MB Motorsports making big strides in ’07

By Brandon W. Mudd
Warrenton Journal

In five decades in the racing business, Mike Mittler has just about seen it all.
He raced the local dirt tracks. He was a crew member during Rusty Wallace’s 1986 championship season in the American Speed Association. His NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (NCTS) team, MB Motorsports, has been in the series since its inaugural season in 1995.

He has seen tragedy, watching his driver and friend Tony Roper die in one of his trucks after a crash at Texas in 2000 that made national headlines. He has seen triumph, watching as his protegee Carl Edwards finished in the top 10 at Kansas in 2002 in an MB Motorsports Ford. Edwards would later become one of NASCAR’s most marketable young stars, winning victories in the sports top-three divisions.
In the years after Edwards left for one of the teams in NASCAR, Roush Racing, the team hit a lull. Drivers such as David Stover, Chris Wimmer, and J.R. Patton came and went without leaving much of a mark on the racing landscape or on the team.
After a run of missing races through slow qualifying times and plain bad luck last season, Mittler brought Justin Allgaier to the fold. The Illinois driver had run races in the past for MB Motorsports and moved over to the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) series, finding success there. It was the catalyst the team needed.
“No doubt about it,” Mittler said. “We struggled a little early on last year. We brought Justin Allgaier back and he drove a couple races for us. That’s really what was the spark to get us rolling and keep us moving forward. We had kind of gotten to the point where we were wondering are we this dumb? Justin proved that we’re not that dumb and he kept us going through last year.”

Last year marked a turnaround for the team. A partnership with former ARCA champion and fellow NCTS owner Bob Keselowski proved to be fruitful. Mittler provided the team and crew, while Keselowski provided new trucks and input. It was also towards the end of the ’06 season that Mittler met Scott Lynch.

Lynch, a veteran of the Winston West series and former NCTS driver, has signed a deal to race with Mittler this season and has become the focal point of what could be the team’s most successful season to date.

“Our main thrust for the year is going to be a sponsorship deal with Cooper Bussmann right out of St. Louis,” Mittler said. “They’re going to sponsor us for six races. We picked up Scott Lynch from out of the Winston West series. Scott ran some Truck Series races (in 2005) for Brendan Gaughan and did a real good job there. We’re real excited about that opportunity.”

Two other drivers will also pilot the #63 MB Motorsports Ford this season: Jack Smith, a short-track ace based in Ohio, and Jason White, who started the season with the team in Daytona. White had a strong run in the NCTS’s season opener, but a crash relegated the team to a 35th-place finish.

“We have been kind of the team that’s developed young talent and a couple of different opportunities have come to us,” Mittler said. “That’s what happens now, is that young drivers and people with some funding come to our team.

“We started off the year at Daytona with Jason White and Gunbroker.com (as the primary sponsor) on the truck. We’re going to run a couple races with them that are still to be determined.”

Smith will step into the truck at Mansfield Motorsports Park May 26 and has an extensive history at the track and has been helping the team improve the bodies of its trucks. That race could be a pivotal one for the team, as it will be one of only two NCTS races all season to be televised nationally on FOX. Nearly all Truck Series races are aired on the SPEED Channel.

In addition to new drivers, new partners, and new sponsors, the engine shop at MB Motorsports has received an upgrade as well. “Our team is going to be the best it’s ever been,” Mittler said. “We brought back another guy to help us in our engine shop and he’s brought a lot of knowledge. Our engines have always been pretty good, but now they’re going to be even better now. Overall, we’ve strengthened the team in all areas.”

All the improvements have given Mittler a reason to consider racing a full season in 2008, something the team has never attempted in its history.

“We had been a week-to-week team,” he said, “spending whatever money we could get on any given week for any given sponsorship to improve that week. We’re actually talking right now about 2008 and trying to put together what we need to be able to run the full schedule.”

But no matter what heights MB Motorsports acheives, for many, it will always be the place Carl Edwards started his career. Mittler said Edwards almost returned to his roots at Daytona.

“He really wanted to drive our truck at Daytona and by him asking (Jack) Roush if he could drive our truck, that’s what really drove him to get into the #50 truck,” he said. “They for sure didn’t want to let him go and come back to me, so they opened the door and got him into that #50 truck.”

Edwards has publically shown his appreciation for his former boss on a number of occassions when the national spotlight was aimed at him. Events such as winning his first NASCAR Cup Series race in Atlanta two years ago and being honored for his third-place finish in the Cup Series’ points standings in New York City that same year found the Columbia, Mo., native thanking Mike Mittler.

“It was quite a treat for Carl to call our name on the stage in New York,” Mittler said. “Carl is the real deal and some people have asked me if he’s really the guy he seems to be. I tell them that he’s even more than the guy he seems to be.

“Carl learned a lot from me about racing and I learned a lot of things about life and how to treat people from Carl Edwards.”