Motorsports, Davis, and Dollywood officials unveiled the special Bristol race car Tuesday at Dollywood, along with a Dollywood-inspired fire suit Davis will wear during the race. Following the event, the fire suit will be auctioned, with proceeds benefiting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.
The No. 85 prominently carries the Dollywood logo across the rear quarter panels, while the back of the car features a special tribute to Dollywood’s Dreamer-in-Chief, Dolly Parton.
For Davis, the connection between Dollywood and racing goes back much further than this season.
Originally from Tucson, Arizona, Davis was just seven years old when her family began traveling across the country in an RV, towing her quarter-midget race car from one competition to another. Somewhere along all those miles, racetracks and highways, the family began building another tradition.
They stopped at Dollywood.
Summer visits to Pigeon Forge became part of the family’s travels, providing time away from racing and a place to simply make memories together. Years later, as Davis continued chasing her dream of moving through the ranks of motorsports, those childhood visits helped inspire her to reach out to Dollywood about becoming part of her racing journey.
Dollywood said yes.
For a young driver who had heard plenty of no’s along the way, that answer stayed with her.
“I still get emotional thinking about Dollywood coming on board,” Davis said. “I’ve gotten thousands of no’s and a handful of maybe’s, but Dollywood said yes—and that means more to me than I can put into words.”
For Davis, it has never felt like simply placing a sponsor’s name on the side of a race car.
“This partnership means so much more to me than having a name on my race car—it feels incredibly personal,” she said. “To have the opportunity to represent Dollywood at Bristol is something I’m beyond thankful for.”
And there may be no more fitting Tennessee track for the season to end than Bristol.
Known as The Last Great Colosseum, Bristol Motor Speedway opened in 1961 and has grown into one of the most celebrated venues in American motorsports. The concrete oval measures just 0.533 miles, with steep banking that puts competitors practically on top of one another and has helped create more than six decades of memorable racing moments.
The Bristol lineage of the event now known as the Bush’s Best 200 stretches back to the former NASCAR K&N Pro Series era. Bristol Motor Speedway’s records list winners dating to 2012, beginning with Nelson Piquet Jr. Over the years, the winner’s list has included names such as Harrison Burton, Todd Gilliland, Sam Mayer, Ty Gibbs, Sammy Smith, and William Sawalich. Brent Crews won the 2025 event.
The race has also become an important stop for young drivers looking to make their mark. In 2020, Sam Mayer made Bristol history when he won both the ARCA event and a NASCAR national-series race on the same day, becoming the first driver to accomplish that feat.
This year’s Bush’s Best 200 covers 200 laps and 106.6 miles around Bristol’s concrete oval, with the green flag scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET. It also serves as the eighth and final event of the 2026 ARCA Menards Series East season.
For Davis, Bristol represents another opportunity to show how far this season has taken her.
After a difficult start to the year, City Garage Motorsports began finding momentum. Davis earned a 12th-place finish at Toledo Speedway, followed by another 12th at Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Then came Flat Rock Speedway in Michigan.
There, Davis raced her way to a fifth-place finish, becoming just the sixth female competitor to record a top-five finish in an ARCA East Series race. She enters the Bristol weekend fifth in the season-long points standings.
And this time, she will be racing in Tennessee with the Dollywood butterfly riding along.
Dollywood Parks & Resorts President Eugene Naughton said Davis’ story reflects something the park hopes guests carry with them long after they leave.
“Our guests come to Dollywood to make memories, have fun, and hopefully, leave inspired to dream a little bigger,” Naughton said. “Quinn embodies that same spirit. We were proud to support her dreams this year, and we hope she’ll pick up another top five on Thursday.”
Naughton also found room for a little racing humor.
“We also hope seeing our logo all season has inspired her competitors—and the fans—to come visit us to learn more about why Dollywood always finishes at the top of the pack,” he said.
The partnership has also taken Davis from behind the steering wheel to the heart of Dollywood itself.
During Tuesday’s unveiling, Davis, members of City Garage Motorsports and attending media experienced NightFlight Expedition, the new Wildwood Grove attraction that opened last month. The group also had lunch at Wilderness Pass Restaurant before Davis met with park guests during an autograph session at Hi-Octane near Lightning Rod.
There, she signed limited-edition Dollywood shirts featuring her race car.
It was an unusual full-circle moment: the child who once stopped at Dollywood during family racing trips was now inside the park signing shirts featuring a race car carrying the Dollywood name.
The Bristol race carries an even deeper meaning following the passing of Dolly Parton on Aug. 25, 2026. Dollywood has said it intends to continue carrying forward the values its Dreamer-in-Chief built into the park: joy, hope, togetherness and the courage to dream.
Those ideas are now traveling at racing speed.
Davis said part of her heart will be riding with Dolly when she climbs into the No. 85 at Bristol.
“I want to make the entire Dollywood family proud, but I’d be lying if I said a huge part of my heart isn’t hoping to make Dolly proud, too,” Davis said. “I hope every time I climb into that race car carrying the Dollywood name, I can represent everything she stood for with pride. This is an honor I’ll never take for granted.”
There is something fitting about that.
Dolly spent a lifetime encouraging people to dream bigger than the circumstances around them. Davis has spent much of her young life doing exactly that, moving from quarter-midget racing and family road trips to competing on some of the most famous tracks in the country.
On Thursday evening, those two stories come together under the lights at Bristol.
A young racer will climb into the No. 85 Ford and take on 200 laps around one of racing’s most unforgiving tracks. On the side of that car will be a butterfly known around the world.
And for a few hours, a little piece of Dollywood will be flying around The Last Great Colosseum.
The Bush’s Best 200 takes place Thursday, Sept. 17 at 5:30 p.m. ET at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race will air nationally on FS1 and stream through the FOX Sports App.
Source: ChrisWill Media
About the Authors: Christopher L. Antie and William Antie are podcast journalists who cover entertainment, travel, culture, and stories from a variety of industries. Learn more about Chris and Will by listening to their podcast, What About Our Life?, on iHeartRadio or visiting ChrisAndWill.com.