No. 15 joins teammate in Ballew's switch to Toyota

MOORESVILLE, N.C. -- In his first year behind the wheel of the Billy Ballew Motorsports' No. 15 truck, rookie Marc Mitchell and the team announced on Tuesday they will race Toyota Tundras for the remainder of the 2008 Craftsman Truck Series season. Prior to Saturday's race at Martinsville Speedway, the team ran Chevrolet Silverados.

The Toyota and Billy Ballew Motorsports combination has already had a very successful start to the season. In addition to the No. 15 truck, Billy Ballew Motorsports fields the No. 51 Toyota Tundra for driver Kyle Busch, which has used Toyota power since the beginning of the season. Billy Ballew Motorsports' has two wins this season with Busch in a Toyota.

Mitchell is optimistic about the switch.

"This is going to be great for the Ergon team," Mitchell said. "Chevy has been really good to us, and I want to thank them for all of their support. We've had three strong finishes in our Silverado this season, but we need both teams at Billy Ballew to have the same manufacturer. It will be a huge advantage to transfer information from one team to the other.

"We've had some positive things happen so far this season, but we weren't able to transfer what we learned to the 51 team, and vice-versa, because we had different manufacturers. Now we'll be able to pass data back and forth. That should help our program all around -- setups from practice and test sessions, race information, everything."

Team owner Billy Ballew is excited to have both of his teams in the Toyota camp.

"We've had a lot of success with our No. 51 team this year," Ballew said. "Kyle won at Atlanta and California in a Toyota this year. Switching the Ergon team to Toyota will allow both of our teams to share setup information and streamline what they've learned. I think it will benefit both teams at Billy Ballew Motorsports."