NASCAR team owner Billy Ballew was arrested for driving drunk at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Wednesday night.
Ballew confirmed the arrest during a telephone interview Thursday.
“There’s a lot of circumstances I don’t want to go into right now,” Ballew said. “I am 100 percent sure that it will be dropped.”
Henry County police said a county sheriff’s department sergeant arrested Ballew at 7:45 p.m. Wednesday night. Ballew was booked into the county jail on a DUI charge and later released.
Ballew said he was driving a sponsor from his condominium to the passenger’s motor home when “an irate cop” wearing a cap marked “security” stopped him. The condo and the mobile home, said Ballew, are both on racetrack property.
Ballew said he refused to take a breathalyzer test, but acknowledged that he was carrying a mixed drink in the car when he was pulled over.
“It was only one drink. I was not drunk,” Ballew said. “I was on Atlanta Motor Speedway property. I was not on the highway.”
Ballew, a former stock car driver, is a well known figure in competive truck racing. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team owner has enlisted an all-star lineup of drivers over the years.
The list includes Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Geoffrey Bodine, John Andretti and Kyle Busch.

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Georgia officials have dropped DUI charges against NASCAR Truck Series team owner Billy Ballew stemming from his arrest at Atlanta Motor Speedway on March 4.

Henry County Solicitor General Charles A. Spahos filed an administrative dismissal of the charges Monday in State Court. He says a jury would have had a hard time convicting Ballew based on the facts in the case.

A Henry County Sheriff's sergeant arrested Ballew, who owns a condo at the track, after Ballew was stopped at a credential checkpoint. Authorities say Ballew had a beer can in the car and refused to take a field sobriety test.

Spahos noted in the dismissal notice that the officer at the credential check made no reference to smelling alcohol or seeing any evidence Ballew was impaired.

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