If Kevin Buckler had his way, TRG Motorsports' NASCAR arm would have a well-structured, multi-car Sprint Cup program embellished by entities in at least two stock car feeder series; well-funded and empowered by high-caliber personnel.

If that sounds like the TRG Motorsports that sports car fans became familiar with over the last decade, thanks to piles of championships, race wins and brutally frank out-front competition -- it should.

“

When you talk about building a team, it's not just about adding people, it's about adding quality people.

”

-- KEVIN BUCKLER

Because it's the same model Buckler, an upbeat, driven, entrepreneurial kind of guy would like to execute in a venue he's found to be just as challenging as he expected.

And the pieces continue to fall into place. The latest "acquisition" is former Ford Motor Company and Roush Fenway Racing marketing executive Torrey Galida, TRG's executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

"When you talk about building a team, it's not just about adding people, it's about adding quality people -- like Torrey said, that share the vision," said Buckler, who entered stock car racing at the end of 2007 with Craftsman Truck Series and ARCA RE/MAX efforts. "The thing I like the most is we're going to work every day with a little fire in our belly. We're trying to rewrite the playbook in a tough time and taking a humble approach to doing it the way we see it."

What is the potential? Once they truly got up and running in 2008, TRG won an ARCA pole with Andy Lally and a Truck race with Donny Lia in a limited number of races in the two series. NASCAR intrigued Buckler, both as a competitor and a businessman, and far from making TRG over-confident, the early success only set the hook deeper.

Twelve years with Ford, including three years as global motorsports marketing manager, set up Galida's four-plus-year stint as Roush's head of marketing and sales "for up to 14 teams at one point in 2007."

"I met Kevin a few years ago, had kept an eye on him and when he made the move to NASCAR I figured 'here's a sports car guy trying this, and he'll find out how tough it is,'" Galida said. "But he's been successful at everything he's ever done. It was impressive to win a race in his first [Truck] season and I decided it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

"I think we have a shared vision of what we're trying to do, which I don't think you could have done three years ago, when several well-financed teams left Daytona without making the [Daytona 500]. The economy has caused some fundamental changes in the sport, and we're going to take advantage of that."

TRG missed the 2009 Daytona 500, but despite being a go-or-go-home car virtually all season, has made 30 consecutive races. The entire NASCAR organization is comprised of well under 30 people and the fleet only now totals seven cars.

Buckler continually cites his group as "the toughest dog in this fight, considering our weight," and credits his team's ability to move quickly, such as when 2000 Cup champion Bobby Labonte became available. Buckler's been successful in selling the dream as his regular driver, David Gilliland, stepped out of some planned races to allow Labonte to drive TRG's car seven times.

And Buckler tries not to forget these things, like Lally's role in multiple championships, including three Grand-Am GT drivers' titles. So all things considered, it makes TRG's short term hopes almost modest, considering the Cup team didn't exist at the end of 2008.

"The perfect scenario would be to have David and Bobby driving together, with Bobby in one [Cup] car and David in another, even if we can't do a full season with it," Buckler said; "and [building] a program around Andy Lally as a development driver. I so believe in him because we started this whole deal together."

And in a maddening cycle, that takes Buckler full circle to the latest beginning he and Galida are trying to fashion, in the tough economy the marketing veteran cited. Buckler said sponsorship interest has been encouraging and negotiations continue to form a Nationwide team for next season, as well as at least "a Cup-team-and-a-half."

Funding remains the magic bullet in the troubled economy. Buckler has entertained inquiries from other manufacturers -- though he stressed, given the championship legacy he established with Pontiac's Grand-Am program in 2006, he has a commitment to General Motors and Chevrolet.

"It makes it even more of a challenge because people don't want to bet on someone they haven't heard of before, from either a fan's perspective or a sponsor's perspective particularly. And from a team owner's perspective it's easier to default to a known quantity -- but we all need new blood.

"We need new guys that can get it done, with good personalities that can bring something to the sport -- like a [Marcos] Ambrose or a [Max] Papis -- some fun new faces, but also someone who can get it done, and that's Andy."

That also appears to be Buckler, who's surrounded himself with veteran stock car guys like crew chief Slugger Labbe and team manager Mike Brown -- and now Galida -- and let them run. Butch Hylton was a key to the initial organization before leaving earlier this season.

