New Bill Davis Racing VP optimistic about team's future

By Bob Pockrass - Associate Editor

Sunday, April 13, 2008

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AVONDALE, Ariz. – Marty Gaunt is used to the world of being outside the top 35 and knows how painful it can be.

So it’s no surprise that his first priority as the new vice president of Bill Davis Racing is to try to get the No. 22 team back in the top 35 in owners points.

“There’s a lot of good people and resources at Bill Davis Racing,” said Gaunt, who was with Red Bull Racing last year. “If you look
down the road at [BDR affiliate] Triad and their capabilities [with Toyota], everything is there. It’s just going over there and trying to get the puzzle all back together.”

The No. 22 team with driver Dave Blaney is 37th in the owners points, just eight out of one of the 35 guaranteed starting positions.

“When you live on the other side of the top 35, you live on the edge most of the time,” Gaunt said. “It’s not an easy fix. … It’s all part
of a group effort. We’ve all sat down and communicated, identified some of the issue and we’re going to start ticking them off one by one.”

While the No. 22 team is the top priority and obviously Gaunt wants the successful truck programs to continue to thrive, he also wants to get a second Cup car eventually back on the track. BDR had hoped to field a second car this season for Jacques Villeneuve but that project fell through when sponsorship fell through.

“The No. 22 is the top priority, the first priority to get it back to where it belongs,” said Gaunt, who most recently was with TRG
Motorsports. “If you look at the history of the CAT car, winning the 500, the first car for Toyota to sit on the pole last year at New Hampshire, it’s there. We’ve just got to get back to where it was and then get the second car going.”

Stabilizing the BDR program is important as it tries to convince long-time sponsor Caterpillar to remain with the team. Not only was Gaunt brought in as vice president, but BDR has shuffled its management team with Mark Chambers moving from his role as the truck series program manager to team general manager and the hiring of a director of marketing in Jim Thomas.

“It’s all of our responsibilities is to make sure we keep all of our partners in-house and keep them happy, but I think with the restructure going on we have at Bill Davis Racing and with the top priority getting performance back up, we can squash all those rumors [about Caterpillar leaving],” Gaunt said.