Random Thoughts

April 22, 2009

Michael McDowell in the #66 for Prism Motorsports at Talladega

Michael McDowell returns to the Cup Series this weekend at Talladega in the #66 car for Prism Motorsports taking the place of the usual driver, Dave Blaney, who apparently had a family event he wanted to attend (according to Jayski). With McD already going to be at the track anyway since he's racing the #47 for JTG-Daugherty Racing in the Nationwide race and both Prism and JTG being under the Michael Waltrip Racing umbrella - the organization McD raced for last season in Cup - it makes sense that he would be in the #66 this weekend. Since Prism has been purchasing old MWR cars to use this season McD could even end up driving a car he raced last year.

Of course the question is whether this will be a start and park or whether Prism will actually let McD race in this race if he's able to qualify for it. They did race the full Daytona 500 with Terry Labonte but they had a sponsor on the car for that race and I haven't heard anything about there being a sponsor on the car for this race. I'd hope that if they were going to put a young driver with talent behind the wheel they'd actually let him race but McD parked one of their Natiowide cars for them last season. Odds are given that it's so easy to get swept up in a wreck at this track and they may not want to risk losing a car, I'd think that Prism will probably have him park it by 60 laps in. It would be interesting to listen to the radio communication between McD and the team as to whether they'll let him go all out and race it as hard as he wants or whether they'll have him dial it down and just ride around.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2009

Michael McDowell to Race for JTG Daugherty Racing for 16 Nationwide Races

This week it was announced that Michael McDowell was going to race the #47 for JTG Daugherty Racing in 16 Nationwide races this season with the hope of securing enough sponsorship to race the full season in the car. Apparently this was made possible because McDowell is bringing sponsorship with him. What's good news for him is bad news for Kelly Bires who had thought he was going to race at least a handful of races in the #47 but has now been informed that he's free to explore his options with other teams. McDowell is hoping to not only be able to race for the Rookie of the Year in the Nationwide Series but also that it will turn into a Cup ride with JTG for him which means that he would essentially end up racing for Michael Waltrip Racing again via their alliance with JTG.

I'm glad that McDowell is getting another opportunity in NASCAR and particularly in a lower level since he really could use some additional experience before he attempts to race Cup again. However, I'm not exactly jumping up and down at the prospect of him racing for MWR/JTG in Cup. I wasn't impressed with McDowell last season and not just because the highlights of his short Cup career were mostly wrecks. But maybe a season in the Nationwide Series will be exactly what he needs and things will be a lot different if he gets another opportunity to race Cup.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (10/4)

*For the Michael McDowell fans out there, in an article for The Arizona Republic, McD said that a Nationwide ride is "his most realistic option" for 2009. Give the difficult economy and how few teams appear to have open rides for next season I'm not even sure that a Nationwide ride is going to turn up for him. There are a few truck teams that may part ways with their current drivers at season's end but some of those are in danger of closing their doors without sponsorship. So his Nascar career could be over before it gets very far. Luckily for McD, he has experience in other series which makes him a versatile driver so if not in Nascar hopefully something will become available to him in another series. If he can't find a full-time ride maybe there will be a team interested in using him as a substitute driver on one of the road course tracks next season.

*In the same article, McD's fellow Arizona native, J.J. Yeley, saids that the woes of the #96 team, the team he was released from earlier this season were because Hall of Fame Racing thought they had a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing that would include information sharing but that wasn't the case. Although the team tried to move in that direction that never happened and apparently they never received equipment that was as good as the JGR cars themselves. Yeley said that he was told they were going to bring in a big-name crew chief and do more testing but none of that happened either. I'd guess that might be because the team didn't have the financial resources to hire a top crew chief or do a lot of testing since Yeley said that DNQ'ing for four races allowed the sponsor of the #96, DLP to take advantage of a clause that allowed them to reduce their sponsorship. Clearly the #96 team is going to have to do something different next season - a real technical alliance with another organization would help but as a single-car organization who will be starting the season outside the top 35 in owner's points I think it's going to be a real struggle for them to survive.

*After winning his 10th Nationwide race over the weekend, Kyle Busch dedicated the win to Sam Ard, a two-time Champion of the series who has Alzheimer's disease. Unfortunately Ard and his wife are struggling financially due to his medical bills so a number of people in the garage area have stepped up to help them, including Busch who announced in Victory Lane that he was donating $100,000 to the Ard's, a gesture that was very much appreciated since it may allow Jo Ard to hire someone to help her with the care of her husband. Truly a wonderful gesture by Busch.

