MILL CREEK — A little more than a month removed from the end of the season, the news about NASCAR has mirrored the worsening state of the nation’s economy.
Facing financial problems as sponsors cut back and the cost to remain competitive skyrockets, NASCAR teams have folded, merged and downsized.
Monday’s announcement that Bill Davis, who won his first NASCAR championship in November, has sold both his race team and engine company has a local connection.
Mill Creek resident Tayler Malsam, 19, announced in November that he would drive a full season in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series for Bill Davis Racing (BDR) in 2009.
Contacted at his home Monday afternoon, Malsam said he had been informed of the sale by the team.
“I was told by the PR guy and the guy who runs the truck program that we’re still running three trucks next year,” Malsam said. “As of now, I’m still running a full season next year for them.”
BDR and Triad Racing Development, which provides engines, chassis and bodies for all three of NASCAR’s national series, were bought by California businessman Mike Held and BDR vice president Marty Gaunt.
With the 2009 season-opening races at Daytona less than two months away, Held and Gaunt will need to work hard to secure sponsorship for next season for both their Cup team and their three Truck teams. BDR’s Cup team, the No. 22 driven last season by Dave Blaney, lost sponsor Caterpillar to Richard Childress Racing. The new owners have said they will not field teams without adequate financial backing.
“We have a couple sponsors we’re looking at for our truck,” Malsam said, adding that he thought the other two trucks in the program also had solid leads on sponsorship opportunities.
BDR driver Johnny Benson won the Truck series championship — a first for both him and owner Davis — by edging Ron Hornaday Jr. in the season-ending race in November at Homestead-Miami.
The Homestead race was Malsam’s debut for BDR. Making just his second start in the series, he spun out after tangling with veteran Jack Sprague on lap 132, bringing out a caution that led to a green-white-checkered finish. Malsam finished 21st.
This past year Malsam, who is originally from Sammamish, raced sprint cars on the West Coast for Monroe-based Rudeen Racing, late-model stock cars in the Midwest and on the East Coast in the ARCA Re/MAX Series, and he made his NASCAR truck series debut.
As a rookie, he finished ninth in the 2008 ARCA season standings while racing for Cunningham Motorsports. Malsam made his NASCAR debut in August at Bristol, Tenn., in a truck prepared by Cunningham subsidiary CHS Motorsports, a newly formed race team that planned on competing full-time in the truck series in 2009.
He finished 36th at Bristol after cutting a tire and wrecking, and then just missed making the Oct. 18 race at Martinsville, Va., finishing 37th in qualifying for the 36-truck field.
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