From clutch assemblies and spark plugs to remote ignitions and Bluetooth devices, Bowling Green’s NAPA Auto Parts store on East Sixth Avenue has seen the evolution of automobile parts during its seven decades.

What it hasn’t seen is a change in its family ownership – until now.

Owned by three generations of the Schardein family since its opening in 1950, the NAPA store started a new chapter last year when Lincoln and Connie Barnard bought it from Donnie Schardein.

Started by Ben Schardein in 1950 at a location near the current site of Bowling Green Municipal Utilities on Center Street, the NAPA store moved to the building on East Sixth Avenue during the tenure of Don W. Schardein.

Donnie Schardein inherited ownership from his father in the 1980s of a store that became over the years the go-to place for mechanics and others who valued not only the selection of parts but the expertise of a veteran staff.

“We had employees who had been there 20 or 30 years or more,” Donnie Schardein said. “It was very hard to let loose of it, but it was just time for me to retire.”

Schardein said he was happy to find a buyer like the Barnards. “Lincoln had been in the auto parts business earlier in his life,” Schardein said. “I talked with him and could tell he was a good businessman.”

Good enough to know a well-established business when he sees one.

“Having been here 70 years, this store has a loyal customer base,” said Lincoln Barnard, who retired as a senior buyer for Tractor Supply Co. in Nashville and worked at Advance Auto Parts in his younger days. “NAPA already had a great name, and the employees at this store have a combined auto parts experience of about 250 years.

“When I retired, I wanted to do something else. I had always like NAPA, and I heard that Donnie Schardein was looking to sell the store in Bowling Green. I visited the store and did my research. Buying it was the best decision I’ve made in my life.”

Not that the Barnards have simply put the store on cruise control. Once he bought it, Lincoln Barnard began sprucing up and renovating the 35,000-square-foot building that is larger than most NAPA stores.

“We came in and remodeled and reinvested back into the business,” he said. “We gutted the whole store and replaced every fixture. We made it more customer-friendly.”

But Lincoln Barnard will be the first to tell you that store fixtures and signs aren’t what make an auto parts store successful.

“The most important thing is our people,” he said. “After that is good pricing and the quality of our parts. NAPA is known as the professional parts people.”

Among their 11-person staff, the Barnards have a 50-year employee in part-time office manager Mary Ruth Van Meter and a 35-year employee in parts manager Andy Spinks.

Spinks in particular is a go-to person for local car owners, farmers and mechanics.

“He has a following,” Lincoln Barnard said of Spinks. “I have a lot of assets here, but I consider my best asset to be my people.”

Connie Barnard went a step further in assessing the value of Spinks, saying: “He’s amazing. People come in with questions that a normal auto parts guy couldn’t answer, but he can. He gives advice, and he has a lot of patience.”

Buying a business during an economy-stifling pandemic might not normally seem like a wise move, but Lincoln Barnard said the NAPA store hasn’t missed a beat. “Business has been good, even during the coronavirus,” he said. “We’ve had no layoffs. Being here 70 years, we have a loyal customer base.”

Now that he has established this NAPA store, the 57-year-old Lincoln Barnard has his sights set on not only maintaining the customer base but expanding it.

Operating six days a week – “I need my employees to be home with their families on Sundays,” he said – Lincoln Barnard said the NAPA store has enjoyed a “seamless” transition to new ownership.

He said the renovations “were for today’s customers and for the customers of the future,” and he hinted that those future customers might not necessarily be coming to the East Sixth Avenue location.

“We’re actively looking at a location for a second store,” he said. “Bowling Green is booming.”