With two races remaining before the field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, activity at one end of the garage area at Auto Club Speedway is at a frenzied pace. The anxiety is palpable, the pressure intense. The teams and drivers are under the spotlight, knowing that one mistake, one false move, one bad decision could conceivably cost them an opportunity at a championship.

At the far end of the garage, where others work in virtual obscurity, the anxiety and pressure are equally as oppressive. But for those teams, many of them independent one-car operations, the difference between staying in the top 35 in owner points and loading up the hauler after failing to qualify each week is not just measured in thousands of a second.

It's a matter of survival.

The success or failure of a small Sprint Cup team is just as much dependent on good fortune as much as money and experience. If luck is truly what happens when opportunity meets preparation, every team outside of the top 35 would be awash in it. But that's just not the case when someone has to finish last.

There are no dummies in the garage area. Even the smallest, most inexperienced teams are stocked with talented people: marketing and management experts, brilliant engineers, and drivers with impressive resumes.

So what's it like being "on the bubble?"

For Hall of Fame Racing, 2008 has been a season in which everything that could go wrong seemingly has. Armed with equipment from Joe Gibbs Racing, a guaranteed starting spot in the first five races of the season -- and with promising driver J.J. Yeley at the wheel -- new principal owners Tom Garfinkel, Jeff Moorad and Tom Davin expected great improvement over their 29th-place finish in the 2007 standings.

Instead, the season has been one of frustration and disappointment. Eight consecutive finishes of 25th or worse to start the year -- particularly, finishes of 42nd at Texas and 39th at Phoenix -- forced the team to qualify on speed at Talladega. And Yeley missed by less than three-tenths of a second.

Since then, the No. 96 Toyota has failed to qualify on three other occasions, leaving it 39th in the points, nearly 300 behind the final guaranteed position. For Hall of Fame, the rest of the season has been like handing bags of cement to a man barely able to tread water.

But they're just one example of how difficult life is at the back of the field. The same could be said for many of the smaller operations in NASCAR's premier series, all trying to climb over each other each week in an effort to grab one of those precious guaranteed starting spots.

Four key members of the No. 96 Toyota team were gracious enough to provide honest and revealing answers to questions about what might have gone wrong this season, what steps have been taken to try and solve those issues, and what the future may bring.

Man with a plan

Tom Garfinkel, along with HOF co-owner Jeff Moorad, have proven track records.

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A former executive vice president for Chip Ganassi Racing, Garfinkel has extensive experience in managing racing operations. During his five years at Ganassi, he oversaw business operations of the 400-employee company. In August of last year, he purchased controlling interest in Hall of Fame Racing with Jeff Moorad and Tom Davin. The Paradise Valley, Ariz., resident and University of Colorado graduate also serves as the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Q: When you took over, you knew it would be a struggle. At this point, it's still early in the game but where does management feel the team is right now, and what are the things that most need addressing?

Garfinkel: We knew getting in that this is a very, very competitive sport. We knew it was going to take time. The Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004 had a 111-loss season. Now we're in first place in the National League West.

In some ways, we're going through our 111-loss season, but we have a plan, we're going to be disciplined and we're going to stick with it. It begins and ends with people. We've got some great people on this team. As we continue to grow and continue to add good people, we'll continue to improve.

Q: The dynamics between operating a Major League Baseball team and a NASCAR Sprint Cup team are somewhat different, especially in the way you generate revenue for the operation. How do you keep the sponsor happy while planning for the long term?

Garfinkel: It definitely requires someone who understands the vision. I think if you look at the most successful sponsorships in the sport, they've chosen to be with a team through good times and bad, and the team owners have found a way to produce value for them over time.

Whether that's FedEx with Joe Gibbs, or Lowe's with Rick Hendrick, you've got situations where you match your sponsorship with a team owner who shares the same vision -- and you stick with it, and it usually works out fine.

Q: Based on where you are right now, is there anywhere where you might have chosen to do things differently?

Garfinkel: We don't have any regrets. We've certainly learned from our experiences and continue to learn from them. We knew this was a competitive sport as there is and so as we continue to learn and improve and grow, we continue to be disciplined to our plan.

Q: What does the future hold for Hall of Fame Racing?

Garfinkel: There are a lot of different discussions happening right now. DLP HDTV is coming back next year. We purposely left our options open in a lot of ways, in terms of some of the other decisions we have to make, so we can evaluate all of our options. And we're in the process of doing that right now.

Steve Boyer, crew chief

Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

Steve Boyer has worked with four different drivers this year after taking over as crew chief in March.

