DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- With 49 cars funneling their way down the tech line for the first 2006 Busch race, Daytona is already heating up. When asked what’s the deal? Are you on vacation or are you working? Travis Powell grinned in the sunshine and replied, “Both, it’s the perfect combination for a racer, sunshine, fast cars and the Daytona Speedway”.
There were plenty of incidents on and off the track this week to keep the garage area hot this week, but Travis has kept his cool and kept his focus on the ideas that brought him across the country: he’s here on a learning mission.
While pushing the #58 Donnie Neuenberger MacDonald owned Bucsh race car forward to tech, Travis commented on his week, “There is so much to racing. Whether it’s dealing with NASCAR officials during tech or completing a near perfect practice laps everything is a piece of the puzzle. That’s what I’m here to learn this week”. Continuing, he said “as a matter of fact there is so much to this business that I decided this week I would focus solely on set up and behind the wall work so my West crew chief (Bill Shaw) and I volunteered our time to help Randy and Doc MacDonald on their Busch team and at the same time increased our knowledge base to take home to the West Grand National Series".
In addition to the #58 for the Busch Series opener, Powell & Shaw worked with Mike Harmons’s #38 in the ARCA race last weekend. Even though it was hard times for the Harmon's team there were lessons learned as well, lessons Travis & Bill will take and improve on the Powell Motorsports race team.
“We’ll be branching out a little more this year,” Powell reflected. “I’m planning on competing some in the West Series events and I’m even going to be renting some of my equipment to some other drivers both in the West Grand National division and N.W. Tour Elite division.”
As owner and operator of the racing garage located in Snohomish, Washington Travis has a stable of 5 cars and multiple engine and set up options.
