NASCAR Camping World Truck Series

In 2008, the No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports Toyota Tundra team – anchored by superstar driver Kyle Busch – finished third in the owner standings. This year, again with Busch as the central figure, the No. 51 team came home second in owner points.

Make no mistake. Taking that final step forward would be a challenge if all things remained equal, if the entire team remained intact, and if Busch continued to drive a majority of the races as he has the last two years.

But it just got tougher, as Busch announced last week that he is running his own Truck Series program in 2010. Nevertheless, Ballew is confident he’s got an “ace in the hole” in Aric Almirola, who didn’t join the team this year until June and will be a full-time driver for the team in 2010 if everything goes according to plan. And if everything falls into place, Ballew believes it’s realistic to be thinking championship.

“Absolutely,” he says. “If you look at the stats of what Aric had achieved just in the races that he ran, had he been running all year in the (No.) 15 truck, he would have been a threat for the championship this year. When he got in the truck, it was 23rd in owner’s points. He brought it to within five points of 10th and he ended up 11th. He’s definitely a contender to run for the championship.”

The stats were pretty impressive for the whole team in 2009. Busch led the Truck Series in wins, with seven from his 15 starts in the No. 51 Tundra, up from three wins in 11 starts with the team in ’08. He had 11 top fives this year, up from four in ’08.

But Busch was only part of the story in the No. 51 this year, as a total of five different drivers combined to score 3,886 points, coming up just 73 points short of the owner’s title. Also among the five were Sprint Cup star Denny Hamlin, who finished sixth in his lone start at Martinsville; rookie Brian Ickler, who was fifth in his first-ever Truck Series start at Kansas and made six starts in the No. 51; Travis Kvapil, who took 11th in his lone start in the truck at Nashville; and Almirola, who earned top-10 results in both of his starts in the No. 51.

It was a strong season for Ballew’s No. 15 team as well, with Almirola, Ickler, Shane Sieg and Blake Feese taking turns in the cockpit. Almirola scored six top-five finishes in the No. 15, with Ickler adding one of his own and the duo combining for 10 top-10 results.

“We just had a lot of success,” Ballew says. “Of course, the wins and all, Kyle was fortunate enough for us to have those wins, but for us to have a whole fleet of drivers and even one rookie who had never competed in the Truck Series – which was Brian Ickler – and still to end up just 70-something points out of the owner’s championship, it’s pretty phenomenal. It was by far the best competition season that we’ve had with seven wins.

“Also, on the 15 truck, they made a heck of a run when Aric Almirola came onboard. I mean, they did everything but win. They won the race at Talladega, they just didn’t get the trophy.”

If there was one race that was the highlight for Billy Ballew Motorsports, it had to be that Talladega race, where Busch took the victory and Almirola came home second to give Ballew his first 1-2 finish as an owner.

“The trucks have run together, but never in the 1-2 position like that,” Ballew says. “It was really phenomenal because Talladega is close to Atlanta, which is my home. It’s not like Atlanta Motor Speedway is to me by any means, but it’s way up there. I had a lot of personal friends of mine that were there with us during that weekend. They get to come because it’s in proximity to Atlanta, so it was just a great situation there.”

Any way you slice it, 2009 was the best year ever for Billy Ballew Motorsports, and Ballew is quick to share the credit.

“The work and the dedication and the TRD (Toyota Racing Development) support and all the people at Toyota from the engineers on down, that’s crucial,” Ballew says. “Toyota’s got a great program. They provide you a lot of great tools to be able to be successful in this series and in all series. I think we utilized those tools better this year than we had probably in the past.”

It will definitely be different in 2010, when Ballew finds his team’s Tundras racing against those from Kyle Busch Motorsports instead of having “Rowdy” in the seat of the No. 51. A protégé of Busch’s, Ickler will follow his mentor to the new program as well. But Ballew only wishes Busch well for deciding to operate his own program.

“Kyle is going to go his own direction and start his ownership role and driving role,” Ballew says. “I know that’s something that he’s talked about doing in the past and I wish him the best in those ventures. It was time, I think, that he felt like he wanted to be an owner.

“He owns a Super Late Model team and wanted to step it on up into the Truck Series. I don’t blame him at all for that. I’m sure it’s a dream of his and he’ll probably be successful at it.”

But if we learned one thing from the 2009 season, it’s that Billy Ballew Motorsports has built an organization and a program that will be successful in 2010, too.