Boyer is a 36-year-old North Platte, Neb., native who started his racing career as a development engineer for Goodyear, working on automotive belts and racing tires. After receiving a master's degree in science and engineering from Case Western Reserve, he was hired by Chip Ganassi's operation, working as a race engineer for Jason Leffler and Sterling Marlin, then becoming Marlin's crew chief near the end of the 2004 season. He was hired by Hall of Fame Racing in December 2007 and replaced Brandon Thomas as crew chief of the No. 96 Toyota in March.

Q: This has not been the kind of season that this team expected. Is there anything that jumps out at you as to the reasons why?

Boyer: A little bit of it is growing pains. Certain things just didn't work out the way we thought they would. Obviously, everything hasn't gone exactly according to plan. We started out the year with a plan, but now it's a different crew chief, a different driver, a different number of things. And the expectation at that point was that this would not be nearly the struggle it has been all year.

The guys at the shop have been great. They've really responded well to a lot of the different changes. You keep thinking that, 'Hey, all these guys haven't forgotten how to do this.' Sometimes you just don't get any breaks that go your way, and sometimes it just sort of snowballs.

When it does, it happens in a hurry. It probably all started for us with one race and if things go slightly differently, the whole outlook on the season changes. It's amazing how you look back and there's one or two things that really make a huge difference in the year.

Q: A one-car team has no room for error in this day and age, does it?

Boyer: It is, so then you start the year off and string together three or four bad races, and then you worry about digging yourself out of a hole than actually trying to hang onto a spot and run well. It's a really hard thing to recover from. There's no margin for error at all.

Q: As a crew chief, what do you do with the final 11 races of the season in order to prepare for 2009?

Boyer: I think the biggest thing is just trying to build some momentum, just try to string together a couple of top-20 runs. Make sure we qualify for every race. All of those kind of little things, just to try and pick us up a little bit and get us headed into next year.

If we would run really well the last 11 races, there's still an outside chance to get back into the top 35, so you still hang that goal out there. But the biggest thing is just to get momentum and get a little bit of confidence going forward.

Q: Are you sitting down right now with management and talking about long-term plans?

Boyer: Yeah, we've been talking about '09 since July, so that's ongoing. We're constantly discussing how to get better and what we think the landscape's going to look like next year. I think this sport's going through a pretty big change right now, in some of those terms.

We're constantly talking about that kind of stuff and what's going to position us right now to get some momentum and to position our team so we're ready to go next year.

Q: Is this a matter of taking this one step at a time and trying to build on little gains?

Boyer: Yeah, we're just trying to make little steps and use guys like Mr. Schrader to help use evaluate where we're at and go forward from there.

Todd Warshaw/Getty Images

HOF hopes Ken Schrader's 25 years and more than 700 Cup starts can help shed some light on the problems.

Schrader is a 53-year-old native of Fenton, Mo., and the definitive veteran driver. A former open-wheel star, Schrader began competing full-time on the Cup circuit in 1985, winning four times and making more than 700 starts in a career that has spanned a quarter of a century.

Schrader knows first-hand the difficulties facing a single-car operation, as he's driven for the Wood Brothers, BAM Racing and Hall of Fame at some point during the past two seasons. He qualified seventh at Bristol in the No. 96 Toyota, but faded to 21st, equaling his season-high. At Fontana, he started 28th and struggled near the tail end of the field for most of the race, winding up 41st.

Q: You've had a chance to drive for the team. Assess their situation.

Schrader: It's a young one-car team. That stacks the deck against you. Obviously, they have the relationship with Gibbs, and that's helped them. But in those deals, it's not like everything's a complete open book. It's not like you're working out of their shop with the same people preparing everything.

I've been real impressed with what I've seen. The neatest thing is the ownership group will have the ability to step up and keep names on that car that will enable it to grow.

From conversations I've had, [the new ownership] came in looking down the road, definitely growing, not just getting in. And they definitely looked at other operations that were out there that were already bigger but wanting something they could grow the way they wanted it.

I think that's neat. There's nothing scary, other than the deck is stacked against them.

Q: So they're not behind in technology or talent?

Schrader: No, definitely not. The one thing that I was a little bit surprised by, maybe, was being more "old school" ... I see for other teams, money that just goes away. Here, it looks like they're a lot more frugal, as far as, 'Do we need that, or do we not? We don't need 10 of them on the shelf.' So that's very refreshing.

Q: If you had one suggestion for this team, what would it be?

Schrader: It wouldn't be a suggestion. They know what the game plan's got to be and that's to grow. But having just two cars is twice the headache, unless you're able to put the right people together. And that's what I like about the way they're doing stuff. They're sneaking up on things. They're not just throwing stuff out there and seeing what happens.