"We're trying to set ourselves as the new paradigm for next season," Buckler said. "We want to be efficient, competitive and have really good people on board who are motivated to make this program work. I'm just one of the guys and surrounding myself with veterans like Slugger and Mike and Torrey -- and hopefully Bobby are keys to this success."

You gotta give Caraway a try

More often than not, bad weather does nothing but a disservice to racing and its fans. But some recent bad weather becomes a blessing for me, because the Whelen Southern Modified Tour is racing this Saturday evening at Caraway Speedway in Sophia, N.C., near Asheboro while the Sprint Cup and Camping World Trucks are at Martinsville during the day.

You remember -- well, maybe you don't because I'm not sure I ever wrote about it -- but I stopped by Caraway one evening last year after a tour of the Victory Junction Gang Camp. After a half-hour visit with owner Russell Hackett and a quick view of the track, I just knew I had to organize a bus trip there -- or at least get there myself.

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The place is one of the coolest short tracks I've ever seen. And tricky? I can't even imagine trying to get around the place with its high-banked straightaways, a la Bristol and two vastly different corner configurations.

But if you see Bobby Labonte or Dennis Setzer, ask them about it. I'm sure they'd tell you plenty. The Southern mods have visited there five times this season and had four different winners, with George Brunnhoelzl III scoring twice. I can't wait.

Sub drivers

In a throwback to the last couple years in the Nationwide Series, a whopping six drivers will need subs at Memphis to work on their Nationwide cars while they take care of business in Martinsville. In a nutshell, Nationwide practice is 2:30 -- 6 p.m. ET Friday, with qualifying at 10:35 a.m. Saturday for the 3:30 p.m. race.

Sprint Cup qualifying Friday starts at 3:10, so a Cupper with a whopping aircraft budget might try to make an hour of practice at Memphis. But qualifying is definitely out, though with Cup Happy Hour getting over at 12:15, the race is no problem.

Now we know championship rivals Carl Edwards and the point leader and most recent winner Kyle Busch were locked-into having to go. And it figures Michael McDowell would do it, because he's battling to stay in the top 10 in the standings, as is Mike Wallace in the top 30. David Reutimann is a former Memphis winner, so that figures, too. But why go with Matt Kenseth instead of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.? Go figure on that one.

What'll Kevin do next?

Don't know about the rest of you, but there's definite fascination anticipating Kevin Harvick's appearance this weekend in his own No. 2 Camping World Truck Series ride for the Kroger 200 at Martinsville.

Harvick has history -- both good and bad -- at Martinsville, particularly in the Truck Series. And the last time he was in a truck, at New Hampshire, some of the things that occurred both with the competition and within his own team ventured into the neighborhood of ridiculous.

The bottom line is, crew chief John Monsam has a pretty spiffy Martinsville track record, winning with both Jon Wood and Dennis Setzer, so you can only hope Harvick will keep his eye on the prize -- a win -- even if it means taking another one from his championship-leading driver, Ron Hornaday.

Stay tuned

I call anyone who says Jimmie Johnson's handling of the Chase, and anyone trying to beat him in it, a bore or an interest killer, not much of a fan. For me, a couple high-profile topics right now are "can Juan Montoya come back and finish in the top five?" and "can Denny Hamlin rebound and make it onto the stage in Vegas by finishing in the top 10?"

All you have to do is listen to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing director of competition Steve Hmiel to know his team is fired-up, so why wouldn't that carry over to the fans?

"You don't want to be disrespectful of other people by saying we're still going to get them [in the points] and things like that," Hmiel said, "but the truth is the work ethic is still here, the goals are still here and everybody is still digging like mad."

Wins: Through Lowe's

	2008	2009
Cup Series	8	4
Nationwide	9	7
Truck Series	3	5

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

Despite the near-frigid temperatures in Charlotte, Kyle Busch showed he was virtually recovered from a bout with pneumonia by defending his victory in the Lowe's Motor Speedway Dollar General 300, being somewhat competitive in the NASCAR Banking 500 and then winning the Winchester 400 late model race on Sunday.

So it appears Busch's quest to eclipse his 2008 record total of 21 wins (8 Cup, 10 Nationwide, 3 Truck); is back on track.

With his win Busch moved to 16 wins: 4 Cup, 7 Nationwide, 5 Truck. At this point last year Busch was at 20: 8 Cup, 9 Nationwide, 3 Truck; so he's still got plenty of ground to cover. This weekend Memphis is his best chance to score, so it'll be interesting to see how the commute treats him.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.