A new partnership officially debuts tonight.

The Gardiner-based EJP (E.J. Prescott) Racing team reached an agreement with Gibbs Racing that will see the NASCAR Busch Craftsman Series truck team enter at least three races beginning with the Power Stroke Diesel 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

When Steve Prescott climbed into a NASCAR Busch Craftsman Series truck in 2000, he hoped it would be the start of something.

The eventual goal was to be able to hook up with an multi-truck team or accrue enough sponsorship money so the EJP Racing team could run a full season.

But they weren’t able to hook up with anybody until now.

Prescott ran three races that season and hung up his helmet to devote more time to the family pipeline business (Everett J. Prescott Inc.) as well as overseeing the truck series.

They have had four drivers run selected races since, including former Nextel Cup driver Geoffrey Bodine for five races earlier this season, but this alliance with Gibbs Racing could be their breakthrough.

“Obviously, it’s a business transaction. It’s a partnership,” said Prescott.

“We’ll provide the trucks and they’ll earn seat time for the drivers in their driver development program. They won’t have to shell out the money to fully fund a new team on their own. It’s a pro-rated deal,” he added. “They’ll pay us for the cost of doing business, getting to the racetrack and providing engine support. They’ll supply us with track support as well as the over-the-wall [pit] crew. But they’ll use our equipment, our resources and our people. ”

Prescott’s team now also has the opportunity to get wind tunnel time and engine data it couldn’t afford.

E.J. Prescott Racing has seven trucks at its shop in Gardiner and six full-time employees who work on them and serve other roles, also.

Little Compton, R.I., native Steve May, one of the employees, will be the crew chief. The other full and part-time employees are all from Maine: team manager Adam Ross of Detroit, transport drivers Ed Chapman (Auburn), Reggie Cooley (Gardiner) and John Myrick (Gardiner); general mechanics Tom Pearl (Oxford), Jason Ricker (Poland), Lewis McNaughton (Augusta), Rosy Santerre (Gardiner) and Dana Grover (Waterford) and fabricator Kevin McDaniel from Livermore.

Denny Hamlin, who is second in the late model division points at South Boston Speedway (Va.), will drive the Chevy truck tonight.

“We have a contract for three races but we have proposed seven more. They haven’t said yes or no yet,” said Prescott. “They have given us a verbal commitment they want to continue this for some events next year. We’re discussing 10-15 races for next year right now. And we’re hoping to attract enough sponsorship with our performance so we can run a full season.”

In addition, the EJP-Racing team also picked up a sponsor in Joe Gibbs Performance.

They will run again at the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series 200 at Richmond International Raceway on Sept. 9 and Prescott said the third race has yet to be determined.

He also indicated that J.J. Yeley is another driver who will probably get some seat time.

Both Hamlin and Yeley have tested in Prescott trucks.

“Our original deal with Geoffrey was for seven races. We hoped to use his name to attract enough sponsorship dollars to keep with us. But that didn’t pan out and he had a chance to run some part-time [Nextel] Cup stuff so we parted ways after five races,” said Prescott.

Bodine had one top-10 finish in his five races and the rest were 21st or lower. He is 31st in points and made $52,310.

Cherryfield’s Andy Santerre, the defending two-time Busch North champion and current points leader in that series, may also drive a Prescott truck at some time this season.

“We spoke a lot with Andy and [team owner] Joe Bessey before we did anything with Geoffrey,” said Prescott.

But Santerre and Bessey had a deal worked out with sponsor Aubuchon Hardware to remain in Busch North.

However, Santerre has said he would be interested in driving in the truck series when Busch North had an off weekend. He still is and Santerre has even indicated that running full-time in the Craftsman Truck series would be a venture he would seriously consider in the future.

“That’s still not out of the realm,” said Prescott.

A possibility for Santerre to get some truck seat time could be on Sept. 18 when the Craftsman Truck and Busch North series are both running at New Hampshire International Speedway in conjunction with the Sylvania 300 Nextel Cup race the next day.

PASS tour resumes Saturday

The Busch North series is off this weekend but the Pro All-Stars Series gets back in action when it makes its debut at Riverside Speedway in Groveton, N.H. Saturday night.

The Oquossoc Marine/Polaris Fusion 900 150 will be the first PASS race ever at Riverside Speedway and time trials scheduled for 5:30.