Bill Davis Racing - New Life

Mike Brown, BDR's general manager since 1997, says the move has made BDR more stable and more versatile.

"It gives us an advantage, now that we can use all of his abilities," Brown says. "Tommy's not just a crew chief; he's good at making calls on race day, and he's good at motivating people. We'll take advantage of those things."

Davis says that Todd Holbert, the son of the late sports car champion Al Holbert, is an unknown but valuable member of the team as the engineering director.

"Todd's one of the smartest guys in the garage," Davis says. "He's one of the unsung guys. He's a huge part of Triad [Racing Development], and he deserves 20 times the credit he gets."

Davis says his team's biggest problem will be made manifest at the end of this season when BDR is building Dodge Cup cars and racing Toyota trucks while also getting ready for two kinds of Cup cars to run in 2007. They'll run the Cup cars of today at most tracks, but they'll run the safety-conscious Car of Tomorrow at the short tracks, the road courses, and the second Talladega race.

He says that Triad Racing Development will have to add people for the '07 season. BDR, meanwhile, is in good shape with personnel.

"We're in good shape for guys," Davis adds, "but we're always looking for guys who can take us to the next level."

No one expects Toyota to enter Cup and do what it has done in the Truck Series right off, but Davis says his ultimate goal is to return to the forefront of the series in both points and competitiveness.

And he says working with Toyota in trucks has helped BDR get ready for racing Nextel Cup with the car brand.

"This has given us a head start on working with Toyota and on relationships and on the people there," Davis says. "They've gotten comfortable with us, and we've hit our marks and done a good job for them. The Cup program will be a different animal, of course. It'll be a huge challenge because we'll be dealing with the Car of Tomorrow and the car of today."

"We have huge expectations," Brown adds. "We're trying to get all our people in place to get us back to running in the Top 15 in the point standings and being competitive every week. It's tough right now because there are probably 30 to 35 teams that can win every week."

Davis' businesses have turned into a time-absorbing monster. Besides BDR and TRD, Davis' Arkansas-based trucking company is in its 31st year of toting goods from the West Coast to the East.

Meanwhile, he's always looking for ways to get back to Victory Lane, and he says that racing has turned into a grind.

"No, it's not as much fun as it used to be; it's not like it used be," he says, thinking of perhaps 10 or 15 years ago. "But it beats the real world-never forget that. It does beat the real world."

Michael Waltrip says it's natural that Toyota will race Nextel Cup next year.

"Anytime there's something different, you're going to have some push-back," Waltrip said recently. "But I think the fact that Toyota builds most of the cars and trucks that they sell in this country, in this country, hundreds of thousands of Americans have great jobs and work for a company like Toyota. I think that we've sort of taken down all borders in this world. It's a global society now."

Michael Waltrip Racing will field Toyotas next season in the Cup Series, as will Bill Davis Racing, which has raced Dodges the last few years.

Red Bull Racing will field two teams, and one of its drivers will be Brian Vickers, the former Busch Series champion and Cup driver for Hendrick Motorsports. A second driver remains to be named for 2007. Former Cup champion Bill Elliott was expected to race a Red Bull entry other than a Toyota in three Cup races later this season.

Marty Gaunt is Red Bull's general manager, with former racer Elton Sawyer the director of competition, Guenther Steiner the technical advisor, and John Probst the technical director. Probst joined the team in April from Ford Racing Technology.

Waltrip and Dale Jarrett are two of the drivers for Waltrip Racing, and Larry Carter, Rusty Wallace's former crew chief, is one of the crew chiefs. Waltrip says he's working on his third driver for the No. 00 team.

"We have gone down the list of drivers who were available or interested in doing things, and we've talked to a lot of those folks-most all of them," Waltrip says.

Ty Norris, formerly of Dale Earnhardt Inc., will run Waltrip's three Cup teams. NAPA will follow Waltrip from Bill Davis Racing, and UPS will follow Jarrett from Robert Yates Racing. Burger King and Domino's Pizza are the sponsors for the No. 00 car.

Mayfield, who made the Chase for the Championship the last two years for Dodge owner Ray Evernham, was near or at the top of Waltrip's wish list. He wound up with BDR, joining Blaney, the current driver. Caterpillar will continue to sponsor the No. 22 team for the 10th season.

Johnny Benson, one of Davis' three drivers on the Craftsman Truck Series and a former Busch champion, tested a Toyota car of today in June at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Toyota also tested the car at its wind tunnels in nearby Marietta, Georgia. NASCAR was expected to make a decision in September on approving Toyota's '07 Camry.

Although Toyota has the top three drivers in the Truck points, Waltrip says they don't expect to do the same in Cup.

"Everyone says, 'Toyota has been so successful in the Truck Series, do you expect that to translate right into Cup?' In no stretch of the imagination do I expect that," Waltrip says. "I think you have to appreciate what you're up against, and you're up against people who have been doing this for a long, long time. But what I know about Toyota is that they respect that as well. They appreciate the opportunity to come race, and they think that, given enough time, they will be successful at it."