Local Race Team True To Its Roots
After 15 years, ML Motorsports still fielding stock cars out of Warsaw shop
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Dale [email protected]
What hasn’t changed at ML Motorsports, however, is the Warsaw-based stock car team’s philosophy.
Founded in 1998 by Mary Louise Miller, wife of Biomet co-founder Dane Miller, the idea was to field a national-level race team right here in Warsaw, and do so with area natives.
Fifteen years later, ML Motorsports is alive and well.
Housed in a 40,000-square foot shop on US 30W, the team competes in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and is comprised mainly of Kosciusko County residents, a handful of which have been around since the beginning.
“When we first started, Dane and Mary Louise promised us five years,” said team manager Tony Barnes, a Warsaw Community High School graduate who left R.R. Donnelley & Sons after 17 years to live out his racing dream.
“People told us from Day 1 we couldn’t run a team out of a little town in northern Indiana, not when all the technology and big teams are in North Carolina. Well, here we are, 15 years later. We’re definitely thankful Dane and Mary Louise are still committed to the team, and that they’ve kept everything here in Warsaw.”
Next month the team will start another season, as it will travel to Daytona for Speed Weeks with 20-year-old Pensacola, Fla., driver Johanna Long.
Long is scheduled to drive approximately 20 Nationwide Series races this season for ML Motorsports.
She drove the No. 70 Chevy in 21 races last year as a rookie, with a season-best finish of 12th at both Daytona and Kentucky.
While the team’s current shop would make a race fan feel like they were in Mooresville, N.C., where a number of big-time NASCAR teams call home, it hasn’t always been that way.
“We started out in a single-bay in one of Dane’s buildings,” said Barnes, more commonly known as Toad. “Then we moved to a hangar at the aiport, and that was a huge step up. The shop we have now, it’s a nice as or nicer than some of the shops down south.”
With Jimmy Kitchens behind the wheel, ML Motorsports competed in its first race in February of 1999, qualifying 12th for an ARCA Series race at Daytona.
Barnes remembers that first trip to the famed 2.5-mile, high-banked speedway, and is well aware of just how far the team has come.
“That first time we went through the tunnel at Daytona, that was an experience you can’t describe,” said Barnes. “My racing experience had been helping guys at Warsaw Speedway, so being down at Daytona was a big deal.
“We’ve got a beautiful shop now, a semi, all the parts and tools we need, but that first race we went to we had just a truck with a trailer and one car,” added Barnes. “We had to borrow pit boxes, and our tools were in cardboard boxes. Yeah, I guess you could say we’ve come a long way.”
In the team’s first full season in the ARCA Series, three different drivers piloted the Mary Louise Miller-owned Chevy – Kitchens, Andy Hillenberg and Plymouth native Brian Ross.
Ross had the ride full-time in 2000, a season in which he qualified on the pole twice, finished fourth in points and was the series’ Rookie of the Year.
A year later, the team changed drivers, but produced another Rookie of the Year – Jason Jarrett, grandson of two-time NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett and son of 1999 NASCAR champ Dale Jarrett.
It took Jason Jarrett just a handful of races to put ML Motorsports in victory lane, as he won the inaugural ARCA race at Kansas Speedway in June of 2001.
“When we went through the tunnel at Daytona the first time I got goose bumps, and when we won our first race with Jason at Kansas, that was an unbelievable feeling,” said Tim Frantz, a Lakeland Christian Academy graduate better known as Flounder. “Everbody has always told us ‘you can’t run a team out of Indiana and go win races.’ Well, we proved them wrong.”
Jason Jarrett also won a short-track battle at Salem Speedway in 2004.
In four seasons with ML Motorsports, he finished in the top five in points three times, including a runner-up finish.
In 2005, Walkerton native and short-track ace Chad Blount was behind the wheel for 12 races in the ARCA Series.
Blount and ML Motorsports won four times and finished second in two other races.
Shortly thereafter, the team moved up to what is now called the Nationwide Series.
