It didn't take NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team owner Billy Ballew long to realize his future wasn't driving a stock car.

"I ran a bomber car at Peach State Speedway [in Jefferson] in one race in 1985," Ballew recalled. "After about one race, I figured that probably wasn't me.

"I was a little too reckless and out of control. I figured I'd better leave the driving part to somebody else."

A decade later, Billy Ballew Motorsports was hatched.

His all-star lineup of drivers over the years in the truck series has included such notables as Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Geoffrey Bodine, John Andretti, Bill Lester, Jeremy Mayfield and Kyle Busch, who will drive Ballew's No. 51 Toyota Tundra in tonight's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Once the racing bug bit Ballew as a kid growing up in Blue Ridge, he was determined to find his niche in the sport.

"I love it," said the 48-year-old Ballew, who now resides in Blairsville. "I do it for the racing part. That's the racer in me. It makes no financial sense. I don't have a business projection of one day that I'm going to wake up and be rich, but it excites me every day that I get up and go to work."

Ballew quickly discovered that he and his team would be forced to pay their dues to succeed on NASCAR's competitive truck circuit.

Finally, in 2004, Shane Hmiel rewarded Ballew with the organization's first victory at Las Vegas in the team's 100th career start.

The victory helped ease the pain incurred four years earlier at Daytona when Bodine nearly lost his life in one of the most spectacular crashes in NASCAR history.

"I thought he was dead," Ballew said. "I was talking and walking and functioning, but I was in shock. I was literally in shock.

"I went to the hospital and I saw Geoffrey. The first thing he told me was, 'Billy, I hate I wrecked your truck.' Tears came to my eyes. I told him 'I'm just thankful that you're alive.' "

Ballew's fortunes improved in 2005 when crew chief Richie Wauters suggested that Ballew place an up-and-coming driver in the truck for a handful of races.

"We had Kyle Busch test the truck at Charlotte," Ballew said. "The test went well, so we had him race the truck at Charlotte, and he won the race. We followed that up by going to Dover the next week with Kyle, and he won there, too."

Busch and seven other drivers managed to score enough points that season to reward Ballew with a fifth-place finish in the owners' championship standings.

Busch enters tonight's race at AMS on a roll, with victories at Daytona and California in the season's first two weeks.

Despite his success, Busch refuses to accept a paycheck from Ballew. His only pay comes in the form of trophies.

"It's true," Ballew said. "We all work together to do this. Hopefully, one day we can get a sponsor where I can help repay all that [Kyle's] done for us. But he also knows the financial struggles of an independent owner without corporate sponsorship."