Ballew an example of succeeding against the odds

If you call Billy Ballew Motorsports, you won't get a receptionist. More often than not you get the owner -- Billy Ballew.

The 51-year-old Georgia native answers his own phones, he pays his own bills, brokers his own sponsorship deals and negotiates his drivers' contracts. It's not that he is a micro-manager, he's just a hard worker.

Ballew has been working since he was 7-years-old. His first job was pumping gas and washing windshields at his father's Standard Oil station in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

"I learned how to drive a car then too, a '57 Chevy," Ballew said. "I couldn't get on the road but I could move it around the lot."

He grew up as fast as he could because Ballew was eager to learn more about cars and any business opportunities surrounding the machines. By the end of high school, he was working in the wholesale car business outside of Atlanta and later partnered with a used car operation.

And by his mid-30s, upon the suggestion of NASCAR crew chief Tony Gibson, Ballew started his own team in the Camping World Truck Series with driver Mark Gibson.

"By some miracle I pulled it out," recalled Ballew.

Since then the independent team owner has been racing against the odds.

Forced to scale back races on occasion and accommodate part-time sponsors, this has been the reality for Ballew most of his career in the Truck Series. It makes him a story of survival and now triumph in light of the success the operation has enjoyed with driver Aric Almirola in the No. 51 Toyota, who is in contention for the company's first championship since founded in 1996.

"They've done a great job with Aric and shown they can win races," said Kyle Busch, the fiercely talented driver who from 2005 to 2009 amassed 16 Truck wins racing part-time for Billy Ballew Motorsports. He's also the same driver who raced free of charge. Collecting pay checks and purse money in the Cup and Nationwide series with full-time team Joe Gibbs Racing, Busch more or less competed in Ballew's trucks because he knew the equipment was good enough to win races and he considered Ballew a friend.

"Kyle didn't want to take purse money," said Richie Wauters, crew chief for the No. 51 team and the man responsible for bringing Busch to Ballew's trucks. Busch had raced Wauters short track cars years ago.

"Most drivers want 50 percent and a salary on top of that," Wauters added. "He knew we didn't have enough money so the only thing he wanted was the trophy at the end of the day, he never took a dime."

Kyle Busch drove for Billy Ballew from 2005-2009 and collected 16 wins, 35 top-fives and 49 top-10s.

The Busch factor

When Busch broke out on his own this season to form his own truck operation at Kyle Busch Motorsports, fans feared Ballew would not longer contend for wins and that the team will fall off the map.

However Busch said Ballew is accustomed to adversity.

"He is a story of survival and so is the entire Truck Series and that is pretty much it," Busch said. "If you don't have the money to keep going you can't keep going. Billy has struggled with that for years. I've done the best I can do by going in there and helping him find sponsorship. Apparently he can sell my name better than I can -- I haven't been doing a good job at it. It's tough with the economy and tough for the Truck Series especially."

Still looking for sponsorship for his own team, Busch added, "For two teams, that is almost $6 million bucks to do a tuck deal, to do it right. Billy is fortunate he has been doing it for $2 million a team."

The reason being, according to most of Ballew's employees, Ballew is no frills and all extra income goes right back to either the No. 51 or No. 15 teams. He runs his business out of a modest shop in Mooresville, N.C., the same one he started with back in 1998. It's full of loyal employees and racing purists. The total number: 10. An optimist might call it boutique racing but really10 employees are all Ballew can afford.

That's fine. There's no turnover to speak of amongst crew chiefs, said Wauters. It's because Wauters, who has worked with Ballew for more than a decade, is allowed to run the team like his own. Ballew trusts Wauters' judgment that much and so far he's proven himself.

"His job is to make sure there is money in the checkbook and my job is to make sure the trucks are fast," Wauters said. "It's that simple, no politics."

One more job: "Build the fastest truck for Bristol even if none of the guys at the shop see their wives for days."

"We've won the last two years in a row at Bristol," Wauters said. "And now any time I can beat Kyle it just pisses him off. I like to beat him because I know how mad it makes him. I look at him and say, 'I told you. You shouldn't have left.'"

It wasn't an easy decision, but Billy Ballew had to park the No. 15 this season due to lack of sponsorship.

