By Bob PockrassSaturday, March 06, 2010
HAMPTON, Ga. – Aric Almirola and Steve Wallace, two drivers still looking to make names for themselves in NASCAR, did their best Saturday to ensure that Billy Ballew Motorsports continues to be a top team in the Truck Series.

Almirola finished third and Wallace finished fourth in the E-Z-Go 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway for team owner Billy Ballew, whose organization won seven races last year with Kyle Busch. They followed two Sprint Cup drivers who double as truck owners – Kevin Harvick and Busch – across the finish line.

“Kyle’s just one guy,” Almirola said. “Our truck program is very strong. [Crew chief] Richie Wauters, all the guys back at the shop work their guts out and it shows. We had an awesome truck. We missed it just a little bit, and that little bit was the difference between third and winning.”

For Almirola, his third-place finish on Saturday helped ease the pain of failing to qualify Friday for the Sprint Cup race at AMS. Almirola is driving full time for Ballew in the Truck Series, while his Cup program faces an uncertain future after Miccosukee dropped its sponsorship of Phoenix Racing.

“That’s really frustrating [in Cup],” Almirola said. “It is what it is. At the end of the day, I get to be in a race car and that’s what I want to do. It’s more than a job for me. It’s something I’m very passionate about.”

Almirola technically has one victory in 110 starts in NASCAR’s three national touring series, but that was a Nationwide Series race where a late-arriving Denny Hamlin replaced Almirola at the Milwaukee in 2007 and went on to win.

He didn’t get that first real win Saturday, but he was still happy. He has eight top-five finishes in 19 career starts for Ballew.

“We didn’t have what it took to roll around the bottom as long as we needed to; our truck got real tight the longer we ran and got tight in traffic,” Almirola said. “We still have our homework to do to catch up to Harvick. I’m looking forward to the rest of the year.”

Another driver looking for his first NASCAR national touring series victory is Wallace, who was making his Truck Series debut Saturday. Wallace, the son of former Cup champion Rusty Wallace, is sixth in the Nationwide Series standings.

“These things draft really, really hard,” Wallace said. “When you get a car [and not a truck] in your right rear corner, you tend to get really, really loose there. Some of those things I learned today. The things are definitely a blast to drive.”

Wallace said he would like to compete in upcoming truck races at Martinsville and Nashville.

“I’ve got no money to bring so hopefully Billy will find some,” Wallace said. “It was a lot different, that’s for sure. … All in all, it was a good day.”

Hampton, GA (March 6, 2010) – Steve Wallace landed a top-five finish in his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series outing. After qualifying in the sixth-position for the E-Z-GO 200, Wallace showed an affinity for muscling his Red Top Auctions Toyota around the high banks of Atlanta Motor Speedway. Wallace’s knack for truck racing became apparent quickly, as the North Carolina native led a portion of the 130 lap event and finished in a respectable fourth-place.

Wallace’s No. 15 Tundra was lacking side bite in the initial stages of the race. His “Cowboy” Starland-led crew improved the handling of Wallace’s machine one pit stop at a time, making air pressure, track bar and wedge adjustments over the course of the event to improve Wallace’s grip. Despite being his first Truck Series event, Wallace remained in the top-10 for the entirety of the E-Z-GO 200 and led for three laps. As Wallace showed the way, his Red Top Auctions Toyota led Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch and several other seasoned veterans of the sport. Wallace finished his inaugural NCWTS event in fourth-place.

“These trucks are fun to race,” exclaimed Wallace after the event. “These guys race really, really hard. It was a lot of fun to mix it up out there. My Red Top Auctions Toyota was strong all day. We needed a little more side bite at the start. My crew kept zeroing in it and made my truck better and better. We were awesome at the end. The guys at Billy Ballew Motorsports all did an awesome job today.

“I’m hoping for an opportunity to get behind the wheel of the 15 truck again. Right now we need some sponsorship help to make it happen. Hopefully we can get some additional funding to do some more races. It was an awesome day and I know we have what it takes to win races. Today was a blast and I’d love to do it again.”

HAMPTON, GA. (March 6, 2010) – Aric Almirola capped off a solid week at Atlanta Motor Speedway with a top-three finish in the E-Z-GO 200.  Almirola’s No. 51 AKawareness.com Toyota started the event from seventh-place and steadily moved through the field before taking the checkers in third-place. The finish marked Almirola’s eighth top-five in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event.

When the race got underway, Almirola’s Tundra was too tight. The splitter was bottoming out through the high-banked turns of Atlanta Motor Speedway and causing his truck to slide up the track.  Crew chief Richie Wauters directed the crew to fix the problem with an air pressure adjustment on the team’s first pit stop, lap 23. 

