Kyle Busch in the No. 51 Miccosukee Resort Toyota Tundra placed the truck in the third place position for the running of the Silverado 350k NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the Texas Motor Speedway.  Ryan Lawler, a Texas native, piloting the No. 15 Ergon Tundra will start in the 14th place in his first race for Billy Ballew Motorsports.

“I grew up about 15 minutes from here and its real cool to come back and run in front of all your friends and family,” Lawler said. “It’s a cool deal to run with Billy Ballew Motorsports. I’ve been friends with Kyle (Busch) for a little while now where I’ve been able to get to know him and work with his Late Model stuff a little bit. I knew the guys already so it’s cool to come out and work with everybody.”

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Fire Damages Billy Ballew Motorsports No. 51 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series transport hauler after a brake fire erupted in Shreveport, Louisiana late Tuesday night. NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle “Rowdy” Busch pilots the Miccosukee Resort entry for Ballew. The truck was en route to the Texas Motor Speedway for the running of the Chevy Silverado 350k NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event Friday, October 31st where when flames erupted in the front axle of the transporter. Despite efforts by Billy Ballew Motorsports transport driver Jeff Biese and Bossier, Louisiana fire department the trailer received heavy damage.

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Ryan Lawler Texas Motor Speedway Fast Facts

· The Chevy Silverado 350K will mark Lawler’s eighth NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start

· Lawler has one prior NCTS start at Texas Motor Speedway. Driving the No. 07 Kent Smith owned truck last June, Lawler started 31st and finished 18th

· Lawler’s career-best NCTS finish is 17th. He achieved this twice – Martinsville Speedway, March, 2008 and Kentucky Speedway, July, 2008

· The No. 15 Billy Ballew Motorsports team’s best finish at TMS is 2nd (Kyle Busch, November, 2006).

· Ryan’s father, Patrick Lawler, has competed in seven NCTS events

· Patrick Lawler drove the No. 15 truck at TMS in October, 2006, where he picked up his career-best finish of 18th

Ryan Lawler Comments on Texas Motor Speedway

“This is a huge opportunity. I have a few truck races under my belt, but I’ve never driven for a team as accomplished as Billy Ballew Motorsports. The Ergon Racing team has shown they are contenders week in and week out. Everybody knows they can get the job done, and I want to prove the same thing this weekend. Hopefully I’ll give the (No.) 15 truck a good ride in Texas.

“I’ve worked with Richie Wauters (crew chief No. 51 team) and some of the crew at a few Late Model races. I’m familiar with the guys on the team and can’t wait to run a race at this level with them. Thankfully we’re not starting completely fresh with each other at Texas. We’ve got a little bit of a head start on our chemistry and that should speed up our learning curve.

“It’s special to race at Texas (Motor Speedway). I grew up in town of Colleyville, which is about 15 minutes away from the track. I’ve still got lots of friends and family that live nearby. Most of my friends have been helping me out at the short tracks for years. It’s cool to think that there will be a lot of familiar faces at the track this weekend that have supported me for years. I definitely want to give a solid run for the hometown crowd this weekend.

“My dad (Patrick Lawler) raced a handful of Truck Series races. To see him on the track racing against some of the best drivers in the sport, and to see the crowd cheering him on was so cool. I always knew I wanted to follow in his footsteps and race in the big leagues one day.”

Kyle “Rowdy” Busch will be back in the No. 51 Miccosukee Resort Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota Tundra this weekend for the running of the Chevy Silverado 350k NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the Texas Motor Speedway.

After leading in the fall 2007 race and blowing an engine while having a 1.495 second lead in front of the rest of the field and finishing second in the spring 2008 race Busch and Ballew aren’t looking to settle for anything but a win this Friday, October 31st on the 1.5-mile track.

Busch has 19 starts at the Texas Motor Speedway posting one win in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Busch has five NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starts, four for Ballew, posting his best finish of second in 2006 and 2008. Billy Ballew Motorsports has 16 starts with 12 different drivers in the Lone Star state with best finishes of second posted by Busch.

Busch in the spring 2008 race was flying cross-country for his triple header in the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series and the Craftsman Truck Series forcing him to miss practice, qualifying and the drivers meeting putting him back to the 35th place position for the start of the race.

“It is difficult to have someone else get in your truck and try to adjust it to where it needs to be,” Busch said commenting on the spring 2008 event. “I have a different driving style than anyone else out there right now and JR (Norris) did a great job giving Richie (Wauters) feedback to attempt to put us in contention for the win.They unloaded with a good base line and J.R. (Norris) did the best he could. We worked on it and made so many adjustments on it all night. Luckily, we made it home second.”

“In the beginning, it was just plowing tight and the front end wasn’t hitting the race track. We have to have the front end down on the race track to get the most grip out of the truck and get the splitter down. If there’s any air that goes underneath the truck, it just kills it. We had too much air underneath the truck at the beginning. We took some rounds out of the front, and got the front end to work better. Then, it was just sideways loose up off the corner. This tire, me not getting to practice on it, I didn’t know if it was going to go loose or if it was going to go tight. We were sideways there in the middle of the runs, absolutely just barely hanging on. We finished second for Billy Ballew and we’ll take every good finish we can.”

Busch and Ballew are still in contention for the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Owner’s Points Championship with three races remaining in the 25-race NCTS schedule. The independent team owner sits 208 points out of the lead and 177 points out of the second place position behind two larger more funded operations.

The Chevy Silverado 350k (147 laps, 220.5 miles) race is slated to begin Friday, Oct. 31, 2008 at 9:00pm ET on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway. SPEED will broadcast the race live beginning at 8:30pm ET with radio coverage beginning at 8:45pm ET on MRN and Sirius Satellite Radio.