Tough times and misfortune

Wauters would agree that Ballew's business model is simple.

"I treat my employees better than I treat myself sometimes and we're like family. Because of that, they work hard for me," Ballew said.

So when the owner had to make the decision recently to park the No. 15 truck, his first truck to race in the series and the first truck to collect his first win, he was disappointed.

"It was bittersweet," Ballew said. "That was the number I started with. But not having the appropriate sponsorship, we had to address the problem without taking away from the No. 51 team. We couldn't keep running that team without sponsorship but we are fortunate to get this far and with a lot of success."

The No. 15 truck always ran a partial schedule until 2004 and since then has been a training ground for young drivers, namely Kyle Busch, who gained the team notoriety and was the reason for opening a second team, the No. 51 team.

That's why when Busch left, Ballew was concerned.

"After Kyle left, we got sponsorship [Graceway Pharmaceuticals] for the No. 51 early in January but there were unknowns about what I was going to be able to do for me and Aric. I made the decision to start at Daytona and just run race to race and hope to get a full-time sponsor."

Two months later, it would be clear that the No. 51 team would be fine after posting its first win of the season at Dover followed by a second at Michigan in June. Almirola is second in the series point standings, 231 points behind leader Todd Bodine.

Even though the team had tons of success with Busch, Ballew was still unable to secure full-time sponsorship. But he's not the only team. Even teams tied with the clout of the Cup Series are struggling.

"I'm one of the guys fortunate enough to win 19 races against all odds," Ballew said. "If someone told me in 1996, racing against [Jack] Roush and other major Cup players with more resources and bigger budgets and win, I wouldn't believe it. It's just pretty remarkable."

When you ask Ballew how he does it, he gives all the credit to the guys at the shop. For him, it's all about performance, not the bottom line and how much money can be made. Because of that, Ballew has built a reputation amongst the drivers for having competitive and premium equipment.

This became obvious when Busch decided to drive for free. It's becomes obvious when you have big names step in as well -- like Denny Hamlin, Geoffrey Bodine, John Andretti and Joe Ruttman.

Aric Almirola sits second in points but lacked confidence when Billy Ballew hired him to drive the No. 51 this season.

Same as he was before

When Ballew saved Almirola's career from extinction, after the driver had been passed around the Cup Series, Ballew jumped at the opportunity because he knew he could win races.

The owner believed in Almirola when Almirola didn't know if he could believe in himself.

"I felt like Billy believed in me all along," Almirola said. "And finally seeing him in Victory Lane, I was living up to his expectations. There for a while I lacked confidence outside of the race car and that has all changed now."

Almirola announced Wednesday he would drive the No. 88 in the Nationwide Series for JR Motorsports, but his focus won't waver from this season's truck championship because he wouldn't be in that car next season had it not been for Ballew.

"It would be very tough to leave here, I know the option is still there to run full time again next season and continue our relationship with Graceway Pharmaceuticals but at this point I just don't know," Almirola said.

Billy Ballew Motorsports certainly has created a history of opening doors for young, up-and-coming drivers. In addition to Busch and Almirola, he jumpstarted Brian Ickler's career as well, and gave both Nelson Piquet Jr. and Johanna Long their first starts in the series.

"That is something I enjoy, the young people," Ballew said. "Most of my friends now are half my age. I would have 20 teams if I had the funding, I just enjoy it that much."

He enjoys racing -- not the attention and title that comes with being a team owner in one of NASCAR's three national touring divisions.

You'll never see Ballew big time a fan or walk with a handler at the race track. He is the same person he was when he came into the sport in 1996 and always will be no matter how many races his teams win.

"You can count on that," Almirola said. "When you see him out in public, that is the same Billy you get regardless. He is a straight shooter and he does what he says he will do. The thing I like about Billy is that he doesn't try to impress. He doesn't change to fit into someone else's idea of him. He's a genuine guy and he cares about his people."

Almirola has admired his work ethic from the beginning.

"Yeah, he is the secretary, the bookkeeper and marketing director all at the same time," Almirola added. "He'll answer the phone at the shop because he doesn't think he is above anyone."

Related:
• Almirola signs multi-year deal to drive No. 88
• Almirola making name for himself, again, in NASCAR