CONCORD, N.C. -- Chase Austin is back -- and this time, maybe with a deal that won't go south on him.

The former racing phenom, who signed a development deal with Hendrick Motorsports at 15 before that program was disbanded in the aftermath of the airplane crash that devastated the organization in 2004, was announced Wednesday as the driver of a Camping World Truck Series entry for Trail Motorsport, a new organization run by former Nationwide team owner Armando Fitz.

“

Making it in wasn't the hard part. It's trying to stay here that's been the hard part.

”

-- CHASE AUSTIN

"Making it in wasn't the hard part. It's trying to stay here that's been the hard part. Everybody knows that," said Austin, now 19, who's been racing his family's late model after a series of deals went bad. "When I was 15 I got that great deal with Hendrick Motorsports, which most people never get the chance to do. That helped get my name out there and introduce me to a lot of people. That's carried me a long way."

The new team is owned by Art Shelton, a commercial loan consultant based in Chicago, who joins Randy Moss as one of the few black team owners in NASCAR's three national series. The organization expects to field three vehicles, with Austin on the truck circuit, Jarit Johnson -- younger brother of three-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie -- on the Camping World East tour, and a driver yet to be determined on the Nationwide Series.

"Trail Motorsport will race as a team that happens to be minority," Shelton said. "We're going to race as a team that's going to be competitive and happen to be minority. If you want to label that as diversity, yes. But we diversify only for the point of being successful. That's the only standard."

Should the team get on the race track at Daytona, Austin would join Marc Davis -- who will occasionally race a truck for Joe Gibbs this season -- as the only black drivers in NASCAR's three national series.

"I hope to make a better pathway for more minorities to join the sport," Austin said. "Art's really being a pioneer for that also, starting his own team and willing to fund it with sponsors or without. I'm really looking at him being more of a pioneer than me, because he's the one really making the way for it."

The team did not unveil any corporate sponsors Wednesday, but Fitz said such announcements are forthcoming. "We've got verbal commitments," Shelton added, "and assurances that they'd be coming on board."

That has to come as a reassurance to Austin, who has struggled to find a national series ride since the Hendrick development program was tabled. A deal with Star Motorsports disappeared because of funding, and a supposed split ride with David Stremme in a Rusty Wallace-owned car never materialized.

"There's been times when I second-guessed it, with a lot of disappointment like that," he said. "Sometimes I thought about all the disappointments, and I was like, man it's not good. And then I thought about all the positive times I've had, all the people I've gotten to work with, and thought, I wouldn't have this many chances if not for a purpose."