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NASCAR Craftsman Trucks:
Mike Bliss Talks About His Progress

Mike Bliss

Mike Bliss, #2 Team ASE Ford F-150: "This year I think the team and I expected to win more than one race, and we really felt like we could have run for the championship. But we had out ups and downs, and we learned a lot. We feel what we learned this year will help us next year going into the next racing season. But, all in all, this year was a real big learning curve for me. Actually, this year I learned more about the race trucks and motors than I learned in the past two years. The competition level picked up this year, and we found that out by going back to the tracks where we ran good at, and ran mediocre at. We just have to work harder for next year."

WHAT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF 1997 FOR YOU? "Well, the win at Fontana. Winning that first race of the season finally, and it being in California. Winning the pole and winning the race. That had to be the biggest race."

WHAT ABOUT ALL THE POLES YOU WON THIS SEASON? "Well, that was good too. But winning that first race was the best thing I though definitely. It surprised me that we got so many poles this year. That's a tribute to our motor program. It just got better and better as the season went along." (The team leased engines from Robert Yates)

WHAT WAS THE LOW POINT OF THE SEASON? "The lowest point really, I can't say we had a lowest point. But where I really felt bad was where we wrecked a few trucks. At I-70 I wrecked the truck right off the truck in practice. I mean totaled it, and then Bristol. I went through a month of wrecking trucks and that kind of pulled us down a little bit. But everybody goes through that it seems like."

YOU HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO GO WINSTON CUP RACING NEXT YEAR. WHAT LED TO YOUR DECISION TO STAY IN THE TRUCK SERIES? "I felt like this team is so good that we have a chance to win every race. When I started racing, I was a winner, I guess. It is going to be real hard for me to go to Winston Cup and become a learner again. You know, go back to school until you get the experience. And I want to win the championship here. And then if we do get our Winston Cup chance, I want it to be the best for myself, and I want to be up to par for that team, too. I just need to learn more here about what I'm doing with set-ups and race tracks, and in general just racing more. The more laps you get, the more experience you get. I just want to make sure that I'm ready 100% to make the jump."

IS THERE A POSSIBILITY ULTRA MOTORSPORTS WILL GO TO WINSTON CUP? "I hear Jimmy (Smith) talk about it. I know that's in the back of Jimmy's head. He wants to real bad. I don't know what the plans are. We've never sat down and said in the year 2000 we're going to have a Winston Cup team. I just play it a year at a time. You never know with Jim, he might buy a Winston Cup team tomorrow."

ULTRA MOTORSPORTS HAD A SECOND TEAM PART OF THE TIME DURING 1997. (ERIC NORRIS ENTERED SIX EVENTS IN AN ULTRA MOTORSPORTS PREPARED TRUCK.) WILL IT BE A TWO-TRUCK TEAM IN 1997? "No, Jim and I talked about it with Barry (Dodson, crew chief). We want to focus on this 100%, and Jim promised there wouldn't be any surprises, you know, any second truck running here or there. It took away a little bit from our program because we didn't hire any more guys to prepare those trucks and get them to the track. And we've only got six guys, so it really kind of pulled on them a little bit. But they did it. They did a great job. They are just a great group of guys."

Text by Campbell and Company
Photos By Terry Callahan

Editors Note: The images displayed in this article (plus many more) can be viewed in the NASCAR Image Gallery.

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