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March 01, 2008
All Three Michael Waltrip Racing Cars Make the Show!
Oh happy day! Yesterday all three Michael Waltrip Racing cars qualified for Sunday's race at Las Vegas. The best part was that all three qualified solidly on time and there was no need for provisionals! What a difference a year makes! Last season I would be anxious and upset about what was going to happen from practice where the MWR cars were usually among the slowest of the go-or-go-homers right through qualifying, where things often didn't work out so well for them. But from the start of practice yesterday it was clear that much has changed and I felt optimistic from the start that there was a pretty good chance that all three MWR would make the show! David Reutimann was not only the fastest of the go-or-go-homers in practice, he was one of the fastest overall cars in practice! Michael was also fast, finishing practice the fourth fastest of all those who needed to qualify on time. Dale Jarrett was the only one who didn't do so well, ending up at the bottom of the speed chart to the point where I was sure he would need to use a Champion's provisional to make the race, but I was wrong about that!
This was the first week that the new qualifying procedure for the go-or-go-home cars was used. I think it worked extremely well, though I didn't really like having to wait until the end to find out whether Michael and his teams were going to make the race. I was thrilled when David and Michael both locked themselves in, no waiting and hoping for other go-or-go-homers to do worse to enable them to make the show, this year they both made it right away. The only question was how DJ was going to do - very well as it turned out! DJ qualified 16th and there was no need to use a provisional! That his team was able to pick up so much speed between practice and qualifying really shows how far the entire MWR organization has come since last season. That simply wouldn't have happened last year. Make no mistake the teams worked just as hard last season as this season, but the resources, personnel and knowledge base wasn't there to enable them to get the cars right for qualifying when they were off in practice. But based on how they got DJ's car right for him, it seems like they've major advances in their ability to make changes to the cars at the track to improve their performance.
I'm so happy for Michael and all of MWR! I think they've still got a ways to go before they're going to be racing up front and contending for wins, but I think it's a huge first step that they're showing that they have the ability to qualify for these races on time and then finish the races in the top 35. Anything can happen in Sunday's race and during the next two race weekends so I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch but if all three MWR cars can finish in the top 35 on Sunday, qualify for the next two races and finish those in the top 35 too, then they won't have to worry about having to qualify for races on time (as long as they stay in the top 35 in owner's points). That would be a major accomplishment for an organization that had such a terrible first season. After the cars are locked in, they'd be able to start working on improving the competitiveness of the cars during races and from there I think we'd start to see some really solid finishes, particularly from David and Michael.
So far this weekend lady luck has been on MWR's side - I hope it continues!
Posted by silverdsl at March 1, 2008 09:42 AM