ML MOTORSPORTS O’REILLY RACEWAY PARK

WARSAW, Ind. - Though they put the same hard work and effort into every race, Saturday’s Kroger 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis is going to be special for the members of ML Motorsports.

The team, which was founded in 1998 as an ARCA RE/MAX Series team, is based in Warsaw, Indiana, a growing community of about 12,000 that is located an hour south of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend and just under an hour west of Fort Wayne.
“It’d be really cool to go there and have a strong showing,” said crew member Tim Frantz, who grew up in Warsaw and is one of the original team members. “This is the only time each year we get to race in our home state, so it’s special. All the races are special, but when you only have to drive two hours to the track, this one is special for us.”

The team’s shop is located just off US 30W in Warsaw. The impressive 40,000-square foot racing facility is tucked between a bean field and a corn field. It might not be the surroundings the teams in the Charlotte, N.C. area are used to, but for the crew at ML Motorsports its home.

“We like it in Warsaw,” said Mary Louise Miller, who owns the team with her daughter Stephany Mullen. “The guys on the team are from Indiana, and we’re planning on keeping it right here in Indiana.”

So far this season, ML Motorsports, with Owensboro, Kentucky native Mark Green behind the wheel, have competed in 12 Nationwide Series races. They have finished worse than 30th one time. In their last eight races, Team 70 has scored four top-15 finishes, including a fifth-place effort at Talladega, and finished worse than 22nd just once.

Another solid finish this weekend would be a feather in the team’s cap.

“We’re more of a short-track type team,” said crew member Jeremy Marsh. “And this is ORP, it’s close to home for us, so this is a special week. We work hard and prepare the same for every race, but yeah, this is a special race for us.”

In Warsaw, orthopedics, basketball and local short-track racing are popular topics.
Marsh has ties to all three. As a junior at Warsaw Community High School in 1992, Marsh was a guard on the school’s basketball team that advanced to the final four at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. He now works full-time at ML Motorsports, where the car carries a logo for Biomet, an orthopedic giant that was co-founded by Dr. Dane Miller, husband of co-owner Mary Louise Miller and father of co-owner Stephany Mullen.
“Growing up in a basketball-crazy community and now working on a race team in that community where racing is so popular, I’ve had some pretty neat experiences,” said Marsh. “I’ve been blessed to have success in both sports. The people in Warsaw are so supportive, whether it’s the basketball team or they’re fans of the race team. Warsaw is a sports-crazy town. I’m blessed to have been a part of it.”

The closest short track to the ML Motorsports shop is located in Plymouth. Go to Plymouth Speedway, and based on T-shirts worn by the race fans in attendance, and there’s two very popular drivers - Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brian Ross.

Ross, more commonly known as Flyin’ Brian, is a local racing legend and currently serves as crew chief for ML Motorsports. To say that Ross is a hands-on crew chief would be a huge understatement, as he has won hundreds of races throughout the Midwest, including wins at O’Reilly Raceway Park.

Ross is a veteran of the ARCA RE/MAX Series, various outlaw late model series, the Championship Racing Association (CRA) and the Hooters Pro Cup Series, amongst others. As a driver, he has taken the checkered flag at O’Reilly Raceway Park four times in the CRA division.

On Saturday, he’d like to be the winning crew chief in the Nationwide Series.