Larry Gunselman was one of six new team owners who started the 2009 NASCAR season with high hopes, and plans to attempt the 36-race Sprint Cup Series schedule.

The number was significant, considering only two other times in the past couple decades had that many new teams entered the sport's premier level with that intention: 2007 when Toyota, the last new manufacturer to come into Cup racing, resulted in seven new teams coming into the sport; and 2001, when Dodge reentered, with about a half-dozen new teams entering.

The decidedly down economy provided an opportunity for several owners:

• Gunselman, who gathered a group of investors to back his second attempt at starting a new team in five years;

• Tommy Baldwin, who had previously fielded a part-time Nationwide Series operation;

• Phil Parsons, who with partner Randy Humphrey continues to field a two-car Nationwide Series program;

• Kevin Buckler, whose TRG Motorsports group had a history of fielding successful sports car teams;

• Joe Nemechek, who previously in his career had operated his own Cup and Nationwide series programs.

• Jeremy Mayfield also started his own team, and has been suspended for a failed drug test. The case is currently in court.

"I still think it's been a great opportunity," Gunselman said, epitomizing the collective group's hopes and dreams. "Some people have had more success than others, and some are gone; but it's a really tough business and anybody who doesn't think it is, needs to give it a second thought."

But to a man, this group has struggled mightily all season to consistently have funding to enable them to make it to the race track, and then to credibly race once they get there.

“

The headaches to try to build it from square one would have been impossible for me. I wouldn't have been able to take on that challenge.

”

-- TONY STEWART

HARSH BOTTOM LINE

Racing in the Cup Series appears to have a lucrative reward, if you only look at purse figures and payouts per position.

"A lot of folks out there think we're getting rich off what we're trying to do," said Nemechek, who's fielding full-time teams in both the Cup and Nationwide series this season. "My bank account has went down tremendously since the beginning of the year [because] this isn't an easy deal to do and it's not a cheap deal to do, with the funding.

"It's real expensive to do, before you go to do it [race]. We do the best we can with what we have to work with on a weekly basis."

No less a figure than Cup Series points leader Tony Stewart gave high raise to the six owners who came in this season from ground zero and he spoke from the perspective of a fellow owner, having taken control of the former Haas CNC Racing prior to this season.

"It's kind of the same situation we were talking about with the start-and-park side -- it's all they can do to get here," Stewart said. "You think about that. These are guys that have raced and been successful in different aspects of this sport and taking everything they've made in this sport and invested it back in.

"They very easily could have just walked away and retired but these are guys that are that committed to this series and this sport to want to be a part of it and want to try to make a name for themselves as car owners, too. You've got to give those guys a pat on the back for taking that chance and being that committed to this."

But even with his vocal support, there was one major difference between what Stewart's attempted this season and the new entries. Unlike the six organizations that started basically from scratch, Stewart had the benefit of stepping into an operation that fielded one car full-time in 2003 and added a second car in '07.

"I never would have considered it in the first place -- that's why this was the right opportunity for us, it was an existing deal," Stewart said of the challenge of making a fresh start. "The headaches to try to build it from square one would have been impossible for me. I wouldn't have been able to take on that challenge.

"That's why I tell people from the start that Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon -- those guys that have started their own deal from scratch, that's what makes them more impressive than what we've done and how we've done it. The model was already there for me, it was just inserting people; where [the new owners] had to do it all from scratch."

TEAM-BY-TEAM

A representative from each of the six operations that started the season assessed where they feel their operations are and their longer-range plans:

Tommy Baldwin Racing -- No. 36 Toyota

• Attempts: 23
• Did Not Enter: 0
• Made: 16
• Rainout DNQs: 0
• Best Finish: 25
• Money won: $1,514,146

Baldwin, a Long Island native who began his career racing with his noted father, Tom Baldwin's homegrown Modified racing team, became one of the most respected crew chiefs in the Cup garage, winning the 2002 Daytona 500 with Ward Burton. And Baldwin isn't a newcomer to team ownership; he previously formed a Busch Series operation.

But as several other motorsports veterans also figured, he thought the time was right to make a leap into Cup in 2009, and when his fledgling squad made the Daytona 500, his gut feeling was rewarded.

"It's been difficult, to say the least, but it really hasn't been any different than the plan and what we had mapped out from the beginning of the year," Baldwin said. "We figured maybe if we got lucky and created a lot of excitement, there might be some companies out there looking to pick up on that. But we knew that the reality of it, with the way the economy's been going and still is, that would be a slim chance."

The balance of finding the funding to race fully and competitively has been the most eye-opening, and frustrating part of this season for Baldwin, but he remains committed.

