Dale Earnhardt Jr. (left) with Martin Truex Jr. Truex turned in the most dominating Busch season since Jeff Green's title romp in 2000. Credit: Autostock

Dale Jr.'s new title: Championship owner

DARLINGTON, S.C -- When Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his stepmother, Teresa, formed Chance 2 Motorsports, it was not supposed to be a full-time deal.

It was a part-time effort, intended as a development program for Dale Earnhardt Inc. employees.

Boy, did that work out well.

Truex leads all Busch drivers in wins, top-fives and top-10s. Credit: Autostock

Martin Truex Jr., son of NASCAR Modified driver Martin Truex, gave Chance 2 its big chance at a NASCAR Busch Series title this season, and on Saturday, he sealed the deal.

It really wasn't one of the team's better days. Truex ran around the back half of the top 10 all day and wound up fourth at the finish.

But since Kyle Busch caught part of an early crash and then spun and crashed all by himself 40 laps from the finish, Truex goes to Homestead next week as the series champion.

To continue the trend, another team owned by a Nextel Cup star ended up in Victory Lane on Saturday. Rusty Wallace earned his first career victory as a Busch car owner when Jamie McMurray held off Ashton Lewis Jr. for the victory.

On winning his first Busch Series title as a car owner, Earnhardt was somewhat giddy.

Truex (left) with Teresa Earnhardt Credit: Autostock

"I won the Busch Series title in my first full year and I won the Busch Series title as an owner my first full year," he said. "I feel like a real dominant force in this series."

Earnhardt said that what started out as a 22-race program for 2004 with Truex turned into a full-out run for the title based on enthusiasm and performance.

"I never anticipated coming full-circle this fast," Earnhardt said. "I never anticipated running a full schedule this quickly. We just kept on working with Martin and that became more promising and more promising.

"It was almost as if his acceleration and learning curve was faster than how we wanted to build the team."

Wrangler, in fact, was on the car when Truex clinched the title, and that meant a lot to Earnhardt, who convinced the company to back the team in several races.

Truex became the 18th different driver to win a Busch title. Credit: Autostock

The paint scheme of the car was one Earnhardt favored and it was the early 1980s look his father ran for Richard Childress and Bud Moore.

"We had an association with Wrangler, and we didn't have enough sponsors for all the races, so I carved into the personal agreement some money that shoved over to the Busch team and put them on the car for a couple of races, which they were really excited about.

" I asked Martin if he could do anything possible for me this weekend it would be to wrap up the championship in this car. It was just kind of a special scheme for me, and one that I enjoyed for many years," Earnhardt said.

Chance 2 was formed 18 months ago as a way for DEI employees to broaden their horizons. Truex was chosen as its driver, and the team went to work from the DEI shops.

The employees who chose to go with the new team are one of the prime reasons the team won its championship the first time out, said Earnhardt.

Darlington Busch Videos Truex a champion Truex Jr. accepts the Busch Series championship trophy Victory Lane Jamie McMurray celebrates his second straight Busch Series win Rough day As Truex Jr. celebrates, Kyle Busch ponders what could have been Trouble for Busch Kyle Busch gets into the back of Ron Hornaday Busch KO'ed Riding on worn tires, Kyle Busch spins and wrecks Hard hit Mike McLaughlin smacks the wall hard on Lap 17 Early trouble The Lady in Black strikes early as a handful of cars wreck on Lap 2

"The team itself, 90 percent of them were employees of DEI for many years," he explained. "They saw this as an opportunity and that's really the reason we began this team in the first place.

"It was to get a few more avenues for some of the guys in the fab shop or wherever to be a fabricator or a race-day guy or a traveling man, if that's what they wanted to be.

"A lot of the guys jumped right on it, and I guess that's why it works so well because they really want to be a part of it."

Adding to the fact that Chance 2 gave him his first car-owner title is the possibility that Earnhardt himself could win a Nextel Cup title.

"That'd be really cool," Earnhardt said. "We just kind of take it one day at a time, do the best we can. I just want to come out with a fighting chance into Homestead."

For his part, Truex said that Earnhardt was a big factor in the championship run.

Asked how much his car owner meant to the effort, Truex said, "A lot more than people know and a lot more than he'll get credit for, too. Everything I ever needed to know, all I had to do was ask, and it was there for me."