DEL.ICIO.USNASCAR team owner charged with DUI at Atlanta Motor Speedway
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, March 05, 2009
NASCAR team owner Billy Ballew was arrested for driving drunk at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Ballew confirmed the Wednesday night arrest during a telephone interview Thursday.
Allen Sullivan / asullivan@ajc.com
Billy Ballew at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“There’s a lot of circumstances I don’t want to go into right now,” Ballew said. “I am 100 percent sure that it will be dropped.”
A Henry County Sheriff’s Office sergeant arrested Ballew at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday night, according to department Major David Foster. Ballew was booked into the county jail on a DUI charge and later released, a jail official said.
Ballew said he was driving a sponsor from his condominium to the passenger’s motor home when “an irate cop” wearing a cap marked “security” stopped him. The condo and the mobile home, said Ballew, are both on racetrack property.
Ballew said he refused to take a breathalyzer test, but acknowledged that he was carrying a mixed drink in the car when he was pulled over.
“It was only one drink. I was not drunk,” Ballew said. “I was on Atlanta Motor Speedway property. I was not on the highway.”
According to Henry County Solicitor Charles A. Spahos,Georgia drunk driving laws do not distinguish between DUI offenses committed on public roads or private streets.
However, Spahos said, Ballew’s arrest on racetrack property is notable.
“It’s certainly a factor I’ll look at when I get the case.,”
Ballew, a former stock car driver, is a well-known figure in competive truck racing. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team owner has enlisted an all-star lineup of drivers over the years.
The list includes Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Geoffrey Bodine, John Andretti and Kyle Busch.
Busch is scheduled to drive Ballew’s “No. 51” Toyota Tundra in a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race this Saturday at the Atlanta Motor Speedway.
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