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October 30, 2005
Michael Waltrip Finishes 11th at Atlanta!
Perhaps it wasn't quite the top ten they were surely looking for but overall it was a great day for Michael Waltrip and the #15 team as they battled their way to an 11th place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in the Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500. What makes today's 11th place finish so outstanding is that Michael started this race in 37th place but by the end of the race had gained 26 places! What makes that even more impressive is that it seemed as if Michael wasn't all that satisfied with the way the car was in quite a few spots during this race and some sort of miscue in the pits caused them to lose seven or so spots while they were running in the top fifteen. But as has been the case throughout this entire season Michael and the #15 team never gave up and their reward was an 11th place finish. I wish Michael would get a little more attention sometimes for the times when he races his way through the field to get himself a good finish. He really is very underrated. If it were Jimmie Johnson or Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who had started 37th and worked his way up nearly to the top ten it would have been mentioned for sure, but when it's Michael it barely gets a mention. I know it's not a top five or a win but for a team that has had so much bad luck this really was a good day for them. http://www.texasmotorspeedway.com/For a chance the bad luck monkey stayed away from the #15 team. While the day wasn't perfect, there were no blown tires, no mechanical failures and no getting caught up in other people's wrecks.
What impresses me is that in spite of the fact that they all know that at the end of the season not only is Michael going to another organization but the #15 team will only be part-time, I'm not getting the sense that is weighing on their minds. It seems to me that everyone from driver to crew chief to pit crew members are continuing to go about their jobs as usual and give 100% to get the best finish possible. They are still talking about getting things right despite there only being three races left in the season. A lot of fans have come to hate everything about DEI, including Michael's crew, but I've really been impressed with what they've done this season and how well Michael has seemed to work with them. As I've said before, I hope that when he goes to Bill Davis Racing he has a crew chief that believes in him as much as Tony Eury, Jr. did and a crew that worked as hard as the #15 team did. I'm sure how many times good runs have been ruined by things out of his own hands has worn on Michael as the season has gone on so he's probably at least partially looking forward to the season ending. But at least outwardly he's doing a good job of keeping his spirits up, offering feedback to Gibson about how they might get the car better during races and making sure to compliment his crew in interviews and over the radio post-race.
Carl Edwards won this race and it's always fun to see him do a backflip to celebrate. It does make me the slightest bit nervous that one of these days he's going to make a mistake and crack his head open. How crazy would that be - he risks his life racing around a track at 200 miles an hour yet injures himself doing a backflip? But thus far all his backflips have been successful and the fans certainly love it as they love any show of enthusiasm. Carl can definitely race and I think he's got a lot more wins ahead of him. I go back and forth on "Cousin" Carl. I appreciate his enthusiasm, how talented he is behind the wheel and how great he is with the fans. But it seems as if he doesn't hesitate to run other drivers over on the track and I'm not sure that I like that kind of approach. It's like Carl seems to think that he can do whatever he wants behind the wheel but if he smiles big enough and apologizes loud enough that all will be forgiven. But if he's involved in too many incidents he might find himself in Jimmie Johnson's shoes which isn't a very good place to be as many fans don't think too highly of Jimmie after his involvement in several big incidents this season.
It's looking like the Championship is Tony Stewart's to lose. Jimmie Johnson isn't too far behind but unless Tony finishes poorly in the last three races which I think is unlikely I think he's going to be the 2005 Champion. I'm not a huge fan of Tony's but I've been extremely impressed with the way he's raced the second half of the season so he definitely would deserve it. Three Chase contenders were pretty much eliminated today - Rusty Wallace, Kurt Busch and Jeremy Mayfield who all experienced problems. It would have been kind of cool if Rusty had been able to win the Championship in his final season (maybe) in Cup. I'm not sure if Mayfield will be a contender next season but I suspect that Kurt has a few more Championship runs left even after he goes to Penske so much to a lot of fans chagrin he could still repeat as Champion even if it's not this year.
So next week the Truck, Busch and Cup series head to Texas Motor Speedway. Hopefully it will be a great race weekend for both Steve Park and Michael Waltrip!
Posted by silverdsl at October 30, 2005 05:20 PM