However, there are some fans who don't see it that way. Continuing the tradition of some fans letting their hatred for a driver making them see everything in the worst way possible, there's been some criticism of Busch that he only made the donation for PR reasons, to make himself look good to fans, and if the donation truly came from the heart he would have done it privately. Ridiculous. Busch has made it pretty clear this season he doesn't much care what the fans think. In addition, often donations are announced publically as a way to get exposure for the charity or cause they're benefiting and the Ards certainly need all the help they can get. I don't remember anyone questioning Kevin Harvick's motives for taking part in a press conference to announce that he was donating a van to the Ards and they shouldn't be questioning Busch's either. It's unfortunate that some fans have to see the negative in everything. One of the greatest things about this sport is how committed everyone is to charitable causes and helping other people out when they can.

*Over the weekend Jack Sprague talked about how he doesn't know whether he's going to have a ride next season or not and also how Wyler Racing needs to find sponsorship for the #60. From the sounds of it, if Wyler doesn't find a sponsor they're going to fold which is unfortunate but not unexpected. Wyler has fielded the #60 without any outside sponsorship periodically since they've come into the sport and since the Wyler family has quite a few auto dealerships that was probably fairly manageable for them while the economy was good. But now that the economy is bad and auto dealerships are hurting they probably don't have the money to field the truck without a sponsor next season. Sprague said they are looking for a young driver who can bring sponsorship with him - essentially someone who will buy the ride. A lot of fans have problems with this kind of situation because it often means that the driver is getting the ride on the basis of the money they're bringing with them as opposed to their talent as a driver. But I don't see what choice these teams have. They need to do whatever is necessary to continue operating. If a team waits for a driver with both talent and sponsorship, or just try to make a go of it with a young driver with ability but no sponsorship, they might end up folding.

*Apparently A.J. Allmendinger is going to race a car in the Nationwide race for Gillett-Evernham Motorsports this weekend. He's done an outstanding job for them on the Cup side so I'm glad they're rewarding him with at least one Nationwide start as well. Somehow I suspect GEM is wishing they signed him instead of Reed Sorenson for the #10. I guess there's a chance that GEM could find a way to field a 4th car for Allmendinger next season but that might be difficult without a sponsor. Allmendinger may tear up cars at times because he can be overly aggressive but he's also shown that he can get good results, even in cars that aren't among the best on the track. The more he races in Cup the more experience he's going to get and the better he'll be. So I hope he finds a full-time Cup ride for 2009 because I think he could end up being a successful Cup driver with the right team.

*One thing about the incident between David Gilliland and Juan Pablo Montoya that I didn't realize at first is that Gilliland was multiple laps down at the time time of the incident. Just exactly why was he racing JPM, who was in 10th place at the time, so hard? I don't think lapped cars should pull over and stop racing - if they're racing the leader in an effort to not go another lap down, racing to be the lucky dog, or racing for position then they have every right to be racing hard. But if they're multiple laps down and all they're doing is holding up a lead lap car then they need to give a little. It's not a matter of giving up or pulling off the track, it's just a matter of racing smart and showing courtesy to those on the lead lap.

*There's a rumor that DEI and Chip Ganassi Racing are reportedly in talks to merge or form some sort of alliance. Given that both DEI and Ganassi have been rumored to be merging with just about every organization in the garage area it's hard to take these rumors very seriously. I also question just how they would make a merger work considering both organizations are with separate manufacturers. There would also be questions of what the new company would be named and who would control it - I have a hard time believing that either Teresa Earnhardt or Chip Ganassi would be willing to let the name of their respective organizations disappears, particularly Ganassi since he has open wheel teams under the same umbrella. I would guess there would be many other issues that would complicate a merger. It seems to me that an alliance of some sort as opposed to an all-out merger is much more realistic, though there's still the issue of being with separate manufacturers. In fact, "merger" is the hot buzz word in the garage area but I think a close technical alliance is more likely for a lot of the organizations that are looking for help for next season.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

October 13, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (10/13)

Over the weekend Cal Wells discussed Michael Waltrip Racing's plans for 2009 with the media. Those plans are for them to field two MWR cars and a third car for JTG-Daugherty Racing. In addition, if there's sponsorship there's a possibility that MWR will field an additional car of their own. Cal said,

“Our plan right now is two plus one [of JTG Daugherty], and we’re working on some other opportunities for next year. We’re all in to make those three cars race-winning contenders every week. We’re not going to spread our resources unless we can really find the right kind of deal. We did this year, but next year we’re going to make sure that we’re [sponsored].”

