hearing that the #15 Billy Ballew Motorports team and rookie driver Trent Owens have parted ways. Supposedly Rich Bickle will be in the truck for the next race, at Memphis.(6-13-2002)
UPDATE: Rich Bickle will return to the CTS behind the wheel of the #15 Dickies Ford in the O’Reilly 200 at Memphis Motorsports Park, Saturday, June 22. The 1997 NCTS championship runner-up will replace Trent Owens in the Countryman-Ballew entry. “Rich is an excellent driver and someone who has competed and won in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in the past,” said Billy Ballew, one of the team’s co-owners. “It’s no secret we’ve been struggling. Trent is a young driver with a lot of potential and he did an excellent job for us. At this point, we just felt we needed to bring a veteran driver in like Rich would help our young race team. We’re thrilled Rich has agreed to come in and try to help us.” The first-year Countryman-Ballew team has struggled this season failing to qualify for the first race of the season at Daytona. Since then, Owens has posted a 17th-place finishing average in six events with his season-best a 14th in the Rocky Mountain 200 at Pikes Peak International Raceway. “It would be very unfair to place the blame on Trent,” said Preston Countryman of his team’s early season performance. “We’ve had a lot of bad luck this season and even the most experienced driver can’t overcome that. Hopefully, those kind of things are behind us.”(Closefinishes PR)(6-14-2002)
