Busch's success a boon for independent Ballew team
Running third with 26 laps to go, Kyle Busch had one hand on the wheel and the other holding up his window net.
For a dozen laps, there he was, wheeling his truck around Atlanta Motor Speedway's high banks one-handed, half-sideways. NASCAR black-flagged him for the net flapping out his window. Just as Kyle Busch was planning to serve his penalty, a yellow came out due to an accident on the track. It saved Kyle Busch, and he ultimately passed Ron Hornaday to win the Craftsman Truck Series race for hometown owner Billy Ballew.
"Impossible, and he did it," Hornaday later said of Kyle Busch's one-handed driving. "I seen it for eight laps. He had that thing sideways with one hand. That was awesome."
The next week at Texas, Kyle Busch rolled off fifth in Ballew's truck and had a dominant machine, leading 27 of the first 70 laps. But then his engine expired.
The week after that was Phoenix, and Kyle Busch again bettered the eventual 2007 champion Hornaday by beating everyone off pit road when it counted and leading a total of 42 laps for his second victory in a three-race span.
And finally at Homestead, Kyle Busch appeared ready to cap off his November run with a third victory in four races when he led 69 of 138 laps and held the lead at the end of the race. Problem was, a late-race crash forced a green-white-checkered finish. The extension gave Johnny Benson the time he needed to pass Kyle Busch as Kyle Busch slid into the wall trying to hang on to a loose truck -- this time with both hands. He managed, however, to finish second.
Four races: Two victories, one runner-up.
"Momentum breeds momentum, and it seems like every time Kyle is part of our deal, he and Richie [Wauters, crew chief] and the guys just really click," said Ballew, whose independent team may be a rarity in NASCAR these days but is the norm in the Truck Series.
Billy Ballew Motorsports fielded an entry in all 25 races this past season, starting two trucks in 17 of them. Ballew used 12 different drivers.
Bill Lester ran the first 15 races of the season before he and the team parted ways. Otherwise, it was a hodge-podge of driver lineups for Ballew that included full-time Cup drivers like Paul Menard and Denny Hamlin, as well as little-knowns like Nate Monteith and J.R. Norris. Add to that former Indianapolis 500 winner and IRL champion Buddy Lazier's NASCAR debut at Las Vegas, and the term "independent" becomes glaring in Ballew's organization.
But no other independent can tout that it pulls Cup Series heavyweights from their multi-million-dollar ties and drops them in the seat of a truck based on late-night handshake agreements at local diners.
"I'm fortunate enough that big organizations like Hendrick Motorsports have allowed their Nextel Cup superstars to drive for us," Ballew said. "The Paul Menard deal was a Dale Earnhardt Inc. deal. It was an agreement we made with Richie Gilmore to run him in Martinsville and we had planned to run him a few more races later in the year. Me and Denny Hamlin were at a restaurant one night about three weeks before the fall Martinsville race and the conversation just came up. He said, 'Billy, Martinsville is coming up. We ought to run the second truck.' So I said, 'Well let's just do it.'
"I guess really from a personal relationship, even though I'm twice as old as these guys, I'm always friends with them. And they believe in our program and they believe in our equipment."
The biggest believer is Kyle Busch.
Aside from Lester's initial 15 races with the team, Kyle Busch was the only thing close to consistent in terms of driver arrangements. He made 11 starts for Ballew, including the final six races of the season and eight of the last 10. Nobody else made more than three starts.
His average finish during his part-time schedule in the team's second truck was 13.7 and included four top-10 finishes -- as well as his two victories.
Four other drivers combined for six starts in Ballew's No. 51 truck. Their average finish was 24.8. The seven drivers that shared Ballew's primary truck, the No. 15, had an average finish of 23.1 and collected just two top-10 finishes.
"The situation with Kyle Busch is very unique," Ballew said. "I very much respect and deeply believe in what he's done for our team. I'd love for him to drive every race for us, but that's not possible. He's got a very hectic schedule."
This past season the calendar included a full slate in the Cup Series that ended in a Chase position and all while he won the first Car of Tomorrow race, announced his departure from Hendrick Motorsports and ultimately signed to drive next season with Joe Gibbs Racing. It included a 19-race Kyle Busch Series schedule in which he won four races, lead more laps than any other driver and finish 16th in the standings.
And it also included making time for Ballew.
"I am so glad to be a part of this Billy Ballew Motorsports team," Kyle Busch said. "All the guys on this team work so hard -- they work from 7 in the morning until 11 at night every day, I swear. It is unbelievable the dedication they put in."
That's Ballew's sentiments toward Kyle Busch, too. The relationship between driver and owner began in 2005 when they tested a truck at Charlotte. Wauters had previously worked with Kyle Busch in the Snowball Derby -- a late-model race run during the offseason -- and gave Kyle Busch a call. The test went well. Kyle Busch wanted to drive the truck and brought his sponsor to Ballew's team for the Charlotte race that May. Together for the first time, they won the race.
Kyle Busch drove Ballew's truck to Victory Lane again the very next week at Dover. In 11 starts that year, he earned nine top-10s and one more victory -- at Atlanta -- with a 6.5 average finish.
In 2006 Kyle Busch drove seven races for Ballew -- all top-10 finishes including another victory at Charlotte. Kyle Busch hasn't driven a Truck Series race for any other owner since.
"Richie and I have taken over the No. 51 deal, kind of a startup thing," Kyle Busch said. "It has been good. All the trucks are the same. We share trucks. They are different truck numbers, and you just never know who is going to get which one. I picked two of them for myself and Billy is OK with that."
Ballew is OK with just about anything Kyle Busch does. But it's not all trophies and champagne sprays in the black truck with a Days of Thunder-like paint scheme. The speed bumps of an independent Truck Series team continue -- Ballew said he still is in search of sponsorship dollars to fund Kyle Busch's schedule with his team for 2008, which is yet to be determined. "That's my biggest obstacle and biggest job I have, trying to get sponsorship to offset the cost in this series," Ballew said, "even with high-profile drivers."
The results Kyle Busch provides in a part-time schedule, Ballew said, are better than he could ask for from a full-time cast of drivers on his team. And he's not willing to trade that just yet.
"It's just that our success we've had with Kyle Busch is second to none with this team," Ballew said. "Words cannot define how much I think of Kyle Busch."
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