Claire B. Lang XM Satellite NASCAR Radio reached Alex Meshkin owner of Bang Racing….some clips from the telephone on-air conversation on XM:
Meshkin told CBL: ” Well, you know, a lot’s happened since the Bristol race. A lot of rumors came out through the press, a statement was made by Toyota. You know, we’ve been in a lot of discussions, and, we’re finalizing something where we’re going to be racing in Richmond, and we will be racing Toyotas.”
Claire: Alex, I know there are certain rumors, for example… like not paying bills, that bills had not been paid. What are you doing currently, are you in negotiations with Toyota? What are you doing about the matter, what can you talk about?
Alex: Well first to address the whole bills statement, no I haven’t disappeared, I’m sitting in the race shop right now, as I tend to do just about every day that I’m not traveling, and you know, we’re a start up team. Time to time, you might get a little further behind than you’d like, but all within, you know, corporate standards, I would say we pay our bills, quicker than I’d say I’ve ever paid bills in a business. It just, this industry, looks at things a lot differently than corporate America does.
Claire:…. Will we definitely see more of Alex in this sport?
Alex: We’ll be racing in Richmond, I can tell you we will be racing in 2005, we will be in the Busch Series.
Claire: In the Busch Series?
Alex: Yes. [pause] Not to say we won’t be in the Craftsman Truck Series, but we will definitely be in the Busch Series.
Claire: Are you still talking to Toyota? – Legal action, is there something legal going on?
Alex: Um, you know, I think we, we’ve gotten beyond the legal side, and we were in more, business discussions, and had some more productive talks this week, you know, we will be announced something officially next week. As I said, we will be racing in Richmond.
Claire: And you the driver….. Travis Kvapil, or can you say it at this point?
Alex: Well you know, we’re going to look to make more of an official announcement this week, but everyone knows Travis, you know, he’s going to be a Nextel Cup driver sooner than later, he’s got a lot of talent, and the next stepping stone, one of the places he can go is the Busch Series. We wanna be able to be there as his team. He’s an amazing talent.
Claire: Do you have a sponsor for that?
Alex: Yes, some of our sponsors are moving up with us, and we’re bringing a couple new companies in too.
Claire: Is this frustrating for you to go through all of this, to have people talking here while you’re there?
Alex: Of course it’s frustrating, you know, we’ve put a lot of effort this year into fielding two very competitive trucks. We thought we’d have a shot at the championship with both trucks. You know, we’re sitting fifth with Travis, and he’s definitely within striking distance. And you know to have this kind of controversy in your first year is always a struggle. But we’re a close organization, we have a lot of great people here that stood behind the company, and we’re going to move forward, and we’re going to be stronger than ever. We’re generating a lot of interest, a lot of new sponsors with our approach to marketing, and we’ve done a good job for our existing sponsors. You know, we have a very happy group including Line-X, the primary sponsor of Travis’s truck, they’ve stuck behind us and will continue to do so.
Alex: Um-hmm.
Alex: Well you know, we’re really looking forward to the last part of this year. You know, to have Travis in the 24 truck, and having the team, that we think is the best out there, to be to go to Richmond, and we hope we’ll have a shot at winning the race. We know we’re going to be highly competitive we hope for the rest of the year. And hopefully we can bring Travis a championship and he can be 2003 and 2004 Craftsman Truck Series Champion.
Claire: Can you do that without manufacturer support?
Alex: [pause] I think it would be difficult if he didn’t have manufacturers support. But as I said we’ll be making a joint press announcement with Toyota next week. And I think we’ll be running for the championship.(XM Satellite NASCAR Radio 144)(9-5-2004)