"This is definitely the toughest thing I've ever done in racing because the competition has gotten so intense the last couple years, but we know how to do it, how to run up front, but we just need the proper funding," Baldwin said. "We want to beat this economy and stay in it so that when people are ready to start spending money and marketing their products, we'll be there for them to provide them a service."

Even with the depth of his experience, this season's been a learning experience for Baldwin.

"What we're trying to do is build into a race program, which we are. We started with nothing and we now have eight cars, we have a nice little program," Baldwin said. "It's building every day, and what we're trying to do is stay alive, which we are, and we're preparing for the Daytona 500 as we speak."

Mayfield Motorsports -- No. 41 Toyota

• Attempts: 12
• Did Not Enter: 10 (1 WD)
• Made: 5
• Rainout DNQs: 0
• Best Finish = 32
• Money won: $568,888

Veteran driver and five-time Cup Series winner Jeremy Mayfield was without a ride as 2009 opened, but after exploring his options, he decided to pull together some contacts, resources and backing from All Sport's Gary Smith to start his own team virtually within days of Speedweeks 2009.

Along with Baldwin's opening success, Mayfield racing his way into the Daytona 500 in his Duel qualifier was one of the best stories of Speedweeks, and he followed it by qualifying the next weekend in Fontana.

But the team made only three of its next nine attempts, and in the process, NASCAR's random drug testing process flagged Mayfield for alleged methamphetamine use. He was suspended after he failed to qualify at Darlington.

The team entered J.J. Yeley in the Sprint Showdown and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, with Yeley missing the latter. The team entered him at Dover, but withdrew the entry.

In the weeks that followed, Mayfield's 12-15 employees were laid off and ultimately, the team's fleet of cars and its hauler were sold to Georgia team owner John Carter, who made the race at Indianapolis with Terry Labonte driving one of the ex-Mayfield Toyotas.

"I think the team was heading in the right direction for sure," said Mayfield, who's involved in a protracted legal battle with NASCAR that isn't scheduled to go to trial until late 2010. "We were spending the time, each week, learning about the cars and what they wanted and needed.

"Of course we wanted to make all the races, but realistically I think what we accomplished in the short amount of time we had was good. We were the last team to throw it together, per se, and to make it in the [Daytona] 500 was a huge accomplishment."

Mayfield, who joined with veteran crew chief Tony Furr and Cecil Tipton to form the backbone of his operation, echoed the experience of his other newly minted owners on several counts, finding sponsorship and his intent to compete.

"Finding money was definitely the biggest hurdle, but I said when I started this deal that I was not going to do it for a paycheck -- I wanted to show up every week and race," Mayfield said. "I don't think you can legitimately build yourself and your team into a weekly contender if you go with the mindset of just showing up. I went to race, because that's what I love to do.

"It's tough in this economy to find money, but we had just signed a three-year deal with SmallSponsor and also had All Sport, so I think we were going to be OK in the long run with sponsorship."

The biggest downside to Mayfield's attempt to race was a suit filed earlier this summer by Triad Racing Technologies to collect nearly $80,000 in bills for work Triad did assisting Mayfield getting his operation up and running.

Mayfield declined to comment on its status.

Gunselman Motorsports -- No. 64 Toyota

• Attempts: 14
• Did Not Enter: 3 (6 WD)
• Made: 4
• Rainout DNQs: 2
• Best Finish: 37
• Money won: $329,306

Gunselman, a Washington State native who won races on the former Winston West Series before relocating to the East Coast to further his racing career, is actually in his second stint as a Cup team owner. He helped form a team in 2005 that competed for most of the schedule.

But that was then and this is now, and despite still maintaining some optimism Gunselman was looking at stark reality at Michigan as he withdrew his sixth race to marshal his finances and look ahead on the schedule.

"We're scraping the bottom of the barrel," Gunselman said. "We felt like we'd have a better shot at making Bristol than we would Michigan, and it costs less to go to Bristol."

Gunselman had his best success early in the season, when 2006 Truck Series champion Todd Bodine was in his car with championship crew chief Doug Richert running the show. However, Gunselman said he's still committed to doing what he has to do to race when he goes to the track.

That means shaving corners wherever possible, like moving the operation into current driver Mike Wallace's 4,000-square-foot shop and serving as his own team's crew chief.

"It's been a tough year, but we're still holding on, albeit by a thread," Gunselman said. "I've found out first-hand that the race to make the races is as tough as the one out front, so we have to position ourselves a little bit better, to move up one notch and we've been close."

And as he claimed at the beginning of the season when he laid out his initial plan, Gunselman is committed to the long haul.

"We've gone through a lot of resources to get to this point and we're trying hard to continue on," he said. "We look forward to getting through this year and next year, I think the same situation is going to happen, and if we get through this year I think there'll be some more opportunities to go out and race next year."

