For at least one more weekend, TRG Motorsports will be able to enjoy the benefits of what's been perhaps the supreme accomplishment of the 2009 Sprint Cup season, racing into the top 35 in the owners' standings despite giving away one event.

TRG's biggest hope on the eve of Sunday's Goody's Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway is that it continues, as procuring sponsorship will determine the team's schedule moving forward.

“

We're lean, we're mean, we're efficient and I've always been proud of the fact that, pound for pound, we're probably the toughest dog in the fight.

”

KEVIN BUCKLER, owner

After missing the season-opening Daytona 500, TRG owner Kevin Buckler met with out-of-work driver David Gilliland and, with a handshake, secured an old-school, race-to-race deal.

After a two-day thrash, which included hiring crew chief Slugger Labbe and Gilliland putting his racing simulator's seat into TRG's race car, the unlikely journey began in California and culminated four races later, after Bristol, with TRG locked into the top 35 (owners' points). Meanwhile, veteran teams from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Yates Racing and Red Bull Racing began 2009 inside the cutoff but fell out.

"At Daytona USA Today had a big story about all the Cinderella teams that were coming there -- 20 new teams -- and now, it's filtered down to where it's all on our backs," Buckler said of his team, the only new operation in the top 35. "So we're the guys carrying the torch. I'm happy to carry it as long as my legs hold out. But we need to put a partner with this team, a sponsor."

A guaranteed starting spot is huge, but not the only positive. TRG's transporter is inside the race track at Martinsville, rather than somewhere outside, as it was at Bristol.

"David and Slugger are doing it on the competition side, and I'm trying to do it behind the scenes on the business side, making our team look attractive and be attractive," Buckler said. "We're very business-oriented, but I've got to put a sponsor on top of this team because it would be a perfect story for NASCAR, too. A new team came in, they did what they were supposed to do, performed well and bingo, they're in. And it's my job to make that happen, and I have a funny feeling that something's going to happen.

"All of a sudden our phones are ringing. We've got two or three guys that are already in this garage that are looking at opportunities and there are some people from outside the series who think they can afford to be on a Sprint Cup program now. They're looking at our [sponsorship] numbers and our costs are less than half of what the big teams' are. These big teams are incredible, and I've learned a lot from them. But I've only known running a cross-utilizing program, where guys do more than one job. We're lean, we're mean, we're efficient and I've always been proud of the fact that, pound for pound, we're probably the toughest dog in the fight. We're small, but we're here to compete with these guys." (Continued)