Ballew Tabs Martin Truex, Jr. for Milwaukee Truck Event

06-15-2005 | Charles Krall, TrackSide Editor

Ballew Tabs Martin Truex, Jr. for Milwaukee Truck Event

Reigning NASCAR Busch Series champion Martin Truex, Jr. will make his NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series debut on June 24 at The Milwaukee Mile driving the No. 15 Chevrolet for Billy Ballew Motorsports.  Truex gets the call for the Milwaukee weekend since the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series cars are racing at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

"I've been talking to Martin for quite a while about getting in one of our trucks," said team owner Billy Ballew.  "With the Cup cars in California, we knew we weren't going to have Kyle Busch available for the race, and since it is a combination weekend with the Busch Series it was the perfect time to make this deal happen.  We've had Martin over to the shop and he's checked out the seat and everything and he's pretty excited about it.

"I can't thank Richie Gilmore and Teresa Earnhardt enough for helping make this happen," Ballew continued.  "They have been very supportive of us all season long.  Hopefully we can continue running the way we have been once Martin gets in the truck in Milwaukee.  We're all really proud to run the way we have this year.  We don't have a full-time driver and we don't have a full-time major sponsor.  But Ritchie Wauters and all the guys here work so hard on these things.  They do a great job, so it doesn't matter who is behind the wheel."

Ballew is still committed to several more races with two-time 2005 NCTS winner Kyle Busch, and would like to discuss adding more.

"We're still going to do some more races with Kyle Busch and ditech.com," Ballew said.  "We're for sure going to Michigan with Kyle.  We can't thank them enough for everything they have done for us to this point.  It's just nice to know every time we pull on to the track we're a contender to win."

(Streeter Lecka/Getty Images for NASCAR Photo)