The No. 96 Chevrolet will have a different driver behind the wheel this weekend at Martinsville. Credit: Autostock

Conversation: T. Raines

Well-traveled driver excited to take wheel for Hall of Fame Racing

The 2003 season was supposed to have been a springboard to bigger and better things for Tony Raines, the 1999 Busch Series rookie of the year. Two seasons in the Truck Series preceded four years in Busch, and Raines knew he was ready to run with the big boys.

Inside the Numbers Tony Raines in the Cup Series Starts 54 Wins 0 Top-5s 0 Top-10s 1* Laps Led 3 Avg. Start 32.8 Avg. Finish 30.4 * -- Finished sixth in Fall 2003 race at Rockingham In the Busch Series Starts 183 Wins 0 Top-5s 14 Top-10s 44 Laps Led 212 Avg. Start 22.1 Avg. Finish 19.1 In the Craftsman Truck Series Starts 53 Wins 4 Top-5s 11 Top-10s 22 Laps Led 394 Avg. Start 13.1 Avg. Finish 14.6

Driving the No. 74 Chevrolet for Bruce Baumgardner's BACE Motorsports, Raines qualified for 35 of 36 races in 2003 and finished 33rd in points. The team ended the year with four consecutive top-20 finishes, but that meant little to the bottom line. Only seven times did the car have a sponsor that season, and Baumgardner was forced to pull the plug.

Raines made six starts in both 2004 and 2005, driving for the likes of James Finch, Bill Davis, Joe Auer, Bob Jenkins and John Carter. His best finish was 22nd at Talladega on Oct. 2, 2005, in his last Cup start.

Enter first-year team Hall of Fame Racing, owned by Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman.

The former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks formed a Cup team, landed DLP -- a division of Texas Instruments -- as its sponsor and hired Raines as its driver. With one caveat: Because the team is new and had no owners' points, Hall of Fame hired Terry Labonte to drive the season's first five races so he could fall back on a past champion's provisional (if needed) to ensure the car would make the field under NASCAR's qualifying system.

Now, Raines gets his chance to drive the No. 96 beginning Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. Relaxed in jeans, instead of a driver's suit, Raines munched on orange slices Sunday morning at Bristol while those around him prepared for the final of Labonte's season-opening five starts:

Q: After sitting on the sidelines for the first five races, you get to jump in the car at Martinsville -- not the easiest track on the schedule. Is there any anxiety?

Raines: Yeah, if I'd have had a first choice, that wouldn't have been Martinsville. It's sort of like musical chairs; it's a tough track to pass on. If I go there with the mindset of taking care of the car, racing the track and letting the pit crew do their job and keep all the fenders on it we should have a reasonably good day.

Q: How has it been the past five weeks watching Terry run the car, but not being "the guy in the No. 96 car?"

Raines: At times it's been a little tough, and other times it's not. On Friday and Saturdays when you have practice and there are a lot of changes on the car and a lot of communication with the crew, you can stay involved with that, and that's all good. But Sunday is kind of hard. There's not as much going on so it's a little bit tougher. All in all, it hasn't been that bad; these five races have gone by pretty fast.

Q: When Hall of Fame Racing called and offered you the job, what were you thinking?

Raines: It was pretty cool, and then as things went along -- the DLP sponsorship, Roger and Troy as owners, Terry as a co-driver -- it's all pretty neat stuff and I'm just thankful for the opportunity and anxious to get started.

Q: Have you had a chance to sit down with Roger and Troy and shoot the breeze?

Raines: Yeah, they've been to a couple of races. When I flew out to Dallas to meet with them about this job, I told my wife that even if I don't get the job [the chance to] sit down with Roger and Troy was a neat experience. I imagine driving for them will be real interesting as the season goes along.

They'll probably offer some tips as the season goes along; they're paying attention. They are very, very competitive -- both of them are -- and that's a good thing. They want to do whatever they can to make this team get better. If we're lacking something, figure out a way to get it. If I can go out and run well, make the owners happy ... those are good goals.

Q: You ran the full season in 2003, so sponsorship commitments aren't new to you. How much will that play into your first full week on the job?

Raines: I have a little more to do, people to talk to ... but even though I haven't been driving I've been busy doing things for DLP. I'm excited to do both sides of the job. The racing part is the fun part; the sponsor commitments you do with DLP and TI are part of the job, but the fun part is from green to checkered.

Q: With DLP as your primary sponsor, what's the coolest piece of swag you've gotten?

Raines: I was fortunate enough to get a TV as big as my living room wall. I got it all hooked up and popped in [son Leland's] DVD and he looked like he was in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He just stood there in awe, shocked at the TV. It's awesome quality, but it's as big as my living room. I actually got the 50-inch model; they wanted to give me a bigger one, but I didn't have enough house.

Q: You've got a lot of seat time and Martinsville won't be your first rodeo. Are you confident you can go to Martinsville and be competitive right off the truck?

Raines: They're counting on that. I might be rusty for a race or two. I'm not a rookie, but I'm not tired of this sport either. I'm hungry, I want to go run well, race well and prove that I'm as good as I think I am.

This will be a great chance to prove that, with good equipment and the relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing [which provides engines for the team] -- all the right things are there to run well. It may not happen overnight, but I expect to have some good runs this summer -- and the more the merrier.

Q: Which track are you most looking forward to?

Raines: Probably Dover. I love Bristol; it's concrete and I've run well here, and I've run well at Dover in both Busch and Cup. I think the reason I say that is because that was my first Cup race and I've just always had fun there. I'm eager to go there. If I thought I was going to have a breakout race that would probably be my pick for where it would happen.

Q: So how much pressure is on you going to Texas?

Raines: All of it. In a way, it's good to be in that situation. If everything goes well and the TI folks are there and they have a fun weekend and we have a good race, it's just going to give us momentum going through the season.

Q: At that point do you go in and say, "Hey, I came through for you; do I get a raise?"

Raines: I might do that after I win -- not before.