Xpress Motorsports team owner Dave Fuge being interviewed by TruckSeries.com TrackSide Editor Charles Krall at Preseason Thunder testing sessions at Daytona. (Steve Keller/TruckSeries.com Photo) To hear this interview, click on the image or  click here.

After two back-to-back championships in 2002 and 2003, Xpress Motorsports has proven to be one of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series most powerful teams. With team owner Dave Fuge calling the shots, Xpress has scored wins with drivers Randy Tolsma, Mike Bliss, Ron Hornaday, Travis Kvapil, and Jack Sprague. However, even a strong record and recent trips to victory lane have not assured Fuge's team survival in 2007.

After running on a shoestring budget with Bliss again at the wheel in 2006, the new season kicks off with Fuge again wondering what his future holds. Some part-time sponsorship from the team's former owner Steve Coulter and his IWX Motor Freight company and Strutmasters.com kept the team above water, and allowed Bliss to fight for a top ten position in the final standings as well as a dominant victory last fall at Atlanta Motor Speedway. However, when the first test sessions of 2007 kicked off at Daytona last weekend, Fuge was seen walking the garage trying to drum up a deal instead of working on his familiar No. 16 Chevrolets.

"The reason why we are two time champions is we are racers at heart," Fuge said during the recent Preseason Thunder testing sessions at Daytona. "When you're a racer, you'd much rather be out there competing with them than watching. That's the way the cards are dealt right now, and we'll have to live with that."

While Xpress Motorsports was on the sidelines during the testing sessions, Fuge has all of his equipment ready to go for 2007. With the changes in the noses and tails for the new season, his entire fleet sits ready to go - minus the body parts, just in case he needs to adapt to any of the four manufacturers currently in the series.

The Number 16 IWX/Xpress Motorsports Chevy Silverado pits for new tires from it's eventual NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Championship crew at Homestead-Miami Speedway, November, 2003. (Ronda Greer Photo)

"We are successful because we have an attention to detail," he continued. "We do all of our own stuff in house. We run it almost like a business would execute a business plan. It is all in place and we have to make sure we don't mess up the plan, and as long as we do that you will see success. All we need to get back and ready to go is to hire back some people. We've done the Daytona stuff enough to know. Yeah, it hurts not to be out there, but if you have a good package you will be up to speed in a big hurry. But that is the beauty of what NASCAR has done. All of these trucks are basically the same from the windshield on back. All we have to do it make a change to the front of each of our trucks and we can be any one of the four manufacturers."

Having seen sponsors come and go, sometimes even before a deal that is supposedly finalized can be put into place, Fuge is rightfully weary to say whether or not he's got anything close to coming to fruition.

"Close is a funny word in this deal," Fuge said. "Let's just say it's never close until someone brings you a check. There is plenty of talk right now, it's keeping me up at night thinking of the possibilities. There are so many people talking about doing something with you that it gets hard to separate the real ones from the fake ones and they all start to sound alike.

"If you don't have a manufacturer then you need more money from the sponsor," he continued. "If you hire a driver the manufacturer likes, then you may be able to get some more support from them. Then you have a driver that can bring some money, but the manufacturer doesn't like him. Everything has to work together."

Fuge has had the luxury of not worrying about paying the bills in recent years. IWX was the team's benefactor through its most successful years, and recently Chevrolet made sure all of the tools needed to win were at the team's disposal.

2003  NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Champion Travis Kvapil and crew celebrate at Homestead-Miami Speedway in November, 2003. (Ronda Greer Photo)

"When you have one sponsor with IWX for all those years and then with Chevrolet, it makes my life easier," he said. "We are a race oriented, competition oriented team. We aren't a marketing oriented team. Maybe that has been our downfall a little, that we aren't a marketing organization that has a race team component to it. We always believed that going out and winning races was the most important, and that a sponsor would benefit from being on a team that runs up front. A good marketing company can have a race team and survive without running up front. A race team that runs up front cannot survive without the marketing side."

Fuge would like to return in 2007 with Bliss behind the wheel, but is open to any opportunities.

"We can't pigeonhole ourselves into anything that doesn't have money attached," he said. "We'd like to have Mike back with us. He did us a favor last year and didn't charge us a lot. He put the money aside in order to help keep the team afloat and competitive. But if someone comes to us with money and they need to be affiliated with a Ford, a Dodge, or a Toyota, we can do that. We have had a great relationship with Chevrolet over the years, but we'll do what we have to in order to stay alive and competitive."