Despite Busch success, Baldwin unsure of future

AVONDALE, Ariz. -- Veteran crew chief Tommy Baldwin may not know what his next Winston Cup role will be -- but after another top-10 finish by his NASCAR Busch Series driver, Wally Dallenbach -- he's sure his Busch Series team can compete.

	Tommy Baldwin

"We're definitely having fun with this," Baldwin said after NBC/TNT TV commentator Dallenbach scored his third top-15 finish in three starts, in Saturday's Bashas' 200 at Phoenix International Raceway. "We figured we'd work together this year to learn about next year.

"If we get a sponsor for this deal, we are going to build some cars that are adaptable to these type of racetracks. I mean, this is our Charlotte/Atlanta car -- this isn't a short-track car by no means."

That didn't matter to Dallenbach, who for the third time this season did some prep work for Sunday's Winston Cup broadcast in the cockpit of a Busch car.

"There's no more fun than this available, if you ask me," Dallenbach said. "The three races I did this year I can't remember having more fun in a race car -- it's been a long time.

"It's just nice being with a good team that knows how to make adjustments during the race when the car is a piece of (junk), and get the thing better and I am having a ball."

"We're looking forward to the future of Tommy Baldwin Racing," the owner said. "We've got a really good bunch of guys here already and we're building, man -- we're building."

"After only working together for three weeks or so, I think we're really showing some potential," Dallenbach said. "If we can do this in three races, I wish somebody would give us a shot at a decent deal."

After four seasons' worth of races with Bill Davis Racing, Baldwin split with the team and driver Ward Burton after the Protection One 400 at Kansas Speedway.

In the weeks since, in addition to operating his own Busch team with co-owner Eddie D'Hondt, he has also been entertaining Winston Cup crew chief offers.

"We're close to putting a deal together to go to a Cup team and build a good, solid program over there," Baldwin said. "I am real excited about that for the future. We've got a couple more times to talk over there (and) hopefully we're close to a good deal for the future for me."

While Dallenbach and the No. 6 Pepsi Dodge have kept his competitive juices flowing, it has also interrupted the employment process, he said.

	Wally Dallenbach finished 14th on Saturday in the Bashas' 200. Credit: Autostock

"I could have been at six different places already but for some reason they don't like that I own a Busch team," Baldwin said. "It's been kind of rough, for that, but we've got a couple of good teams that want to build a program and they've got real good people and equipment already (and) we just have to come in there and pick up where they are already to build a program."

Baldwin and Dallenbach agreed that the future looks bright for their cooperative effort, after scoring a 14th at Michigan in August, a seventh at Lowe's Motor Speedway last month and Saturday's 9th-place effort.

"We're real close to putting something together to run Wally in more races next year," Baldwin said. "We're real close to a lot of exciting news. We hope in the next two weeks to be able to announce some things."

"We hope by Homestead to be able to announce something -- at least a letter of intent," Dallenbach said. "We've got three or four sponsors that are looking hard at this program (and) frankly, with the three races that we've had, if we can't sign anybody I am going to go back to the booth to stay."

"We've got a lot of good things happening with three good race car drivers we want to work with and it's going to be pretty exciting," Baldwin said. "It's a full-time program -- I don't know about a full season (but) we're working on it.

"Everything we've got going on right now is real exciting."