By Dave Rodman, NASCAR.COM
January 15, 2010
04:51 PM EST

http://www.nascar.com/2010/news/headlines/truck/01/15/aalmirola.mwaltrip.ballew/1.html

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. — Camping World Truck Series owner Billy Ballew hopes to run Michael Waltrip and Aric Almirola for the series championship he’s chased since 2002.

Ballew hopes it starts with the Truck Series season opener on Feb. 12. But two ancient racing principles — competitiveness and funding — may get in the way. 

“Our goal there is to run two trucks, with Michael Waltrip and Aric Almirola,” Ballew said. “We still have some sponsorship stuff that we need to try to get put in place for that all to happen, but that’s the direction that we’re heading.

“We’re digging every day trying to get some sponsorship help for both trucks and I think that’s what we’re doing. I can’t 100 percent guarantee it, but that’s the plan we’re on right now.

“I’ve been against all odds since I started doing this in 1996, so I have no intention of doing anything but running both [trucks] the full year,” he added. “That’s just my mindset. Can I guarantee that? No. But that’s what I’m working toward every morning when I get up.” 

The Georgia owner has been in a full-court press for sponsorship since Kyle Busch announced plans to operate his own Truck Series team and took the full-season sponsorship from the Miccosukee that was on Ballew’s trucks for at least part of the past four seasons.

Ballew said he and Waltrip have talked at length about their options.  

“Basically we were talking about the first five [races] to see if we were successful and how it worked — that was the goal,” Ballew said. “If we’re really successful in those first five, I feel very confident that [Waltrip] will run ‘em all, if we have the funding in place.

“That’s my goal, and [Waltrip] hasn’t committed to that, but we’re going to walk here, before we run.”

An apparent attraction to running Waltrip is he’s a race-winning Sprint Cup driver, a well-known multi-team owner and a widely-exposed media personality, which Ballew acknowledged.

“I think it’ll be a big help but for whatever reason we haven’t been able to really capitalize on it,” Ballew said. “Cal Wells [Michael Waltrip Racing executive vice president/chief operating officer] and his marketing people are doing everything they can because they want Michael to be successful. Those guys have really opened their arms and tried to help us with anything on the competition side.

“But they’re in the same situation because they’re trying to sell sponsorship for Trevor Bayne’s [Nationwide Series] car even though it’s funded and they’re trying to sell sponsorship on David Reutimann’s Cup car for x-amount of races that aren’t covered, so in that area we’re kinda fighting the same battle. 

“They need to get their stuff covered and hopefully they’ll be able to do that. Then I feel confident they’ll be able to help us in doing the same thing for Michael [to run a truck].”

At a Toyota test Thursday at New Smyrna Speedway, Ballew said he’d already figured out a couple puzzle pieces for his two-Tundra team.

For one, he’s hired Kevin “Cowboy” Starland, a series veteran with a winning pedigree, as one of his crew chiefs. And he’s discussed air travel arrangements with fellow owner James Finch that will allow Almirola to possibly contest full seasons in both the Truck and Cup series.

Almirola recently announced he would run Finch’s No. 09 car in the Cup Series.

“I’d like to think how Aric ran in our trucks helped him get the ride with James, but then again James and I are good friends, he’s been very helpful in everything he’s done [for Ballew] and we talk on a daily basis,” Ballew said. “I pushed for Aric to have that opportunity because we didn’t have a sponsor and I wanted to make sure he was taken care of, was able to race.

“We also have an agreement that we can run all the Truck races if we can get the funding and fly back and forth and whatever we have to do to make it work. And that was the whole goal. James is more than willing because Aric’s No. 1 goal was to run for a Truck championship, provided we have the money.

“Seat time’s seat time so it’ll all be helpful and hopefully those guys will be good and maybe there’s some stuff we can learn on our end that’ll help them on their end.”

Almirola and Spencer Wauters, a Super Late Model driver whose father is Ballew’s long-time crew chief Richie Wauters, tested at New Smyrna “because Michael’s in Dubai for that 24-hour sports car race,” Ballew said. “Bobby Kennedy [MWR operations director] has been very helpful and Richie and I are going to meet with them on the competition stuff.”             

Ballew attempted his first Truck race in 1996 and ran partial schedules, with several seasons of attempts with no starts, before his first full season in 2002. Shane Hmiel earned Ballew his first win as an owner, at Las Vegas in 2004. In 2005, Busch won three times in Ballew’s No. 15 truck, the first of 16 career wins Busch scored in Ballew’s equipment.

Ballew’s systematic building process resulted in third- and second-place finishes in the owners’ standings the past two seasons, both with the No. 51 that was driven by several drivers, but with Busch scoring most of its points.

“Me and [Waltrip] both said we both have a lot to lose,” Ballew said. “Because he wants to prove that he can run very competitive and I believe in him 100 percent, and so does my guys. It’s kinda like he said, ‘The trucks have proven how competitive they are so I’ve got as much to lose if I go and don’t run good in them, then we’ve got a problem.’

“So I guess the whole point is we’re both very confident that we can be successful. We’ve already proven to be successful with Aric.”

Ballew said it was yet to be determined which crew chief would work with which driver, and despite both trucks being decaled as 51s at the test, “all of our stuff is the same, whether it’s the 15 or the 51. We proved that at Talladega at the end of [last] year when basically Aric won the race — Kyle [Busch] won it, but on the last lap Aric was probably better and Kyle credited Aric for that win.

“Aric didn’t run with us until the middle of the year and he did everything but win, he’s a great guy and a very big part of our [team].”