Catchfence

Likes Chances to Tighten Points Battle over Four Race Stretch

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (August 23, 2010) – The No. 51 Zyclara by Graceway team are defending champions of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) event at Chicagoland Speedway. Kyle Busch, along with crew chief Richie Wauters, reached victory lane in the inaugural NCWTS race at the track last season. Aric Almirola will be driving the same Billy Ballew Motorsports-fielded chassis that Busch used in his winning effort and hopes to pilot it to a repeat performance. This is also the same truck that Almirola raced to his second win of the 2010 season earlier this year at the Michigan International Speedway.

Almirola has averaged a seventh-place finish at the four mile-and-a-half venues that the NCWTS has visited this season. His best finish at a 1.5-mile track came at Atlanta Motor Speedway, where he took the checkers in third-place. Almirola finished in eighth-place at Chicagoland last season.

BBM has been more successful at mile-and-a-half tracks than any other venue. The organization has racked up nine wins at speedways 1.5 miles in length, six of those wins were from the 51 team. The 51 team also has scored three poles at mile-and-a-half tracks.

Almirola brings to Chicagoland Speedway a current streak of four top-10 finishes including three top-five finishes.

Almirola Comments on Chicagoland Speedway:

“Our mile-and-a-half program and two-mile program has been outstanding this year. We’ve run really well. I think we’ve been in the top-10 at just about all of the tracks. We’ve had really fast trucks and we’re feeling good going into Chicagoland.

“I’m looking forward to Chicago. We’re taking the same truck that Richie (Wauters) and Kyle (Busch) won with there last year. I feel like we’ll have a really good showing for Graceway Pharmaceuticals there and hopefully have our Toyota Tundra up front. Hopefully our team will duplicate the results that they had last season.

“Chicago’s a really cool city. It has a lot of character and charm. It’s one of the places that I love going to. It kept Ferris Bueller busy all day long. We’ve got a busy schedule at the track, but hopefully I’ll have some time to go and enjoy the city.”

“We’ve got a stretch of tracks coming up that our team has done really, really well at. Chicago, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Las Vegas are all strong tracks for Billy Ballew Motorsports. We’ve won at three of those, so I’ve got a lot of confidence that we can tighten the points chase in the next few weeks.

“Our strategy hasn’t changed since the beginning of the season. The best thing we can do to close the gap with Todd (Bodine) is win races, and hopefully we’ll be in position to do that over the next few weeks.”

About Billy Ballew Motorsports:

BBM started competing full-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series in 2002 and has had a variety of well known NASCAR drivers over the years. The list includes Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Aric Almirola, Brian Ickler, John Andretti, Kenny Wallace, Paul Menard, Bill Lester, Geoffrey Bodine, Joe Ruttman and a host of others. It was Shane Hmiel who piloted the No. 15 for the 2004 season that brought Billy Ballew his first win at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the team’s 100th start in the NCWTS. Since then Billy Ballew Motorsports has taken 18 more trips to victory lane.

- Breaking Limits Marketing for Billy Ballew Motorsports, Press Release