Almirola settled into fourth-place when green flag action returned.  His Toyota was still bottoming out and disrupting the handling, so the crew took more drastic measures to correct the problem on the ensuing pit stop, lap 51. When Almirola reached his pit stall, the crew lifted the hood and adjusted the suspension to raise the front-end off the ground. The lengthy work dropped Almirola back to 17^th-place for the restart. 

“There were only 17 cars on the lead lap and we needed to make a big change,” said Wauters.  “I knew that we weren’t going to win, or even finish in the top-five, unless we took a swing at it. I knew we’d be good enough to get back up front once we made the adjustments.”

Wauters’ words were spot on. After taking the green on lap 57, Almirola marched into third-place before the final caution of the day, lap 111.  The crew called Almirola down pit road for one last round of routine service to his AKawareness.com machine.  Once they changed his tires and topped off the fuel cell, Almirola rejoined the field in fifth-place for the final 13 laps of the 130 lap event.

Almirola raced past two trucks on the final green flag run, often running lap times equivalent to the leaders, before finishing the day in third-place.

“We had a solid day,” said Almirola.  “All of my guys’ hard work over the winter paid off.  They build great trucks at Billy Ballew Motorsports and it showed this afternoon.  We were too tight at the start, but it got a lot better after our first two pit stops.  All in all, it was a great day and a good momentum builder for the next race.

“I know we’ll only get better and better as the year goes on.  I know we have what it takes to be in victory lane before too long.”

Almirola will be behind the wheel of AKawreness.com Toyota next at Martinsville Speedway on March 27 for the Kroger 250.  SPEED TV and MRN will broadcast the event beginning at 2:00. Last season Aric started 15^th and finished 12^th driving a Billy Ballew Motorsports-prepared truck in the October event at Martinsville.

Written by: Tom Jensen

After opening the season with a typically exciting race at Daytona International Speedway, the men and women of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series have had to cool their heels for a couple of weekends.

Not anymore.

This weekend, the Truck Series will march into the lightning-fast 1.54-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway for Saturday’s Atlanta 200, which will be televised live on SPEED Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.

And of all the teams in the Truck Series, there probably isn’t a single one happier to be in Atlanta than Billy Ballew Motorsports.

Team owner Ballew is a Georgia native, hailing from Blairsville, and the team has enjoyed tremendous success at AMS, where it has three Truck Series race victories.

On the other hand, much has changed for BBM in 2010. Kyle Busch, who won three Atlanta races in a BBM Toyota Tundra, left at the end of last year to form his own team. And longtime sponsor Miccosukee Resorts left, too, first to go with Busch and then deciding to pull out of the sport altogether.

Talented young Aric Almirola will pilot the No. 51 Toyota that Busch used to drive, and he thinks he can put it in victory lane at Atlanta. “It’s great to race in Billy Ballew’s hometown of Atlanta,” said Almirola. “Where better than here to bring home a victory for Billy? His teams have had a lot of success there. I know that we’ll be strong this weekend.”

This weekend, Almirola will carry sponsorship from Akawareness.com, with the “ak” referring to actinic keratosis, a potential early warning sign of skin cancer that an estimated 10 million or so Americans are affected by.

For Almirola, simply getting back in the truck will be a relief. He had a decent 12th-place finish at Daytona last month and has been itching to race again ever since. “Man, I wish the Truck Series schedule was like the other NASCAR series,” Almirola said. “I hate racing and then taking a few weeks off. I can’t wait to get behind the wheel again.”

In the cockpit of Ballew’s other Tundra will be a noob, Steve Wallace, who will make his Truck Series debut Saturday in the No. 15 BBM Toyota, sponsored by Red Top Auto Auction.

Wallace, a regular in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, said he, too, will be ready to get it on in Hot ‘Lanta.

“This is going to be awesome,” said Wallace. “I’m really excited about getting behind the wheel of a truck. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I can’t think of a better way to start things off than driving for Billy . His teams run so well at Atlanta, which gives me a lot of confidence going into the weekend.”

Wallace is looking forward to the new challenge.

“I know it will be an adjustment to hop in a truck,” he said. “It’s going to be a transition for sure. Thankfully I’ve got a great team to work with, which should help speed up my learning curve.”

And he knows what to expect.

“The guys in the Truck Series race hard,” he said. “They race every lap like it’s the last one. It’s 100 percent from the time the green flag drops. I know I’ve got to bring my A-game.”

Almirola is excited about racing at Atlanta.

“The track is one of a kind; you can race on the bottom or up against the wall,” he said. “It gives you an opportunity to find the line that suits the truck the best. It’s such a fast track. It’s definitely a ‘hold your breath’ track. There’s great side-by-side racing and it seems like the finishes always come down to the wire. It’s going to be exciting for sure.”