The team was in position to do that at Bristol in the spring, where Bodine qualified 16th and was running in the top 15 before he was spun out, wrecked and finished 42nd.

Prism Motorsports -- No. 66 Toyota

• Attempts: 23
• Did Not Enter: 0
• Made: 21
• Rainout DNQs: 0
• Best Finish: 24
• Money won: $1,858,808

Parsons has devoted his life to racing, beginning -- and winning -- in NASCAR's Baby Grand division before moving up to the Nationwide and Cup series, winning races in each. He ultimately diversified into team ownership and broadcasting.

Currently attempting to field three full-time teams -- two in the Nationwide Series titled MSRP Motorsports and the Prism Motorsports team in the Cup Series -- basically without sponsorship, Parsons is still optimistic.

"In just trying to build a team up, this is an opportunity year for several people and we feel like we're one of them," Parsons said of his program, which also has technical support from Waltrip Racing. "We're trying to do that and we'd love to be in a position to attract some sponsorship and race a lot more, because we've got great people and a terrific driver."

Parsons, whose Nationwide teams have been derided as start-and-park programs, at Watkins Glen proved the mettle of his group when, running with full sponsorship on the car for the first time this season, Dave Blaney -- a non-road racing specialist and his primary Cup driver -- finished 13th.

"It's been very positive," Parsons said of the Cup program. "But the only negative is that we had full intentions of racing, a lot, thought we had some [sponsorship] lined up that didn't materialize, so we haven't been able to race as much as we would have liked. But when we have, we've been pretty good."

Building for the future is what Parsons says he's committed to, as is Blaney, who's taken good care of the four cars the team has.

"Sponsorship is the difference between racing and not racing, and I knew it would be challenging because that's what created this opportunity for us," Parsons said. "We're just going to try to keep digging, here. We know the economy's going to turn around and hopefully we'll have something viable here, that somebody will look at."

TRG Motorsports -- No. 71 Chevrolet

• Attempts: 23
• Did Not Enter: 0
• Made: 22
• Rainout DNQs: 0
• Best Finish: 14
• Money won: $1,797,594

TRG Motorsports principal Kevin Buckler knows what it takes to successfully coordinate multiple motorsports programs on both coasts of the United States, and also the challenge of trying to compete in the "now" while preparing for "then," namely 2010.

"On Jan. 1, there wasn't a person hired and we didn't have a car for this Cup program, which we decided to do in the middle of January," Buckler said. "But my overall feeling is very positive. I'm most pleased with how we've been received by the series and the other competitors. Everybody's made us feel welcome and part of that, I think, is that we haven't overstepped our boundaries."

For the guy who's won 24-hour sports car races on two different continents, racing in NASCAR presents a wholly different challenge.

"Coming into Daytona this year I was coming from two polar opposites, because we'd just finished one-two in the Rolex 24, which is unprecedented. And then we came to Cup, which I've never done before, and we're partnering with Richard Childress and really taking a head-down, humble approach," Buckler said. "Then we barely missed the Daytona 500 and I remember how bad I felt reading a story that weekend in USA Today about all the new teams, and because we missed the race there was only a one-line mention."

The season has picked up since then and TRG, with David Gilliland driving all but one race in its No. 71 Chevrolet, has made every event. And like all the other newcomers except Mayfield, Buckler has a precise plan for the future, though exactly how it will come to fruition remains to be seen.

"After missing Daytona, we trudged through the next six weeks and made it into the top 35 [in owners' points]," Buckler said. "We're a new, start-up team with a limited budget and we know our limitations. But everyone sees that we're giving it our all and they encourage you, and I love that part of it."

NEMCO Motorsports -- No. 87 Toyota

• Attempts: 23
• Did Not Enter: 0
• Made: 20
• Rainout DNQs: 0
• Best Finish: 14
• Money won: $1,638,064

Joe Nemechek won a Nationwide Series championship with his family-run team in 1992, and a few years later owned his own Cup Series cars. After stints with a variety of owners yielded 20 career victories, Nemechek's come full circle to perhaps his biggest challenge in racing, given the economy.

"Until the last race at Homestead last year, I never thought I'd be in this position, and unemployed this year. But when that occurs, you've got to make something happen," Nemechek said. "I know racing, and we started a team, and I'm happy that our team has performed as well as it has so far.

"But I'm disappointed that we've missed three races this year so far, including Daytona, where it was the smallest of margins that we were out [on speed], and then in the 150, a guy blocked me who didn't need to and changed the outcome of my day.

"We've learned a lot since then, and I feel like I know what we need to go fast on the race track. We missed the races at Michigan and Watkins Glen by less than a tenth [of a second] total."