ML Motorsports has since competed in Nationwide Series events with drivers Justin Diercks, Mark Green, Scott Wimmer, Shelby Howard and Long.
And while the team has had drivers from various parts of the country, the shop has remained in Warsaw.
“That speaks volumes as to what the community means to Dane and Mary Louise, and what Dane and Mary Louise mean to the community,” said Jeremy Marsh, a Warsaw grad that has been with the team for more than a decade. “The guys out here work just as hard as the guys in the south. We’ve learned a lot, and we’ve come a long way. We’ve got a great group of guys out here, and I think we’re going to continue getting better.”
Other local guys that work at the shop or are on the pit crew include Larry Carpenter, Mike Neer, Tony Baker Jr., Collin Hunt, Nick Chapman, Carson Kintzel, Ken Nisly and Andy Willis.
Crew chief Mark Gutekunst lives in Muncie.
Just as the full-time employees and the volunteer pit crew members are glad the team is still based in Warsaw, so are Dylan Woodling and Zach Shepler.
Woodling, a Warsaw grad and the son of local dirt racer Randy Woodling, is a student at University of Northwest Ohio, a high-performance school.
During the summer, when he’s not behind the wheel of his own dirt modified or late model, Dylan Woodling travels the country with ML Motorsports.
“This is definitely an opportunity I’m very thankful for,” said Dylan Woodling. “It’s one thing to learn something at school, but I get to see it first-hand at the shop and at the track with these guys. There’s a NASCAR shop a mile down the road from my house. Not many people in Indiana can say that.”
Shepler is a senior at WCHS.
A standout on coach Phil Jensen’s football team, Shepler’s passion is racing.
Not only does he work on and race sprint cars in the summer, he spends part of his school day working at ML Motorsports.
“I’m lucky to be able to do this,” said Shepler. “I want to have a career of some sort in racing. I do whatever the guys ask me to, and I take what I learn out here and apply it to my own car. I’ve done everything from pull motors to help clean the shop.”[[In-content Ad]]
What hasn’t changed at ML Motorsports, however, is the Warsaw-based stock car team’s philosophy.
Founded in 1998 by Mary Louise Miller, wife of Biomet co-founder Dane Miller, the idea was to field a national-level race team right here in Warsaw, and do so with area natives.
Fifteen years later, ML Motorsports is alive and well.
Housed in a 40,000-square foot shop on US 30W, the team competes in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and is comprised mainly of Kosciusko County residents, a handful of which have been around since the beginning.
“When we first started, Dane and Mary Louise promised us five years,” said team manager Tony Barnes, a Warsaw Community High School graduate who left R.R. Donnelley & Sons after 17 years to live out his racing dream.
“People told us from Day 1 we couldn’t run a team out of a little town in northern Indiana, not when all the technology and big teams are in North Carolina. Well, here we are, 15 years later. We’re definitely thankful Dane and Mary Louise are still committed to the team, and that they’ve kept everything here in Warsaw.”
Next month the team will start another season, as it will travel to Daytona for Speed Weeks with 20-year-old Pensacola, Fla., driver Johanna Long.
Long is scheduled to drive approximately 20 Nationwide Series races this season for ML Motorsports.
She drove the No. 70 Chevy in 21 races last year as a rookie, with a season-best finish of 12th at both Daytona and Kentucky.
While the team’s current shop would make a race fan feel like they were in Mooresville, N.C., where a number of big-time NASCAR teams call home, it hasn’t always been that way.
“We started out in a single-bay in one of Dane’s buildings,” said Barnes, more commonly known as Toad. “Then we moved to a hangar at the aiport, and that was a huge step up. The shop we have now, it’s a nice as or nicer than some of the shops down south.”
With Jimmy Kitchens behind the wheel, ML Motorsports competed in its first race in February of 1999, qualifying 12th for an ARCA Series race at Daytona.
Barnes remembers that first trip to the famed 2.5-mile, high-banked speedway, and is well aware of just how far the team has come.
