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Waltrip
Racing Making Big Strides in Third Year of Full-Time
Competition CORNELIUS, N.C.
(March 4, 2009) – Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) is
continuing to make strides since its first full-time
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season in 2007. Both Michael
Waltrip and David Reutimann have had noticeable
performances in the first three events that have resulted
in strong finishes.
Waltrip knows you cannot base a season on three races,
but it gives him an indication that his organization is
pointed in the right direction.
“We have come a long way and it’s really
beginning to show,” Waltrip said. “David had a
top-five finish at Vegas and we are really proud of where
we are headed. Hopefully, we can keep it going because
that is what it is really about. We know that three races
does not make a season, but it’s certainly enough of
a trend to show us that we are heading in the right
direction.”
Waltrip’s best finish this season is seventh at
Daytona International Speedway and he currently sits 12th
in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points standings.
Meanwhile, his teammate David Reutimann is fifth among
the company of points leader Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer,
Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle. Reutimann recorded his
career-best finish of fourth place at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway on Sunday which gives Michael Waltrip Racing
more promise for a bright future.
“The future is bright for us,” Reutimann said.
“When I first walked into this place being built and
I saw a Bobcat stuck in the mud being pulled out with the
crane. I remember leaving the site just shaking my head
thinking, ‘Man, how will this place come to be what
it is supposed to be?’ The first year was a struggle
because we were working out of three or four shops and it
was midseason before we even got all the cars under one
roof. The second year started out shaky, but as the
season progressed, we made some big strides and huge
leaps forward. All the sudden, I started looking around
and thinking, wow, this deal could actually work
out.”
Being a part of the Waltrip family since 2004, Reutimann
delivered a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory and a
NASCAR Nationwide Series victory and is hungry for his
first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory.
“To win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race this year
would be huge for us,” Reutimann said. “About
the three-quarter-way mark through last season, I was
thinking this deal is showing some promise. Then you
start noticing the people they are bringing in. They have
an extraordinary work ethic and it has always been there.
You really started to see results. I started noticing it
in the cars and in people’s attitudes. We finished
out the year with that mentality. MWR will keep working
at it and get better.”
If progress continues and opportunity arises, MWR may
indeed be on the brink of victory. That’s one of
many goals Waltrip set out for his company this year.
“We had a goal when the season started,”
Waltrip said. “There are four super teams and there
are 16 cars those teams represent. We wanted to
infiltrate those 16 and put a car or two of ours in the
middle of them and hope that was good enough to be in The
Chase. We’ve stepped up and been able to compete
with them so far.
“Obviously, we’ve got a long way to go,”
continued Waltrip. “We didn’t say we could be
in The Chase in 2009. We said we could contend for The
Chase. So far, it looks like we can indeed contend for
The Chase. Even Marcos Ambrose has had a great start to
the season. He’s finished in the top 20 twice and is
comfortably seated in the top-35 owner points. If we can
get one of three of us in The Chase, it would be
awesome.”
The technical alliance with JTG-Daugherty Racing and the
No. 47 Toyota Camry team has helped make the organization
stronger. Ambrose has had a good start to the season and
has contributed immensely to the program and so has his
crew chief Frank Kerr.
“Aligning with JTG-Daugherty has helped us and they
have contributed so much to our program,” Waltrip
said. “I walked around the other day and I told some
people that work here that when we unload our cars now
that they are faster than the used to be. All of our crew
chiefs - Rodney Childers, Bootie Barker and Frank Kerr
– and engineers are working closely together. We
really have a solid infrastructure right now led by our
director of competition Steve Hallam, who has six Formula
One championships to his credit. We know we are way
better off than we have been in the past two years and I
am so grateful for that.”
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