Its schedule for the 2007 season lists 19 of 35 NASCAR Busch Series races.
For the next two months, however, Warsaw-based ML Motorsports will tackle what looks more like the schedule of a team competing for the season championship.
Saturday's Busch Series race at Nashville Superspeedway kicks off a stretch in which 27-year-old driver Justin Diercks and ML Motorsports will attempt to qualify for seven races in eight weekends.
The team's one "off weekend" in that time is June 30 when the rest of the Busch Series drivers will be at New Hampshire International Speedway.Through 14 races this season, Diercks and Co. have gone to just six races, qualifying for five of them.
"We've been busy, we've got six cars built and ready to go," said ML Motorsports Team Manager Tony Barnes, a Warsaw Community High School graduate. "We haven't raced in a month, but we've been busy at the shop, been to the wind tunnel and tested at Charlotte. We've got stuff ready to go for the next seven races. We're ready to get back to the racetrack, that's what we're here for."
Practice for the Federated Auto Parts 300 is today, while qualifying is tomorrow afternoon and the race is scheduled to air live on ESPN2 at 6:30 p.m.
"The break we had helped, we were able to get a lot of stuff done, but we're ready to go back to the track," said crew chief Tom Sokoloski. "We learned a lot at the wind tunnel. We're going to take what we learned and try some things at the track. We're making progress. We're hoping to go to Nashville and show some of the improvements we've made."
After the race at Nashville, Diercks and ML Motorsports are scheduled to race at Kentucky, Milwaukee, Daytona, Chicagoland, Gateway and O'Reilly Raceway Park, formerly known as Indianapolis Raceway Park.
While Diercks will be busy behind the wheel of his silver No. 70 Chevy owned by Mary Louise Miller, Tim Frantz will make a home behind the wheel of the team's 1997 Kenworth T-2000 semi.
"We've done a lot of two- and three-weekend deals, but this is going to be a busy stretch for us," said Frantz, more commonly known by most as Flounder. "It'll be good to get back to the track. There were a lot of times when we were in ARCA where we ran a schedule like that, we're up for the challenge, and the competition in the Busch Series is always good."
In the five races Diercks has qualified for this season, he has finished 28th or better in four of them.
The team finished 22nd at Las Vegas, 24th at both Nashville and Texas, and was 28th in its most recent race at Richmond on May 4.
In the race at Talladega, the team battled through engine problems and finished 40th.
Through five races this season, Diercks has an average finish of 27.6.
While those numbers wouldn't satisfy the million-dollar sponsors that guys like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson bring to the racing world, the crew at ML Motorsports will take it and "hopefully build from the experience."
"Our No. 1 goal was to make races," said Barnes. "Now we've had some decent finishes, and we want to work on finishing on the lead lap everywhere we go. We've been able to post some good finishes, now we want to build on that."
Barnes said one thing that made him feel good earlier this season was when a member of Roush-Fenway Racing, which fields cars for Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth in the Nextel Cup Series, paid the team a compliment.
"One of the guys from Roush told me to keep our head up, that we're doing good," said Barnes. "He told me that we've done a lot of things that some of the teams down south haven't been able to do. That made me feel good."
Not only is ML Motorsports 12 hours away from Charlotte, the hub of stock car racing, but Diercks and Co. must compete on the track against Nextel Cup regulars.
Those drivers have become known as "Buschwhackers." The multi-million dollar Nextel Cup teams use the Busch Series to get extra track time for the Nextel Cup races.
After 14 Busch Series races this season, the top five drivers in the Busch Series season point standings are all full-time Nextel Cup drivers.
Edwards sits atop the point standings, followed by Kevin Harvick, Dave Blaney, Kenseth and David Reutimann.
Nine drivers have combined to win the 14 Busch Series races this season, all nine drivers are Nextel Cup regulars.
Edwards has three wins, while Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer and Kenseth have two wins each.
Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Bobby Labonte, Juan Pablo Montoya and Harvick each have one Busch Series victory to their name this season.
The distance from Charlotte and the number of "Buschwhackers" in the races week in and week out makes what Diercks and his ML Motorsports team has done seem all the more impressive.
"It's tough getting a new kid experience when you're racing against the Cup guys everywhere you go," said Sokoloski. "But, it's good competition, and if you qualify for the race and finish well, you know you've done something. We're making progress. We're going to keep getting better."
