This winter the focus in the media centered primarily on the doom and gloom the economy was having on the racing industry. Hundreds of employees in Race Country USA were laid off, some of the biggest teams in the business were forced to merge in order to stay competitive and others simply fell by the wayside. However, once the garage filled up for the Daytona 500 the focus began to shift - primarily because the garage truly filled up.

During Thursday's Gatorade Duel 150s, two of the drivers able to race their way in did so on less than a shoestring budget. For both Jeremy Mayfield and Scott Riggs, no secure ride heading into 2009 left them wondering what the future held. As the winter wore on and the season fast approached, both Mayfield and Riggs were able to benefit from the closure of Bill Davis Racing.

For Riggs, that benefit came in the form of former crew chief Tommy Baldwin. Out of a job as a result of Bill Davis' misfortune, Baldwin took advantage of the situation and decided to go racing for himself. Announcing the formation of Tommy Baldwin Racing early in January, Baldwin purchased a number of Toyotas from Bill Davis Racing. Baldwin tapped Riggs to drive for the team a few weeks later and then team went to work on the daunting task of making the field for the Daytona 500.

"[It] came down to a point that I had to make a decision," Riggs explained. "Am I going to sit at home and stay on the phone and call people and hope that something opens up to give me an opportunity to get in the car? Or am I going to go down to Daytona and start the season off with somebody, like Tommy, who in my situation has more experience than anyone I've ever worked with as a crew chief?

"What really made the decision for me is when I talked to Tommy and heard the passion in his voice, heard it just talking to him several times on the phone, how dedicated he was, how positive he was. We're going to do this. Stick with me; we'll do it."

Mayfield's story is similar, but differs in an important way. Instead of hooking up with another team, the Owensboro, Kentucky-native decided to go out on his own. Unlike Tony Stewart - who went to an established team with Hendrick Motorsports support - Mayfield is truly on his own and and has successfully built a Sprint Cup Series team in less than a month.

"If I ever want to retire as a driver, I want to retire on my own, not be pushed to the wayside," said Mayfield. "I think that's what kept me motivated to do this. I wanted to come back. I love NASCAR racing more than anything. It's what I know. It's what I've always done."

Also purchasing cars from the now defunct Bill Davis Racing, Mayfield was able to pull resources from many of those that found themselves without work heading into the season.

"That's something I'm very proud of, being able to at least employ 10 or 15 guys that had been laid off, at least help their family, help them out. It's just amazing right now how many that's like that," Mayfield pointed out. "But for us, we had a little saying. We weren't going to hire anybody unless you've been laid off for three months, kind of hungry like we are, ready to go. That the just a joke, by the way (laughter).?

Mayfield went on to explain that of the guys working on his team, both full-time and volunteer, there has been no complaining and everyone is eager to work towards the common goal of making races and putting on a good show.

"Most of them are volunteers pretty much," Mayfield said of his crew. "We got several guys we've hired full-time. To be honest with you, haven't got the first paycheck. Hopefully we can pay them now."

These teams are two of the success stories to emerge out of the tough economic times. Putting everything on the line with no guarantee of making the show, they showed up and worked as hard as anyone in the garage over the past week. Their success in Thursday's Gatorade Duels showed that a small single car team can still contend and make it in NASCAR.

"A little bit of old school. That's what our whole team is built around," Mayfield added. "Our motto for our team is, Keep it small. Buy our engines or lease our engines from Triad [Technologies], get our cars done from there, Toyota. Not really get big. I guess you could call it old psychological. Not sure. Old school with open-minded technology or open-minded something."

For Riggs and Baldwin the same is true.

"This is grass-roots right now for us," Riggs explained after making the Daytona 500 in Thursday's Duels. "I mean, you go to the shop, it's a lot of guys are just volunteers, passionate about racing. They're addicted to the racing bug that we all are addicted to. They put their heart and soul into it from faith in Tommy, the whole organization.

"You know, it's not the ideal situation," Riggs admitted. "I don't think Tommy or myself looked at last year and said, Hey, let's go race next year on a shoestring budget with no major sponsors and see if we can race all the races. That's not what we want.

"I think we both have the kind of mentality that we are backed into the corner and we are here to try to prove ourselves and fight our way out."

The success of these two teams is a great thing for NASCAR amidst the doom and gloom of this past winter. Their success has proved that you don't have to be a Hendrick or a Roush to compete in greatest form of stock car racing in the world. You are not able to go buy a football team or a baseball team and compete with the Steelers or the Phillies, but if you can find the resources and the crew you can come and compete with some of the best race car drivers in the world.