While Bill Lester and the Billy Ballew Motorsports team have endured several highs and lows this season, there is one track that always puts a smile on Lester’s face – Kentucky Speedway.  Lester holds the track record at the 1.5-mile speedway from the 2005 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the track with a speed of 178.141 mph. Lester earned back a pole the previous week at the Kansas Speedway before he went on to his record-setting run at Kentucky.

Lester has made five starts at Kentucky, two of those starts were from the top-three (2002, 2005) and two additional starts came within the top-10.  While his starting positions at Kentucky have been impressive, Lester’s best finish at the track was 12th back in 2003 leaving the Chevrolet Silverado driver looking to improve upon that finish this weekend behind the wheel of his No. 15 Bowen Family Homes truck. (more…)

Aric Almirola piloted the No. 51 FedEx Express Chevrolet Silverado NASCAR Craftsman Truck at the Memphis Motorsports Park Saturday night for the running of the O’Reilly 200, as part of a joint venture between Billy Ballew Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Almirola, in his third start in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck at the 3/4-mile track, was looking for his first win there but handling issues dashed that opportunity.

Almirola had an early draw for qualifying going out fifth of the 36-truck field posting a time of 23.268 seconds at a speed of 116.039 mph putting him in the 18th starting position for the O’Reilly 200.

The team was optimistic for a solid run heading in to the race, but almost from the drop of the green flag, Almirola had difficulty finding rear grip and looked for a good line to run on the short track. Almirola was using a lot of front brake and the brake rotors could be seen glowing by lap 46 of the 200-lap event. (more…)

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Bill Lester left the Memphis Motorsports Park Saturday night after the running of the O’Reilly 200 with his best start and finish at the short track in Middleton, TN.
Lester, known more as a speedway driver, turned some heads after he qualified in the fifth place and finished in the 12th place position.  He was one of only five drivers who never dropped out of the top-15 for the entire 200-lap NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race.

Lester struggled to get grip off of the corners early in the O’Reilly 200 and lost a few positions on the racetrack until the first set of adjustments were made in the pits on the No. 15 Christian Debt Consolidation Billy Ballew Motorsports Silverado.  Crew chief, Doug George made the right calls on the stop and the truck improved. (more…)