“That first time we went through the tunnel at Daytona, that was an experience you can’t describe,” said Barnes. “My racing experience had been helping guys at Warsaw Speedway, so being down at Daytona was a big deal.
“We’ve got a beautiful shop now, a semi, all the parts and tools we need, but that first race we went to we had just a truck with a trailer and one car,” added Barnes. “We had to borrow pit boxes, and our tools were in cardboard boxes. Yeah, I guess you could say we’ve come a long way.”
In the team’s first full season in the ARCA Series, three different drivers piloted the Mary Louise Miller-owned Chevy – Kitchens, Andy Hillenberg and Plymouth native Brian Ross.
Ross had the ride full-time in 2000, a season in which he qualified on the pole twice, finished fourth in points and was the series’ Rookie of the Year.
A year later, the team changed drivers, but produced another Rookie of the Year – Jason Jarrett, grandson of two-time NASCAR champion Ned Jarrett and son of 1999 NASCAR champ Dale Jarrett.
It took Jason Jarrett just a handful of races to put ML Motorsports in victory lane, as he won the inaugural ARCA race at Kansas Speedway in June of 2001.
“When we went through the tunnel at Daytona the first time I got goose bumps, and when we won our first race with Jason at Kansas, that was an unbelievable feeling,” said Tim Frantz, a Lakeland Christian Academy graduate better known as Flounder. “Everbody has always told us ‘you can’t run a team out of Indiana and go win races.’ Well, we proved them wrong.”
Jason Jarrett also won a short-track battle at Salem Speedway in 2004.
In four seasons with ML Motorsports, he finished in the top five in points three times, including a runner-up finish.
In 2005, Walkerton native and short-track ace Chad Blount was behind the wheel for 12 races in the ARCA Series.
Blount and ML Motorsports won four times and finished second in two other races.
Shortly thereafter, the team moved up to what is now called the Nationwide Series.
ML Motorsports has since competed in Nationwide Series events with drivers Justin Diercks, Mark Green, Scott Wimmer, Shelby Howard and Long.
And while the team has had drivers from various parts of the country, the shop has remained in Warsaw.
“That speaks volumes as to what the community means to Dane and Mary Louise, and what Dane and Mary Louise mean to the community,” said Jeremy Marsh, a Warsaw grad that has been with the team for more than a decade. “The guys out here work just as hard as the guys in the south. We’ve learned a lot, and we’ve come a long way. We’ve got a great group of guys out here, and I think we’re going to continue getting better.”
Other local guys that work at the shop or are on the pit crew include Larry Carpenter, Mike Neer, Tony Baker Jr., Collin Hunt, Nick Chapman, Carson Kintzel, Ken Nisly and Andy Willis.
Crew chief Mark Gutekunst lives in Muncie.
Just as the full-time employees and the volunteer pit crew members are glad the team is still based in Warsaw, so are Dylan Woodling and Zach Shepler.
Woodling, a Warsaw grad and the son of local dirt racer Randy Woodling, is a student at University of Northwest Ohio, a high-performance school.
During the summer, when he’s not behind the wheel of his own dirt modified or late model, Dylan Woodling travels the country with ML Motorsports.
“This is definitely an opportunity I’m very thankful for,” said Dylan Woodling. “It’s one thing to learn something at school, but I get to see it first-hand at the shop and at the track with these guys. There’s a NASCAR shop a mile down the road from my house. Not many people in Indiana can say that.”
Shepler is a senior at WCHS.
A standout on coach Phil Jensen’s football team, Shepler’s passion is racing.
Not only does he work on and race sprint cars in the summer, he spends part of his school day working at ML Motorsports.
“I’m lucky to be able to do this,” said Shepler. “I want to have a career of some sort in racing. I do whatever the guys ask me to, and I take what I learn out here and apply it to my own car. I’ve done everything from pull motors to help clean the shop.”[[In-content Ad]]
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