After Hardee's was acquired by CKE Restaurants early in the year, the chain's new parent company pulled their sponsorship, forcing the team to shut down.

Baldwin soon became the crew chief for car owner Junie Donlavey and driver Dick Trickle.

After Sirius' departure from the team, Baldwin joined Evernham Motorsports as the crew chief for Kasey Kahne.

Between 2003 and 2004, Baldwin fielded a Busch Series team with Eddie D'Hondt driven by a variety of drivers, including Wally Dallenbach Jr., Damon Lusk, Tracy Hines, and Paul Wolfe.

After 2005, he joined Robert Yates Racing to work with Elliott Sadler midway through the season, he left to return with BDR.

Baldwin's cars for the Daytona 500 were mainly built and assembled by volunteer crew members who were laid off by other race teams affected by the economic crisis.

Baldwin immediately announced that Skinner, Patrick Carpentier and Brian Simo would be sharing driving duties in the No.

In September Michael McDowell replaced Carpentier and Robert Richardson ran the November Talladega race.

The team later used a number of drivers after Bliss left, including Geoff Bodine, Steve Park, Johnny Sauter, Ron Fellows, Casey Mears, J. J. Yeley, and Dave Blaney.

Blaney led at Daytona and Talladega and nearly pulled off upset victories at both tracks before being involved in late race incidents just laps before the finish.

After a 13th-place finish at Richmond, the team moved into the Top 35 in owner's points for the first time in its three-year history.

[5] In August, Baldwin left the team, with HFR co-owner Chris Larsen citing a lack of progress as why the two decided to split.