Bill Lester took to the track with anticipation this weekend, carrying the name of the title sponsor of the Allstate® 400 at the Brickyard® on his No. 15 Allstate Chevrolet Silverado in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the O’Reilly Raceway Park (ORP).

The Billy Ballew Motorsports team has been on a streak of solid runs, including the team and driver’s best finishes of eighth in the last race at Memphis Motorsports Park.  The team hoped to carry that momentum into ORP, but struggled in practice to get the handling where it needed to be.

Crew chief Doug George and the team worked diligently to fix the problem in order to put the truck in the top-10 for the start of the race.  That top-10 start was not meant to be when a drenching rain came over the track and cancelled the qualifying session.  As the NASCAR rules state after a rainout of qualifying, the teams would line up by owner points.  This lineup placed Lester 22nd on the grid for the 200 lap event. (more…)

Billy Ballew Motorsports announced today that Allstate will serve as the primary sponsor of the No. 15 Chevrolet Silverado NASCAR Craftsman Truck driven by Bill Lester Friday at O’Reilly Raceway Park (ORP).

The July 27 race will mark the second consecutive year that Allstate has teamed with Lester at ORP for the annual NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) event. Lester has five previous runs at ORP, with a best start of 11th place in 2002 and his best finish of 14th place in 2006 in the Allstate truck

Billy Ballew Motorsports has five previous starts at the .686-mile short track just down the road from the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The team has a best start of fourth in 2005 and a best finish of 11th in 2004. (more…)

Bill Lester and the Billy Ballew Motorsports Team posted their first top-10 finish of the 2007 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Season Saturday night at the Kentucky Speedway after placing eighth on the 1.5 mile speedway in Sparta, KY.

Lester, piloting the No. 15 Bowen Family Homes Silverado, missed the pole position in the qualifying session by mere fractions of a second Saturday afternoon when posting a time of 31.223 seconds at a speed of 172.949 mph.  Lester still holds the track record in the Craftsman Truck Series at the Kentucky Speedway from 2005 when he posted a time of 30.313 seconds at a speed of 178.141 mph.

Lester unloaded fast off the hauler and made only small adjustments in both practice sessions before taking his qualifying run Saturday afternoon.

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Bill Lester in the No. 15 Bowen Family Homes Billy Ballew Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado NASCAR Craftsman Truck missed the Bud Pole today at the Kentucky Speedway by .001 seconds after posting a time of 31.223 seconds at a speed of 172.949 mph. Lester still holds the track record in the Craftsman Truck Series at the Kentucky Speedway from 2005 when he posted a time of 30.313 seconds at a speed of 178.141 mph.

This is the second time in Lester’s career that he missed the pole by .001 seconds. The first was in 2002 at the Phoenix International Speedway when Rick Crawford beat him by fractions of a second.

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