MOORESVILLE, N.C -- Located just down the road from the gleaming headquarters of JR Motorsports is the new, more modest home of Tommy Baldwin Racing.

Modest compared to JR Motorsports, that is. Compared to TBR's home a year ago -- a non-descript building several miles outside of town, surrounded by cornfields and seemingly built entirely of white sheet metal -- their new building is like another Garage Mahal.

"We're livin' high on the hog now," chirped one of TBR's employees recently as he stocked a refrigerator with Wave Energy Drinks and offered a slice of pizza left over from a team-building session marking the kickoff of the 2010 Sprint Cup season.

“

We knew at the beginning that we were going to pretty much be bringing a knife to a gun fight. To be honest with you, I knew it was going to take some time to build. I knew it was going to be hard.

”

-- TOMMY BALDWIN

That's all good news for Baldwin, a former Daytona 500-winning crew chief who started his own team barely one year ago and readily admits that simply still being around, and actually growing, are major accomplishments. The facts that a sponsor's drinks are filling the shop's dedicated beverage refrigerator and there is enough money in the coffers to order pizza -- let alone enough employees to devour several pies -- are other concrete signs of sustainable racing life.

"We're a little over a year old now. To see how we got started and where we're at now, how many people we've got working full-time, the kind of cars we're building now compared to year ago, plus all the business stuff and partner stuff ... it's exciting to see all that we've got going on," said Baldwin, who began with six contract employees in January of 2009 and said he now has 20 full-time employees.

This is the other end of the Sprint Cup racing spectrum from the mega-teams such as Hendrick Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, Joe Gibbs Racing and Richard Childress Racing.

Baldwin, who served as crew chief for car owner Bill Davis when driver Ward Burton captured the 2002 Daytona 500, said he is convinced that if he can survive another year and continue to build on what he has, his fledgling organization can evolve into one of those types of teams some day. At the same time, he has no illusions about running consistently with the big boys anytime soon.

Not after last year, when TBR showed up at each of the 36 Cup races but failed to qualify for 11 of them and had to start-and-park in all but six others. Their best finish was 18th at Talladega last November with one-time driver Robert Richardson, but 22 times they finished 37th or worse -- including 15 times when they were one of the first three cars in the 43-car fields to park for the day.

"We knew at the beginning that we were going to pretty much be bringing a knife to a gun fight," Baldwin said. "To be honest with you, I knew it was going to take some time to build. I knew it was going to be hard. But I didn't know it was going to be that hard, with all the things we had going on.

"Toward the end of the summer, we started building better cars and helping our situation. We got with Wave Energy Drink and build a nice one-third of last season with them, and we've built on that. I think we ran six races all in all [last year] and this year we're up to 24 races that we can run [competitively]. We're working real hard to try to finish out the season, finding the money to do it."

Veteran Mike Bliss has been hired to drive TBR's No. 36 Chevrolet, Kevin Buskirk will be the crew chief, and everyone in the shop seems excited about the possibilities a new season can bring.

"I'm excited to be able to come back in the Cup Series," said Bliss, who finished fifth in points in the Nationwide Series last year but whose 13 Cup starts last season were mostly start-and-park endeavors for owner James Finch. "It's been kind of a hit-and-miss for me the last couple of years. Being here at Tommy Baldwin Racing, I like this situation. I like being with a new team and a new sponsor, building something that we can all be proud of.

"I'm quite surprised about how far he's come already in a year."

“

I like being with a new team and a new sponsor, building something that we can all be proud of. I'm quite surprised about how far he's come already in a year.

”

-- MIKE BLISS

He is not alone. Many thought TBR would not survive the year last season -- even after initial driver Scott Riggs finished a respectable 25th in the season-opening Daytona 500. Then, when they did survive 2009, many thought they might not return for this season.

But Wave Energy Drinks has provided what Baldwin said is enough for "14 fully funded races" in which not only does TBR hope to qualify the No. 36 Chevy but do more than merely run a few laps and park it. Baldwin said he has enough funding lined up to do so in at least 10 other races as well -- and even plans to run a second car in "13 or 14 events" with Johnny Sauter as driver of the No. 35 car.

Baldwin made the switch to Chevys after running Toyotas last year. The cars also will be powered this year by Earnhardt Ganassi Racing engines.

"We're going to run the first nine out of 10 races right now and try to get ourselves in the Top 35. I never considered ourselves a start-and-park deal," Baldwin said. "I told everybody we'd run every week until we ran out of money, and then we'd show up the next week and run again until we're out of money again -- whether it be saving up for a whole race or if we can run 20 laps, 30 laps or whatever the case may be.

"If you look back at all the teams that considered were start-and-park last year, we ran the most races and we have almost a full schedule filled out for this year. So I'm proud of what we've done on the business end."

Bliss said he is impressed, too.

"I really think for what he's doing here, he's getting a lot out of it. He's impressed me. He's cutting corners in a lot of ways -- but then he's spending money where it needs to be spent, and that's on race cars," Bliss said.

"I mean, we're not going to be flying King Airs [to races] and all that stuff. We're going to be flying commercial. But like he has said, 'I'd rather be spending that $1,500 on a new set of tires.' "

Bliss added that he thinks as NASCAR continues to adjust to a sagging economy and fewer sponsorship dollars, startup teams like TBR that play it smart could be setting themselves up for a bright future. At least that's what he and Baldwin hope.

"I think for Tommy, he can get a $7 million or $10 million sponsor and do more with it than a Gibbs or a Childress," Bliss said. "I mean, look at his overhead. His overhead is not $50,000 per month. His overhead is down. If you can keep your overhead down, you can put more money into your cars and your people. I would hate to be J.D. Gibbs sitting there having to turn the lights on every day and knowing what it costs."

Baldwin won't go so far as to say that, but he did say that he believes strongly in his business model as NASCAR faces a future that remains unknown in many ways.

"It's kind of cool. I'm still here. We're still fighting," Baldwin said. "The only way we're going to build this is to keep trying to get bigger, whether it's having two cars out there on a Friday to try to learn or [by] opening prospective doors for other business people to become involved. We'll do whatever we've got to do to stay in the game and survive right now.

"This sport is another two years away from being totally adjusted. It hasn't adjusted to where it's going to end up yet. What I'm saying is that there are a lot of sponsors whose contracts are up this year or next year. It's going to change the face of this sport even more, once those contracts get changed due to the economy and everything else that's going on in the world. We're working at that number, where we think we need to be in two years in terms of our operating budget and all that -- so maybe in two years we're where we need to be to run with the good guys."