(photo by Dave DeAngelis)

DRO: So, with money so tight, what made you decide to run a two-car team?

JO: Well, Louie had done the bottom end of my car for 14 years, since back in 1988, and I told him about three years ago, 'Someday when we've got the parts, we'll stay over on a Monday and you can get your license.' So we did that and then I had my knee replaced a couple of years ago and I told him, 'I'm gonna' put you in the car and we'll run it a couple of times and I'll run the last qualifying lap if you don't get in.' One thing just led to another, and I thought he's already in the points, so I just kept letting him drive.

Then we got to some place where we had both cars in the trailer and there were only seven cars in the field, so I just thought we might as well get both cars out and I'd just go run it and get the money for qualifying both cars. We've been running both cars unless we have problems with his car on the first lap, and then I'll just park mine until we get his going down the racetrack.

We usually don't go to the starting line with both cars because I just don't have enough people. I'll go run his car and only if he runs good enough that I think he's in, we'll just park his and then take mine to the starting line. So, where everybody else makes three laps to qualify, we might make all three laps, too, but if we get both cars in, we'll get double the money that they get for qualifying.

The initial investment is the big deal. But I had two cars and a replacement part for every part on the car, so I just put all the spares on the second car and if we ever needed a part to fix something, we'd just park my car and put it on Louie's car to make it go. But now I've spare stuff for everything. I've even got a new car being built by Ty Baumgartner for next year.

DRO: Will Louie get the new chassis, too?

JO: No, I'm probably gonna' put Louie in the car I have now and I'll take the new one, at least for now. I don't want to put him out there as a test driver. I mean, the car I've got has been up and down the racetrack, so we know already what it does and that it goes straight.

DRO: Back to your Budd's Creek win; were even you surprised that you were the one who finally beat Millican?

JO: Well, I said all year that if you're gonna' beat that team of guys, you've gotta' beat 'em early. If you give [Millican's crew chief Mike] Kloeber two or three laps to figure a racetrack out, you won't be able to beat him. He's been vulnerable early before, where they smoked the tires or something, but whoever they've been running has always screwed up somehow in the other lane. Besides being real good, they've been pretty lucky when they needed to be, too. But they've got an excellent operation over there. They've got a good driver, good crew, good crew chief, good owner; it's a complete operation.

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