In a total team effort, Kyle Rowdy Busch picked up his fourth-straight NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win at Talladega Superspeedway Saturday, October 31, 2009 in the running of the Mountain Dew 250 after his Billy Ballew Motorsports teammate, Aric Almirola pushed him in a last-lap pass for the win.

Busch, who started in the 10^th-place position immediately, started jockeying for position on the aero-dependent race track leading only twice for a total of only 10-laps, but it was the last lap that counted.  On the final restart on lap 96 Busch lost the lead to Todd Bodine who jumped on the outside of the 2.66-mile track picking up the position.  But Busch and his Billy Ballew Motorsports teammate had the plan set and moved out together to overtake Bodine in a last-lap thriller giving Busch his sixth 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win.

“That just happened – unbelievable,” Busch said. “I owe everything to Aric Almirola today. Sticking with me from that last pit stop to the end, I told him if he just stayed with me they wouldn’t be able to beat the 15 (Almirola) and 51 (Busch). Awesome job to Aric (Almirola), he can take my half of the pay after today. I don’t get paid anything. I don’t know what Billy Ballew will work out with him. What an awesome truck – this Miccosukee Tundra was great today. The guys did an awesome job building it.  You can only go as fast as what it’s built from the shop so obviously a lot of work went into this thing. Toyota clinched the manufacturer’s championship – that’s awesome. Thank NOS Energy Drink, thank the fans – it was a lot of fun today. There was a few moments that maybe got a hairy and a little sketchy, but overall it worked out in the end for us so that’s awesome. 

“I need a more private channel so not everybody hears it. Basically, I had to tell him just the ways that I’ve been here in the past. Last year I got beat. The first year I was horrible. We won’t go there, I think I was eighth or ninth, made a lot of mistakes. Last year I saved a lot of that till the end of the race and didn’t quite get in the position that I needed to be in. Today, I had Aric (Almirola) behind me who really helped me and being able to just talk through him and telling him what to do – if we just stayed together. The biggest patience in this race, I know it was 94 laps today, but there was 93 laps of patience and a one lap free for all that wins this thing. Aric (Almirola) did an awesome job.”

“On the last lap I knew I wasn’t yet to the 30 (Todd Bodine) – I wasn’t sure of what direction I needed to go, I wasn’t sure if he was going to block. I sort of started up high slow to see if he would. Aric (Almirola) was bumping me there so I didn’t want to be too jerky on the wheel and spin myself out on his truck. I just pulled up nice and smooth and Todd (Bodine) held his line and we just went around the outside of him. I was kind of surprised by that, but I guess he learned from my own mistake at Daytona, when you try to move up in front of a train that’s coming – you’re going to wreck.   We’ve seen that the last few times here, Carl (Edwards) tried to do the same thing with the 09 (Brad Keselowski) or whatever. I guess when you’re the leader coming down towards the stretch you’re better off to just hold your line and take what you’re going to get.”

“Bump drafting definitely played a role because you never know how close you are to NASCAR’s line of going over of being too aggressive. Earlier in the race the 30 (Todd Bodine) and the 25 (Terry Cook) were teamed up pushing each other down the backstretch and the 25 (Cook) got crossed up getting into turn three and they gave him a warning. Then five laps later, he’s doing it again – all the way down the backstretch. You can bump draft is fine, apparently, but push drafting is what the problem is. I don’t know if there needs to be a new term laid out there, but I think I just did it. The push draft is the problem and that happened a couple times today. I never did it – I was bump drafting the five (Mike Skinner) when we were getting up towards the front. I would always bump him, get off him, bump him, get off him – it would help the row along, but it wasn’t like two trucks get teamed up together and just push draft all the way around the track. I don’t know where that line is. I don’t know – you warn a guy once and he does it again and you don’t post him or don’t do anything about it then what’s the penalty. Apparently everybody was supposed to be warned in the driver’s meeting, but I guess you can still get warnings out on the race track. It’s a hard situation to understand, but Aric (Almirola) and I, we saved it for the last lap, from turn four on to the start-finish. I think we played it out nicely.”   

The win puts Billy Ballew Motorsports closer to the 2009 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Owners Points Championship.  Ballew is now only 100-points behind Delana Harvick and the No. 33 race truck.

“I’m just amazed,” Billy Ballew said.  “It was a heck of a Halloween with a Cinderella story finish for us tonight.  I’m so proud of this team, a total team effort by both the No. 51 and the No. 15.  I know this win would have meant a lot to Aric, but we’ll get him one, I’m sure of that. I have to say thank you to James Finch, Miccosukee Resort and Graceway Pharmaceuticals for helping us out.  Obviously, we’ve been successful in building the program with their help.”

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series heads next to Texas Motor Speedway Friday, November 6, 2009 for the running of the WinStar Casino World 350k.