Xpress Motorsports

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**Xpress Motorsports**

Owner(s) Name	Dave Fuge, Jr.
Racing Series	Craftsman Truck Series
Number of Championships	2
Car Number(s)	#16
Driver(s)	Mike Bliss
Primary Sponsor(s)	IWX Motor Freight
Shop Location	Mooresville, North Carolina
Homepage	None

Xpress Motorsports is a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team. It fields the #16 Chevrolet Silverado owned by Dave Fuge, Jr. and driven by Mike Bliss. The team won the Truck Series championship in 2002 and 2003 with Bliss and Travis Kvapil, respectively. The team was owned by Steve Coulter until 2004, when he sold the team to Fuge. The team's status is currently unknown due to sponsorship concerns.

1 Beginnings
2 Rebirth
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Beginnings

Xpress was formed in 1996, when Coulter founded the team to promote his company, IWX Motor Freight. Randy Tolsma was hired to drive the #61 Chevrolet Silverado at Phoenix International Raceway, and finished 29th after an early crash. Tolsma was named the team's full-time driver in 1997, but only qualified for one-third of the first nine races of the season, but rebounded to capture his first career win at Mesa Marin Raceway. The team continued to run in 1998 with Tolsma driving and had ten top-tens and one pole position when they announced they were closing down their truck team to run the Busch Series.

They began running the Busch Series with the #61 Pontiac Grand Prix and Derrike Cope driving. Cope qualified for three out of four races and had a best finish of fifteenth before he was replaced by rookie driver Tony Roper. Roper posted three top-tens in sixteen starts but departed the team near the end of the season. Robert Pressley, Morgan Shepherd, and Stanton Barrett drove the car for the rest of the season, with Shepherd posting a tenth-place finish at North Carolina Motor Speedway. Hut Stricklin was hired as the team's driver for the 2000 season and opened the year with a pole at the NAPA Auto Parts 300 but was released ten races into the season. After Darrell Lanigan ran a one-race deal at Lowe's Motor Speedway, they did not run until the Brickyard 400 Winston Cup race, when they failed to qualify with Rich Bickle driving. They returned to Busch at the end of the season, when Tim Sauter joined them with sponsorship from Stoops Freightliner. His best finish was fifteenth at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

[edit] Rebirth

Sauter was named the team's permanent driver in 2001 and competed for NASCAR Rookie of the Year honors with Xpress, which was running Pontiacs and Chevrolets. After crew chief Dave Fuge, Sr. was fined for a rules violation following the Outback Steakhouse 300, the team closed its doors immediately and stopped running.^[1] Later in the season, Fuge Sr. decided to revive the team, and ran a one-race deal with Mike Bliss at South Boston Speedway, where he finished ninth.

Without the guarantee of funding from Coulter^[2], Xpress decided to make a full-time run with Bliss in 2002. They won five races and the Truck Series championship. In addition, they fielded a second entry for the first time in team history at the Ford 200. Ron Hornaday won in the team's #11 entry. Bliss moved to the Busch Series and Travis Kvapil came over from Addington Racing. Kvapil won just one race that season and had already announced he was departing the team for Bang! Racing in 2004 when he won the championship at the season-finale at Homestead, giving Xpress its second consecutive title.

Three-time champion Jack Sprague, who had driven the #11 in two races in 2003, joined the team full-time in 2004 with Chevy Trucks coming on as a full-time backer. Sprague won the inaugural UAW/GM Ohio 250 and finished seventh in points. In 2005, Coulter sold the team to Fuge, and Xpress attempted to field the #19 truck in addition to the #16 with rookie Regan Smith driving, but the team dissolved after three races. Sprague won at Texas Motor Speedway, but left the team near the end of the season, and Bliss finished the rest of the year for the team, finishing fourth at Homestead. He ran with Xpress full-time with decreased support from Chevy, picking up a win at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Currently, the team's status is unknown. Fuge Sr. has stated that if the team doesn't find a sponsor by the end of December 2006, the team will close down.^[3]