By Tim Tuttle
Special to the Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
Billy Ballew has been an owner in the Camping World Truck Series since 1996 and began racing full time in it in 2002. He typically has used multiple drivers each season, preventing his team from winning that championship.
NASCAR also has an owners’ championship, and in the 14 previous truck seasons, it has gone to the owner of the team with the champion driver. Ballew, with Kyle Busch’s invaluable help, wants to become the first to win the owners’ title without having the champion driver.
Busch’s No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota enters Friday’s WinStar World Casino 350 at Texas Motor Speedway trailing Ron Hornaday Jr.’s No. 33 Kevin Harvick Inc. Chevrolet by 100 points.
With only three races remaining, including Texas, it’s a big deficit for Busch and crew chief Richie Wauters to overcome—but not impossible. Busch chopped off 78 points with his victory combined by Hornaday’s 17th-place finish at Talladega last week.
It was Busch’s fourth straight win in truck races he has entered and his sixth victory in 12 starts this season. He has finished second three times. Busch also will drive the No. 51 in the final two races of the season, at Phoenix and Homestead.
“Is it (a championship) possible? Yes, but it might not be probable,” Ballew said. “We’ll give it our best effort and see where it shakes out after Texas, Phoenix and Homestead. It is definitely something we think about, and it would mean the world to me and the Billy Ballew Motorsports team to win a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series owner championship after 14 years competing.”
Busch began driving for Ballew, a 50-year-old businessman from Blairsville, Ga., in 2005 and has 15 of the team’s 16 victories. He made a concerted effort to help Ballew win the owners’ title last year when he drove in 18 races. The team finished third in owners’ points.
“We want to win the owners’ championship for Billy Ballew,” Busch said early in the season. “He does everything he can to keep this team going.”
Brian Ickler (six races), who was recommended by Busch, Aric Almirola (two), Denny Hamlin (one) and Travis Kvapil (one) also have driven the No. 51 this season and made productive contributions. Ickler was third at Michigan and fifth at Kansas, Almirola was second at Iowa and eighth at Las Vegas, Hamlin sixth at the second Martinsville race and Kvapil was 11th at Nashville.
Hornaday has a 202-point lead over runner-up Matt Crafton for the drivers’ championship, but he also wants to bring home a title to Kevin and DeLana Harvick.
“Matt Crafton isn’t our worry,” Hornaday said. “We are worried about the No. 51 (Busch). He is fighting for the owners’ points, and he’s the guy we’re racing, too.”
There are also bragging rights for most wins this season at stake over the final three races. Hornaday also has six.
