Although Kingsport [TN] native Bob Harshbarger is planning to run the full American Speed Association [ASA] schedule with his locally-based Appalachian Motorsports race team, this also will be a transitional season for the team. Harshbarger plans to begin phasing his team into the NASCAR Busch Series later this season, with veteran ASA driver Gary St. Amant behind the wheel helping develop the cars. The goal is to run a few races this year, including the Bristol night race and fall Richmond race, about half the Busch Series races in 2005, and then go full time to that circuit in 2006. He currently is working with Nextel Cup veteran Ken Schrader, who is helping him pick out used Busch cars that are ready to race. Rather than “reinventing the wheel”, Harshbarger said he wants to use established Busch cars as templates for eventually building his own fleet. By the time he’s in Busch racing full time in 2006, he hopes to be building his own cars. “Anybody can go out there and just run, but we don’t want to run in the back or not make the race,” Harshbarger said. “Easing into Busch like this is going to help get us over the learning curve. We want to be competitive, so if we can get through the growing pains in the next couple of seasons, we’ll be ready when we go Busch racing full time.”(Kingsport Times News)(3-23-2004)
