During a testing session for the upcoming Snowball Derby [Dec. 2-6] at Five Flags Speedway located in Pensacola, Florida, I had the opportunity to ask Kyle Busch how things were progressing with the truck team he’s been trying to put together.
Q: You and your truck team — how are things progressing on that?
A: It’s going nowhere fast. I’ve got no shop to put my stuff in, my builders can’t build a building in three years, got no hauler, no trucks no equipment.so, it’s pretty late in the year. Obviously we’re already to Homestead; we only have two months before Daytona so it’s a short amount of time to put a lot together. I don’t think it’s going to happen. So if Billy’s [Ballew] got an open seat for me over at Ballew, I’d be happy to take it again and hopefully we can get Miccosukee to return. They’ve been a great partner for us, as well as Toyota.
Q: So it looks like you are going back to Billy Ballew next year?
A: Yeah right now. I’d love to run some truck races. He’s got Aric Almirola over therehe’s done a great job for themif he wants to run one deal. If he wants to stay two, I’d take it.
Q: It’s been reported that you were talking to Johnny Benson about the new team?
A: We talked to Johnny Benson; we had some conversations with the Con-way people. Unfortunately for us, fortunately for Jack [Roush], they decided to go the Nationwide route. So that deal feel throughthere’s nothing else that JB’s dragged up. He’s got championship driver points, where he can make any race he wants too, but for me, I’ve got no equipment. All I have is my late model stuff here and these things don’t translate anything close to what a truck is. None of the suspension parts are the same; nothing. So I’d have to start over, buy all new.
Q: Rumor has it that you are buying Brian Scott’s trucks?
A: We’ve been in discussions with Brian Scott. Nothing has come close to being finalizedthe price is way too high. Of course they want to get their money’s worth from what they bought, so, for whatever the economy is, for whatever the price of the Truck Series is, I feel it’s a bit expensive. You know if I wanted to do it right, I would be sure that I would have the right stuff and the right people built up before I got to Homestead.
Q: You said the new shop’s not done yet?
A: Not even close. It started out being 62,000 sq ft and we’ve added on a couple of different areas for toys and stuff like that because I’m putting my late models in there. We’re also going to start building our own late model chassis’. I was going to put my play toys in there – I’ve got sand cars and four-wheelers some Corvettes some Toyota Tundra’s. I’ve got some nice stuff that I want to keep indoors and that’s what I’m building it for and every time we take a step forward it’s like we take three or four steps back the process is not going good. I started this project back in ’07 and I’m still nowhere close. It’s frustrating. It’s been an ongoing process for three years. The building looks great, it’s awesome from the outside. love to be inside of itwe’re working as hard and as fast as we can.
Q: So it’s not looking good for the truck team?
A: It’s not looking good. I’d love to do it and I wish I could do it, but it’s not looking good.
(Nancy/Jayski.com)(11-16-2009)
UPDATE: During the qualifying broadcast on SPEEDtv, Phil Parsons reported that he had spoken with Billy Ballew. Ballew said that he had been notifed that Kyle Busch would be leaving Billy Ballew Motorsports and starting his own team in 2010.(11-20-2009)
UPDATE 2: During Sunday night’s SPEED Report broadcast on SPEEDtv, Ray Dunlap reported that although Kyle Busch has been waivering over the last couple of weeks as to whether or not he will have a team in 2010, Dunlap said Busch will have a team, and it will definitely be at least two trucks. Dunlap reported that he was also hearing in the garage this week that Taylor Malsam will join Kyle Busch — Kyle will run the companion weeks and there will be another driver in the #51 for Kyle Busch Motorsports.(11-23-2009)
