Credit: Autostock

Lewis takes tough road to Busch top 10

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Among all the big-name drivers and all the high-powered teams in the NASCAR Busch Series top 10 is an unsponsored, unheralded and definitely underdog outfit.

Ashton Lewis

The family-owned Lewis Motorsports team has quietly, almost silently, crept to 10th in the Busch points standings as the series heads to Michigan International Speedway for this weekend's Cabela's 250.

Driver Ashton Lewis Jr. moved to 10th after a 14th-place finish two weekends at Indianapolis Raceway Park, the sixth top-15 finish in the last eight races. Lewis Jr., along with crew chief and brother Charlie, work for their dad, Ashton Lewis Sr.

The No. 46 Chevrolet has no full-time sponsor, so dad has to pay all the bills. With a team of 10 employees, the cost isn't as high as, say, Hendrick Motorsports, but Busch Series racing isn't cheap.

ASHTON LEWIS JR. •   Driver Page •   2004 Stats

And therein lies the problem for Lewis Motorsports. It's great the team can run in the top 10, but Lewis Jr. knows his father's finances don't last forever.

"We'd have to close the doors here," Lewis Jr. said. "It's everything we could do to stretch it out until the end of the year. If something doesn't come about by the end of the season, we're going to have to close down."

So while Nextel Cup drivers are squabbling over plastic bottles on their cars in Victory Lane, Lewis Jr. wonders about his future.

Busch Series •   Results •   Standings •   Schedule •   Best 25 Over Last Six Races •   Best Starts •   Best Finishes

A sponsor could come along and keep the team going, but that doesn't seem likely at this point in the season. And that's difficult to take.

"It's very frustrating from our standpoint because we see where the team is," Lewis Jr. said. "We're 10th in the points right now, we've got some momentum on our side. The last couple races haven't been great, but we've had good racecars in them.

"To get our team in that position from where we started four or five years ago, that's the frustrating side of this sport. It can't go without the sponsorship side of it. That's what we're lacking."

All of the teams in the top 20 in Busch Series points have sponsors, and many are tied to Nextel Cup teams, providing more resources.

But Lewis Motorsports does it with 10 full-time employees and a lot of hard work. Started in 2000 by Ashton Lewis Sr., the team has gradually improved, and Lewis Jr. was 12th in points last year with 10 top-10 finishes.

Four of those top-10s came in the last eight races of the year, so Lewis Jr. figured things would be fine at the start of 2004.

Credit: Autostock

"We felt like at the beginning of the year we were a top-10 team," Lewis Jr. said. "We would have liked to have had a sponsor and feel a little bit more secure there, but the way we finished off last season, we should be fighting for a top-10 and fighting for wins. It was really kind of disappointing the way the season started out."

Lewis Jr. finished on the lead lap in only two of the first seven races and was 23rd in points after Talladega. The problem? Aerodynamics.

The bodies the team used simply were behind. And without money to go to the wind tunnel, catching up seemed impossible.

But that's when James Ince came aboard. The former Nextel Cup crew chief was hired as a consultant, and Ince immediately worked to put better bodies on the cars.

By June, Lewis Jr. had a new-bodied car, and that's when things began to turn around. He was ninth at Nashville and eighth at Kentucky and has finished on the lead lap in four of the last five races.

Charlie Lewis is still the crew chief, but Ince comes to the shop every day to help out, too.

And while other teams can get to the wind tunnel six or seven times, Lewis Motorsports has been twice.

"It's very tough, but it's very challenging," Lewis Jr. said. "It definitely is a motivator. We came away fifth at Chicago and had a chance to win that race. When you go out there and run that strong against those kid of resources and those kind of teams, there is a lot of satisfaction."

The Tropicana Twister 300 may have been the highlight of the season. Lewis Jr. started 23rd but rallied to a fifth-place finish.

Races like those give Lewis Jr. and the team a lot of confidence in securing a sponsor, but that's easier said than done. Finishing fifth at Chicagoland Speedway is a walk in the park compared to pitching a company on a million-dollar sponsorship deal.

Credit: Autostock

"That is our biggest downfall," Lewis Jr. said. "We feel like we're very good racers, we know how to make cars fast, we know how to be competitive. The one thing we're not good at is selling ourselves.

"That's the frustrating part of it. We know we can go out there and perform for a sponsor. We're just not really good at showing them how to do it right."

Lewis Jr. said the team takes a lot of pride in out-performing teams with more money, but it can be a hollow victory. And many Busch Series sponsors want to be aligned with a Nextel Cup driver.

"If you go through the garage, the other teams know what we're doing and what we're able to accomplish and how we're able to do it and how impressive it is," Lewis said. "But to go to a board room and explain that to a CEO and CFO of a company, it's tough. It's frustrating."

And it's almost the "end of the road." While Lewis Jr. joked that his dad's "retirement fund" is almost used up, the reality isn't as funny.

Unless a full-time backer can be found, the end is near for Lewis Motorsports.

"We know what we have to work with," Lewis said. "We're going to try our best to stretch it out until the end of the year. We're 10th in points, and we'd certainly like to finish the year in the top 10 in points. That kind of accomplishment would speak for itself."