Early career

Compton grew up racing in Virginia, and began to focus on racing late models in local racing divisions. Eventually, he moved up to the NASCAR Winston Racing Series, and won 36 races in seven years of late model competition. During this time, Compton also hosted a TV show dedicated to covering Virginia races. In 1996, Compton made his debut in a major NASCAR series when he qualified in 9th place for the Goody's Headache Powder 500 at Martinsville Speedway in the Winston Cup series. He finished 33rd that day after suffering brakeing failure. He ran one other race during his rookie season, the fall Martinsville event. He finished 33rd in that race as well.

1997-1999

In 1997, Compton signed up with a new team, Impact Motorsports, to run the #86 Valvoline Ford F-150 for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Rookie of the Year Award. During his initial Truck Series season, Compton had three top-five finishes and a 13th place finish in points, but fell well short of the top rookie award. For 1998, R.C. Cola replaced Valvoline as sponsor. In the third race of the season, at Phoenix International Raceway, Compton captured his first career pole position, and finished in third place during the race event. The next week at Portland Speedway, Compton led all but two laps and won his first Craftsman Truck Series race. He got another win later that year at Heartland Park Topeka. He finished seventh in points that year and was named the Most Popular Driver. Compton had high hopes for 1999 as Impact switched to Dodge Rams and getting a teammate in Randy Tolsma, but he was unable to visit victory lane that year, although he did improve to 4th in points. Late that season, Compton began running some Winston Cup races for Melling Racing. Soon afterwards, Melling announced that Compton would pilot their #9 Kodiak Ford Taurus in the Winston Cup Series in 2000.

2000-2002

Compton struggled during his first year in Cup, as his best finish was 16th at New Hampshire International Speedway. Things only got worse when he was attempting to qualify for the summer Michigan race, he crashed and suffered minor injuries. It was enough to keep him out of the car and have him replaced by Bobby Hillin Jr. at the following event. Compton ended the year 38th in points.

In 2001, Melling switched to #92 and Dodge. Things started off smoothly when Compton qualified on the outside pole at the Daytona 500, and went on to score a 10th-place finish. At the next restictor-plate race at Talladega Superspeedway, he won his first Cup pole position, but finished last due to mechanical issues. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep the good luck going, and he only improved his points position by five spots. At the end of the year, sponsorship problems at Melling forced him to look elsewhere for a job.

In 2002, Compton signed with A.J. Foyt Racing to drive the #14 Conseco Pontiac. Compton was having a rough year when Conseco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He was let go after the New England 300. He returned to Melling for one race before running two races for BAM Racing at the end of the year. His last Cup start came at the 2003 Pepsi 400 for Morgan-McClure Motorsports.

Busch Series-Present

In 2001 at the GNC Live Well 300, Compton made his Busch Series debut with JTG Racing, then known as ST Motorsports. He qualified 12th and finished 10th. Since then, Compton ran every Busch Series race with JTG. Although he has not won a Busch Series race, he has 33 career top-ten finishes and one pole position. His best points finish was a 9th in 2002.

Following the conclusion of the 2006 season, Compton was replaced by Marcos Ambrose and returned to the Truck Series, sharing the #09 Ford with Joey Clanton for nine races. He made a total of fourteen starts that season, ten for Wood Brothers/JTG, as well as one for Key Motorsports and three for Xpress Motorsports. He bought into Bobby Hamilton Racing in 2008, and will drive the #4 Dodge for the team during the season.

External links

• Career stats