CLEVELAND Cavaliers legend Brad Daugherty has had a chance to pursue his big passion after retiring from the NBA.

The former No. 1 pick owns a NASCAR Cup Series team JTG Daugherty Racing, which won the Daytona 500 earlier this year.

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Brad Daugherty spent a decade in the NBA after the Cleveland Cavaliers drafted him with the No. 1 pick in 1986Credit: Getty

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After retiring, Daugherty invested into a NASCAR Cup Series, which won the Daytona 500 race earlier this yearCredit: Getty
Daugherty, 56, has been following racing since childhood.

He developed a passion for the sport as he grew up in a predominantly white community in the western North Carolina countryside, the former 7-foot center told NASCAR.com.

At the same time, he nurtured his basketball talent, leading to a legendary run with the North Carolina Tar Heels.

The Cavaliers made Daugherty the top pick of the 1986 NBA Draft.

But he spent just a decade in the league with back injuries forced him to retire at 28 – after two years of inactivity.

The big man averaged 19.0 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 3.7 assists in 548 regular-season games.

Daugherty also earned five All-Star selections and made the All-NBA third team in 1992 – while pocketing about $20million in career earnings.

He used some of that fortune to invest in JTG Racing in 2008, the NASCAR stable owned by ex-advertising executive Tad Geschickter and his wife Jodi.

Daugherty had already been part of the racing world having co-owned two teams in two NASCAR lower divisions and served as a NASCAR analyst for ESPN.

The move allowed the Geschickters’ stable, renamed JTG Daugherty Racing, to become a full-time Cup Series team.

Its first top-tier win came at Watkins Glen International in 2014.

And a few months ago, Daugherty got to celebrate a prestigious Daytona 500 victory – a first for the team as well as the No. 47 car’s driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

It made him the first African-American owner to win the Harley J. Earl.

“I sat there for a second. And I was like … We just won the Daytona 500,” Daugherty said after the race, which he watched from home due to the eye surgery he had undergone.

“I realized I was by myself, but I was like, ‘OK, this is really great, because you’re talking to yourself.’

“And then I just went nuts. So then my phone started ringing — people from NASCAR calling me, the team was calling me … everybody. I was just like, this is unbelievable.

“This is an unbelievable moment in NASCAR history, for a little race team at Harrisburg, and for a team that just doesn’t quit.”