"Fire damages BBM trucks & hauler: Two Toyota racing trucks, a toolbox, a pit box and a tractor-trailer car hauler were heavily damaged by fire on Interstate 20 on Tuesday. Biese [hauler driver] told deputies he ran over some debris on I-20 and stopped to check for damage, finding a small air leak. He drove approximately two miles, when smoke started coming from his trailer wheels and flames erupted, Baswell said. Biese was hauling the two Toyota trucks to the Texas Motor Speedway in Ft. Worth where one of them was to be driven by NASCAR's Kyle Busch in Friday's Chevy Silverado 350, part of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. The equipment, which is valued at $1,000,000 and may end up being a total loss, is owned by Billy Ballew Motorsports out of Woodstock, Georgia. Investigators say overheated brakes may have caused the fire. No one was hurt in the blaze, Baswell said.(Shreveport Times)(10-29-2008)"

Why do bad things happen to such good people?
UPDATE

More on the story... The NASCAR family comes through again.

"The team was able to recover chassis number 11, some uniforms and a tool box. Jeff Milburn a former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series owner who is based in Texas graciously drove to Shreveport, Louisiana to pick up what was salvageable and transported it to the Texas Motor Speedway. The trailer arrived close to midnight and the crews off both the No. 15 and No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports teams worked late into the early hours cleaning and evaluating the No. 51 Miccosukee Resort Toyota Tundra."

Read the story here

It's a great story about the comradery within the racing community.

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I think Penske had a nasty one in IRL this year also. It sure does seem to be alot of them.
Wonder if that driver still has a job?
isn't this the team that Mayfield was going to buy into ?
yup.
From Jayski
Mayfield to buy into Truck Team? Jeremy Mayfield told Sirius NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway Monday that he is negotiating to purchase half of the Billy Ballew Motorsports Craftsman Truck Series team. "Billy and I have been talking for a while now," said Mayfield. "He's a great guy, and he has a great team. I'm not sure what's going to happen on the Cup side yet, but (NASCAR has) the Truck Series sponsor worked out now, and I know it's going to be around a while." Mayfield said the plan is for him to purchase the #15 team, with the truck still being fielded out of the Ballew shops. "I would run the #15 truck as a teammate to Billy's #51. Nothing's done yet, there are no details done. But it would be fun to go Truck racing. I've always wanted to own my own team, and if something comes up on the Cup side of things, maybe I'll do the deal anyway and put someone else in the Truck."(Sirius Speedway)(10-27-2008)
he wanted the 15 not 51
Correct... 51 is Rowdy's number.
Hopefully they have it all insured.

Also, don't be shocked if we eventually hear that Kyle Busch picked up the tab on this one.

Just a feeling I have
Or at least some of it... believe it or not, Shrubby is not the Devil incarnate.

JTG recently had a hauler fire and POS gave him one to use. That's what got those guys together.
Agreed, Kyle is just a guy from Vegas who drives a racecar, he's not a demon. You go up against Jr. Nation, travel with security for a season and see how you react.
Dragged the darn thing two miles and started a wheel end fire, not shocking.
More on the story... The NASCAR family comes through again.

"The team was able to recover chassis number 11, some uniforms and a tool box. Jeff Milburn a former NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series owner who is based in Texas graciously drove to Shreveport, Louisiana to pick up what was salvageable and transported it to the Texas Motor Speedway. The trailer arrived close to midnight and the crews off both the No. 15 and No. 51 Billy Ballew Motorsports teams worked late into the early hours cleaning and evaluating the No. 51 Miccosukee Resort Toyota Tundra."

Read the story here

It's a great story about the comradery within the racing community.
"The biggest thing on the truck is just the water damage from the fire department shooting water on it," Wauters said. "It just ran down into the motor and everything. The fire itself made everything just black. The primary truck, everything was just nasty black from the fire. The motor, we had to take it all apart last night, take the intake off, and get all the water out of the cylinders. We got oil put down on the cylinders and got it running last night. It appears it might be all right. We'll find out after we practice. This thing ain't bad. The rest, the backup truck was brand new and it got melted. That was junk. And all the contents in the trailer - the springs, the radios and all the equipment got junked. Other than that, I think this truck is all right. There's a lot of water damage and rust, but other than that, I think we'll be all right. Chassis 11 is his favorite truck. We've run 12 races in it. He doesn't want to give it up. We're going to try (to use the engine). We're going to try the first practice with it and see how it runs. And if it's all OK, we'll keep her in it. If not, we'll have to change it up. With the help of many in the NASCAR community Busch will be able to race in Friday's Silverado 350k for the Billy Ballew Motor Sports team. The toolbox was the first thing he (Transport Driver, Jeff Biese) got off when he opened the back door from the fire and as you can see, it was pretty hot. The backside is all melted out of it. The race day box was a complete loss. It was melted right in the trailer.

We want to really thank Jeff Millburn. He did a good job of helping us out. Without him, we wouldn’t be here today. We had to borrow his truck and trailer and back up to ours. The lift gate didn’t work on our stuff, we had to back up and load everything on to his. He was a champ by helping us out and bringing a couple of trucks and trailers over there to get all the stuff loaded, what we could save and we’ll get back (to Charlotte).

All the 15 guys came in with us last night at midnight and helped get us thing ready. The TRD guys, we appreciate what they done and helped us. All the guys in the garage here have been great, offering us whatever we need. It’s one big family and everybody is trying to help us.

We’re going to try (to use the engine). We’re going to try the first practice with it and see how it runs. And if it’s all OK, we’ll keep her in it. If not, we’ll have to change it up. It’s the best motor that TRD has. The backups ain’t as good as the primary is so we’re going to try to run it. We’ll be all right. Kyle’s Busch (Nationwide) team is bringing us stuff and we’ll use their pit boxes and whatever else. With all the guys in the garage helping us, we should have everything to get by for the weekend. “
With the help of many in the NASCAR community Busch will be able to race in Friday’s Silverado 350k for the Billy Ballew Motor Sports team.

***PS***I work for a major trucking dealership & can tell you while unfortunate, this isn't that uncommon.Jeff (Biese) the hauler driver said he heard an air leak & probably just thought he'd cut an airline or when he hit the debris in the road, it may have damaged a valve. Two miles doesn't seem very far but it doesn't take very long to build up enough heat in the hub or brake drum to ignite all of the brake lube & put both drive axles up in flames. I've seen guys slash a tire on a drive axle that waded up against a dual & cause a whole truck to go up in flames. Thank goodness Jeff's OK & Billy's lucky they had anything left to race tomarrow night.

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