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July 31, 2005
16th Place Finish for Michael Waltrip in Wallace Family Tribute
Reed Sorenson Wins, Mike Wallace Second
Instead of going on vacation like most Cup drivers probably did on this rare in-season off-weekend when there was no Cup race Michael Waltrip headed to St. Louis to race in the Wallace Family Tribute 250 Busch race. And things started off on the right foot after he qualified 6th which was an early indication that he had a good car. However, due to a "miscommunication" between his crew chief, Butch Hylton and himself, Michael missed the mandatory driver's meeting and had to start from the back of the pack. Mistakes and miscommunication are going to happen from time to time but I would guess that Michael was probably pretty irked that he missed the meeting. If he doesn't like being late anywhere as I've heard then he must really hate missing places he needs to be completely.
But Michael was soon making his way through the pack and thanks to some good calls in the pits took the lead for a while. That was an awesome moment! And he hung onto it for a while, racing back and forth with the second place driver (who it was is escaping me at the moment). Even after he lost the lead due to a bad pit stop he was able to race his way back into the top ten and it was obvious that he had an awesome car, probably the best Busch car he's had for quite some time. Since this car was built from scratch by Hylton I would say that is a very positive sign about the effect Hylton is going to have on Michael Waltrip Racing. But that was to be expected given the success Hylton had with Kevin Harvick, Inc.
Unfortunately the good vibes wouldn't last for Michael. While racing side-by-side with Kenny Wallace he slid up the track and into Kenny Wallace of all people causing both of them to spin out. Other than Rusty or Mike Wallace, I think that Kenny is probably the last person that Michael would have wanted to be involved in an on-track incident with given their friendship and that the race is in tribute to the Wallace family of which Kenny is obviously a part. I'm sure Kenny wasn't too thrilled when it happened but afterwards I'm sure he understood that it was just one of those racin' deals. Michael just doesn't get into people often and when he does unless it's someone who's been after him first like Jeff Green, you can be sure it was an accident. An extremely unfortunate one that was particularly costly to Kenny but as much as one tries to avoid it sometimes bad things are going to happen on the track and they may occasionally involve friends or teammates.
Both Michael and Kenny were able to continue racing but with damage. Kenny was unable to finish no better than 24th but in a testament to how good Michael's car was he was able to rally to finish 16th even with the damage. I'm sure he was pretty disappointed about that finish though - both because of the incident but also because with how good of a car it was. With how he led those laps he probably thought he might be a contender to end up in Victory Lane. I was certainly thinking that at one point! But it was not to be.
Perhaps it was predictable considering he was running the State Fair Corn Dogs scheme on the Busch car this weekend. Michael Waltrip Racing has struggled this season in general but every time they run the corn dogs scheme it seems as if bad things happen. Cars don't make races, accidents happen, Michael misses the driver's meeting - perhaps those darn corn dogs are cursed. But on Inside Nextel Cup Michael said they were going to try to sell some corn dogs and while I'm sure his goal was more than that, he certainly was successful in giving State Fair some exposure considering he led a number of laps and was on TV quite a bit besides.
Rusty Wallace also led some laps but ultimately spun and ended up out of the race. Martin Truex, Jr. overcame an early problem which put him a lap down to also be a contender for the win until tire vibration, which I believe was caused by a loose lugnut, took him comepletely out of contention and caused him to finish 28th. So in the closing laps it was Mike Wallace and 19-year old Reed Sorenson up front. Wallace was the sentimental choice to win if it couldn't be Rusty or Kenny and I'm sure the vast majority of fans in attendence were hoping that he would be able to pass Sorenson. But it wasn't to be. Second place was probably a bit disappointing for Wallace but he still seemed pretty happy considering how badly he usually fares in Cup in the #4. I think he was pretty thrilled to be in an Evernham car that is actually competitive. Sorenson was also pretty thrilled and it was nice to see a display of emotion in Victory Lane - sometimes the VL celebrations don't seem to have as much genuine emotion as I'd like.
In any event, last night's race gives me some hope that we will see some good things out of Michael Waltrip Racing for the remainder of the season and in the future.
Posted by silverdsl at July 31, 2005 09:52 PM