They've actually got a plan. Just right now, it's like a 5-foot-tall guy going to play basketball against 6-footers. It's tough but they keep recruiting.

Brad Coleman, test driver

Autostock

Brad Coleman has three top-fives and seven top-10s in 43 career Nationwide starts.

A 20-year-old Houston native, Coleman has excelled at every form of motorsports since he was spotted driving at an indoor karting center at the age of 12. He received his professional open-wheel racing license at 14, and two years later, finished seventh in the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona.

Signed to a developmental driver contract with Brewco Motorsports, Coleman won an ACRA race at Kentucky Speedway, then made his Busch Series debut one week after graduating from high school.

Coleman scored three top-five finishes in 2006 driving a limited schedule for Joe Gibbs -- and was hired by Hall of Fame to act as test driver. When Yeley was released after Pocono, Coleman was named as his replacement at Michigan, starting 43rd and finishing 38th.

Q: What is your current status with Hall of Fame?

Coleman: It's a week-to-week deal as to who they want to put in the car. They want to make the best business decision to ensure that they can get back into the top 35 in points. So right now, I'm testing with them as much as I can. I did the race at Michigan and I'm going to do a couple more races before the year is out. The way things are, I just don't know which ones.

Q: What was the feeling you got from the team after Michigan?

Coleman: I did exactly what they asked me to do at Michigan. They told me to go out there, first make the race and run all the laps I could. When they gave me those goals, I did that and those were my goals, as well. We accomplished our goals.

Q: And you're currently testing?

Coleman: Yeah, I did the Kansas Goodyear tire test this past Tuesday. It was my first time to be in a Goodyear tire test, so I got to try out all different tires and it's cool to know that I maybe helped decide which tire to pick.

Q: With the limited amount of time you've had with the team, is there anything you've seen that explains why this season has been such a struggle?

Coleman: It's hard to tell. They have the Gibbs equipment, and you can give somebody the equipment, but you have to know how to apply it. Gibbs has been doing it for such a long time, they know what they're doing. When I was driving for Gibbs in the Nationwide Series, their stuff was good.

With this new car, it's just so finicky. It's just hard to get just right, because you're never going to find a comfortable setup.

Q: What's your current contract situation?

Coleman: When I signed the deal for driver and test driver last year, we were going to start up a second team toward this time in the fall. But the way things have worked out, they haven't qualified for races.

Right now, they're focused on being a one-car team, so I don't know what we're doing next year or what's going on.

Q: How difficult has this season been, to be watching this from the sidelines?

Coleman: It's been emotionally challenging, because the Sprint Cup Series has been my goal in life. I've worked since I was a little kid to do this. To be so close, it can be frustrating.

But I can totally understand where they're coming from with the decisions they have to make. Every time I've been in a car, they've backed me fully, so they're great guys.

I want to get seat time. I want to drive as many things as I can, Nationwide, Trucks. Of course, I want to do Sprint Cup, even if it's half the schedule, whatever. I want to be successful in Sprint Cup. I don't care if I get rookie of the year or anything like that. I just want to be successful for life. Whatever it takes to get there is what I'm going to be doing.

Epilogue

Jerry Markland/Getty Images

HOF's new owners know a successful team begins with its people.

The goal is simple. Achieving it in today's environment is complex. It takes time, talent and resources.

In talking with Garfinkel, Boyer, Schrader and Coleman, there's no specific area that can be pin-pointed as the reason for the team's lack of success in 2008. Instead, it's a combination of factors that have contributed to the struggles in which Hall of Fame Racing finds itself right now.

It's a precarious balancing act. In order to build a successful operation, you have to have a sponsor willing to foot the bill. But in order to keep the sponsor happy, you have to show immediate return on investment. It's a rare situation when a sponsor is willing to ride out the tough times in order to see long-term improvement.

Even though there is disappointment and frustration in the No. 96 garage, there's no feeling of panic. And that's important for a team that needs to find consistency, which will lead to confidence.

Cal Wells, Larry McClure and Beth Ann Morgenthau can attest to the difficulty of running a successful small team in an era when multi-car, multi-million dollar operations have the advantage of technology, testing and teamwork.

There are no guarantees. Teams that have excelled in this sport for decades -- like the Wood Brothers and Petty Enterprises -- find themselves facing the same issues as recent start-ups Furniture Row and Hall of Fame.

In a sport where the difference between success and failure can be measured in the blink of an eye, it's a matter of survival.