Krisiloff has heritage and heart in racing

FONTANA, Calif. -- It's not a surprise to see a new race team show up with the family's business on the side of the car.

However, for Kyle Krisiloff, the "family business" is Clabber Girl baking powder, a multi-million dollar corporation founded by the Hulman family. You might have heard of them -- his great-grandfather bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1946 and it remains as a family operation to this day.

Plus his father, Steve Krisiloff, made 11 starts in the Indianapolis 500, posting five top-10 finishes.

Still, all connections aside, it's up to Krisiloff to make his own name in the Busch Series. And as a one-car, Busch-only team, he knows the No. 14 crew is facing an uphill battle.

Krisiloff survived the season-opener at Daytona, finishing 27th. Now as the series heads west, the team is trying to work the bugs out of a new car that wasn't ready for the Las Vegas test last month. Krisiloff was 28th out of the 41 cars on the track during Friday's first practice, then slipped to 35th during the final session.

"The track was real grippy early on because of the rain and how cold it was," Krisiloff said. "We were real tight the whole practice. We're going to work on some things before qualifying. We just chased the track."

Krisiloff made only 12 starts in the Craftsman Truck Series last season -- with a best of 16th at Atlanta -- before this opportunity presented itself. The biggest challenge now for Krisiloff's team is getting all the equipment and personnel in place.

"We're still working on getting our fleet to where it needs to be," Krisiloff said. "We need some more race cars, some more people, but things are coming together.

"We've got a lot of experienced people, really reputable people in motorsports. But basically we started this thing from the ground up. We have people who know what they're doing, but like everything, it takes time."

Krisiloff's goal is simple: Get to the point where he's competitive with other teams in a similar situation.

"As the year goes, I think we'd like to be a car that can be one of the best standalone Busch teams," Krisiloff said. "That would be our goal by the end of the year, to be right up there among the best cars that don't have a Cup affiliation.

"The Busch Series is really tough. To grow this thing in one year to where some of these other teams are is a little bit unrealistic and we know that. We just want to have some good top-15, top-10 finishes -- and hopefully be one of the better rookies toward the end of the year."

Krisiloff said his father's advice can only go so far.

"A racecar's a racecar, so he can help a little bit, but these cars, the way we run with the springs and the shocks these days, how soft we run them in the front, they feel a lot different," he said. "He helps as much as he can but also he knows the cars, they drive so much different than they used to."