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."

Labbe took a call from Buckler while driving home from Daytona, after talking with Richard Childress Racing executive Mike Dillon. RCR has provided both cars and engines for TRG through the ECR Engines company. Labbe began work there the Monday after Daytona.

"What we're doing with what we've got is nothing short of amazing," Labbe said. "If people from Hendrick or Roush or Gibbs came by our shop and saw what we've got and what we're doing with what we've got, it's simply amazing and it blows me away.

David Gilliland

2009 Results

Race	Start	Finish	Status
Fontana	32	33	running
Las Vegas	30	14	running
Atlanta	31	24	running
Bristol	14	36	running
Averages	26.8	26.8

“

NASCAR's philosophy of the [new car] and the testing ban truly created an opportunity like this for us. Without it, it would have been impossible ...

”

KEVIN BUCKLER, owner

"I feel very fortunate to be a part of it and it kinda drives you and motivates you to do better. I've worked for good teams and you know what good teams have for resources. We've got nothing -- no engineers, no shock guys. We're just doing it with good, hard-[butt] racing. Everybody is really proud of what we've been able to do."

Gilliland said Labbe has actually been the team's shock specialist. In Labbe's words, "whatever it takes."

"It's been working and I just hope Kevin can get some sponsors, because we need to add some people and some more tools to work with, just a lot of little things," Labbe said. "Like I told Kevin, we can get by without a shock guy and an engineer but I need another race car. Everyone's pitching in and busting their [butts] because they understand if we keep getting good race cars and everybody steps up and works harder, we'll keep doing it with less people."

No matter what happens, Buckler said he's in NASCAR for the long haul.

"NASCAR's philosophy of the [new car] and the testing ban truly created an opportunity like this for us," Buckler said. "Without it, it would have been impossible, and not only that, what I've been most amazed with is all of these teams, everybody here, has been so gracious to us. From the team owners like Mr. Childress and the whole RCR organization, everyone has welcomed the little teams into it.

"With the economy the way it is, they know we need new blood and they're kind of nurturing us along, to a certain extent. I'm not sure it's going to be forever, but without that it would have been super-difficult. I love the camaraderie in the garage here, and by the same token, that we fight each other on the track, so it's cool."

Whatever the future holds, it doesn't change the achievement for anyone involved. That includes Buckler, his company's lead driver for 11 years, with his biggest achievement an unprecedented overall victory in the 2003 Rolex 24 at Daytona in a GT class Porsche. It includes Gilliland, who won a Winston West championship as his father Butch's crew chief in 1997. It includes Labbe, whose deal is similar to Gilliland's. And it includes TRG competition director Butch Hylton, who also serves as crew chief for the organization's Camping World Truck Series team.

The team began the season with only two race cars. Mike Wallace missed the lucrative Daytona 500 by one go-or-go-home spot.

Gilliland, under contract with Yates Racing but rideless with no sponsorship, was ride-shopping at Speedweeks 2009. In a classic networking move Hylton, whom Gilliland knew from working together at Yates, set up a meeting with Buckler.

"We thought we were gonna try the next race and someone said, 'You've got to meet this kid. He's a good driver and he's out of a ride,' and we hooked up," Buckler said. "I knew he'd had an accomplished career and that he was a racer. He got a bum deal [in 2008] through no fault of their own and he wasn't able to show his stuff.

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"We needed a real [fire-breather] to qualify our way into the show, because that was our first goal. We've had to have a little different program, which is to set a goal, reach it and then reset. What's impressed me about [Gilliland] is, I gave him a whole different set of instructions, which was probably different than what he was used to: Be conservative, be smart, we've got good equipment but we're a startup little team. The risk is high, but the reward could be high, too, but we've got to balance it. Don't take chances."

The issue, at the time, was that the backup car for the first three intermediate track races was Daytona's superspeedway car. Prior to Bristol, Buckler praised his team, and its driver.

"We had to really be conservative, because it's a chess game, not checkers," Buckler said. "We had to get through qualifying, then finish the race and get some points. And every one of those marks, David hit perfectly, just perfectly."

Labbe was with R3 Motorsports at Daytona, but hooked up with TRG immediately after. His merger with Gilliland has been nothing short of magical, though the veteran mechanic is low key about it. He said he knew what mattered about his driver.

"I saw him win that Busch race at Kentucky, and that was a good one," Labbe said, laughing. "When you're in the sport you get to know people, you meet people and you watch people. I've always known that David was a quiet guy, kinda reserved and really the opposite of me, because I'm kinda outgoing and not afraid to say what's on my mind. He's more reserved.

"That's why the odd couple sometimes works. We get along, he gives me my space and tells me what he thinks is wrong. He gives me my time and space and we just work it out. It's a good combination. I can't believe we've hit it off as good as we have, but I've never really in my career had a young driver. It's just a breath of fresh air for me and I'm really enjoying working with him. It's a lot of fun."

Gilliland, who raced hard enough to get inside the top-35 cutoff while protecting the team's only downforce car, said it was barely possible to quantify what having to qualify each week meant.

"People will never understand the pressure," Gilliland said. "It's just one of those deals that you just can't explain the way it feels going out there. We've had a lot of pressure each and every week, but we've done what we needed to do."

Short-staffed hardly fits this team, which finally got its first short-track car just before Bristol. Right after that, Hylton said they took delivery of their Martinsville primary car. Labbe said the relatively undamaged Bristol car would go into the rotation for Darlington, if the team enters.

Above all, after Bristol, Buckler had a good perspective on what his NASCAR group, an off-shoot of his sizeable and diverse sports-car operation, had achieved.

"I know it's coming at us kinda quick," Buckler said, grinning. "But I think one of the advantages in coming over here was that I knew enough to know there was a whole lot to learn. A lot of people come in thinking they're going to re-invent the wheel, and they got whacked.

"I came in trying to be smart enough and knowing that we had a lot to learn, head down, mouth closed, with a humble approach and to be a sponge -- and learn, learn, learn. And that's what we've been doing."