NEMCO Motorsports' Nationwide Series car is a guaranteed starter thanks to its position in the top 30 in the standings, but Nemechek's been required to qualify on speed all season in the Cup Series, and despite the same general paucity of funding felt by teams throughout the garage, has been pretty successful.

"I'm disappointed, because I thought we'd pick up more sponsors through the year, and it just hasn't happened. But we appreciate the companies that have stepped up, because every dollar counts in this thing," Nemechek said. "Like I told Philippe Lopez, my crew chief and general manager [Randy Usher], we have to have money coming in to race, and that's the toughest thing for me, because starting the race and running 10 laps and stopping is not what I know. I'm a racer."

Through it all, Nemechek has, by necessity, latched onto what's become a popular phrase in all three of NASCAR's national garages -- in fact, in all of motorsports. Namely, it's doing more with less -- and for less sponsorship money -- and that includes having only five full-time employees on his Cup team and three on the Nationwide side.

"When we do race, we contract out a lot of the pit crew guys [but] I think we've got a great thing going, and we can give any potential partners out there a bigger bang for their dollar," Nemechek said. "It's been busy lately, and we've been sending out proposal after proposal. Overall, it's been decent, but I would have thought we would have had more full races that we'd have been able to run, but we just haven't had the funding."

The flip side of the coin are the three established teams that decided to launch fully-backed, full-time programs in the case of Cup powerhouse Richard Childress Racing and long-time Busch and Nationwide series operation JTG Daugherty Racing and Germain Racing, which came into the series planning to run a select schedule of just under half the total races.

Bowyer

In Cup Series racing, money usually talks and, with plenty of sponsorship in place to start a fourth team, bolstered by his squads consistently making the Chase for the past three seasons, Childress did just that for 2009. But he gave it a twist by placing fourth-year pilot Clint Bowyer to the new team.

As RCR team manager Mike Dillon said, the entire organization has struggled, as none of its four teams is currently in a Chase-qualified spot. But its new team has the best shot as, after posting four top-10 finishes in his past five starts, Bowyer is only 58 points behind the 12th and final qualified position for the Chase, which will be decided in three more races.

"I think that team is every bit as solid as our other teams that have been together longer, even though as a whole our company's been off, though we're making changes to get that speed back," Dillon said. "But we put the right person in charge, with [crew chief] Shane Wilson, he's hand-picked the key people to be there with him and they're as veteran as any team that we have."

One of the biggest surprises of the 2009 Sprint Cup season has been the consistent effectiveness of Tasmanian Marcos Ambrose, who came into the season with only five Cup starts and three seasons total in American stock cars.

Ambrose

A couple weeks ago Ambrose backed-up last season's Nationwide Series victory at Watkins Glen and the next day, scored a career-best second-place finish in the Cup race. With three races remaining until the Chase cutoff, Ambrose is no threat to qualify but according to team co-owner Tad Geschickter, he's well ahead of schedule as he sits 17th in the drivers' standings.

The owner, who with his wife Jodi formed their original Busch Series operation, ST Motorsports, in the mid-1990s, said that in addition to Ambrose's development, an offseason partnership formed with Michael Waltrip Racing was the key to their success this season.

"Our objective down the stretch this year was to be in the top 25 in points, but I had no doubts in Marcos being prepared to do this," Geschickter said. "Obviously when you pull a new group of guys together and start out at the top level, you have some worries. I had a healthy respect for it, but I wasn't intimidated.

"[Crew chief] Frankie Kerr's a great leader and everything's gelled quicker than I thought it would. We knew we had to do a technical alliance, and decided to put a twist on it by embedding our people at Michael Waltrip Racing, and it's been a big jump-start the way that organization has embraced us.

Papis

"The fact that they've treated us as teammates has definitely been a big part of our success, so we're ahead of schedule; I think we made a lot of the right decisions, so we're excited."

The Germain brothers' racing team, in very short order and thanks in good part to the hands-on guidance of the seasoned Hillman family -- father Mike and son Mike Jr. -- has won a Truck Series championship, created a concurrent and competitive Nationwide Series program and this season launched a Cup Series program that is receiving technical assistance from Michael Waltrip Racing.

The elder Hillman, the team manager and crew chief for Max Papis, has long labored behind the scenes as a test pilot to build the foundation for a hoped-for NASCAR career. He is pleased with the mid-season results and contemplating a full-season schedule in 2010. Hillman said getting the approval of primary sponsor GEICO would be a key.

"We've had a lot of discussions about it and next year we're actually thinking about running all of the races; the ones that we have funding for, competing in and the ones that we don't, doing the best we can and get the experience, so we're better everywhere else," Hillman said. "Max is really learning and I think it would have been different if we could have done some serious testing and really gotten on track with that, so we could have worked on qualifying stuff more, but I'm proud of what we've accomplished."