Some fans seem upset by the idea of MWR only having two cars of their own with the third team being one that is a JTG team but I think it's a good plan by MWR to only field an additional Cup car of their own if there's the sponsorship for it. Costs have continued to rise and the difficult economy only makes things work. It's one thing to field a car for a handful of races with little or no sponsorship but I don't see how any organization can field an unsponsored car for an entire season anymore, particularly if they want it to be anywhere near competitive. It's essential that MWR continues next season to build on the progress they've made this season and if they are to truly become an organization that fields cars that can contend for wins on a weekly basis, they have to be sure that they're making wise decisions which I think they are doing.

Another reason some fans are unsettled is because the more time that goes by the less likely it is that Michael McDowell is going to be racing for MWR next season, which would be the first time that Michael and MWR would have made the decision to part ways with a driver. McD said,

“They didn’t exercise the option on me. I know it’s due to not having funding, but being out these few races here, I’m not really sure where that’s driven from. I don’t know if I’m racing next week. Hopefully I’ll be in at Martinsville or in at some races before the end of the year. But in the meantime, they’re working hard on sponsorship and I’m working hard on trying to stay in the garage.”

Sponsorship is definitely a big factor in why McD's option wasn't picked up since they can't field a car for him if they don't have a sponsor for it. However, I think he needs to be paying a little closer attention to what's going on around him if he can't figure out why he was taken out of the #00 for the last races of the season. The reality is that whether it's due to a lack of experience or something else his performance in the #00 hasn't been good enough to keep the #00 in the top 35 in owner's points and MWR has more confidence in other driver's ability to try to get the car back into the top 35 by the end of the season. It may be over-confidence in his own abilities or that he's not self-aware enough (he is just 23, something that's easy to forget) but this isn't the first time I've gotten the sense that McD can't fathom the idea that there's still something for him to learn or that he might make some mistakes behind the wheel at times.

I've always wondered what the reaction would be from fans the first time Michael/MWR releases a driver and whether fans will be angry with Michael. Almost every time a driver parts ways with the organization they were racing with there's a segment of fans who view that organization in a very negative light. Hopefully if McD does leave MWR, it will make things easier that they simply didn't pick up his option for next season as opposed to releasing him before the end of the season. I suppose some may view what they're doing now as releasing him since he may not race the #00 any more this season but he did sign autographs at MWR's Fan Appreciation Day at Raceworld last week and he's been with the team at the track so they've still retained him for now. The reality though is that even if it's a amicable parting of the ways for McD and MWR now, the odds are that sometime in the future there will be drivers who are released and it might not be on good terms - that happens with every organization that's been in the sport for a long time from time to time as there are always going to be difficult decisions that have to be made for business or competition reasons. I just hope that fans are understanding that Michael and MWR have to make the decisions they feel are best for their organization which may not always be the decisions that fans want them to make.

McD also said,

“I just want to race – I don’t care if it’s a truck, Nationwide or a Cup car. I’m ready for any of the above. You’re not going to be extremely picky, choosy at this point. I need a job.”

Ideally someone will put him in a Nationwide or Truck ride. Given time, more experience and if he's open to learning from others, McD will likely develop into a good driver who is capable of success on the Cup level. He also has a lot of personality, "gets it" when it comes to the fans and is very media savvy which would appeal to sponsors. So he has the potential to be an asset to a team but I think he really needs to race at least one full season on a lower level if not more before racing Cup again.

In other MWR news, as some had already guessed, MWR will be returning the #44 to Petty Enterprises since that organization intends on adding an additional, part-time team next season. Prior to the start of 2007 MWR had gotten permission to borrow the #44 from PE but now that they might not field an additional team next season it makes sense to give it back to PE. If MWR needs another number the #66 will likely be available next season to keep with the double-number theme, or if Michael is successful in getting the #15 from DEI as he's expressed some interest in doing, they could use the #55 for their third team.

Of course the question most fans have is what happens to the owner's points associated with the #44 and #00. I think that's where things get a little sticky and confusing. Odds are unless sponsorship for an additional team comes through the plan is for the #44's owner's points to shift to the #00 for use by David Reutimann who will be racing that number next season. The #00's owner's points would then go to the #47 that will be raced by Marcos Ambrose. The sticky and confusing part comes in because the #47 is owned by JTG not MWR. So Nascar has rules related to how a transfer of owner's points between two organizations can take place, even when those two organizations have an alliance like JTG and MWR do. Whatever happens with all the owner's points transfers will have to be approved by Nascar. I just hope they approve David getting to keep the owner's points he earned in the #44. It already happened once before that Nascar wouldn't let a mid-season switch of owner's points to allow David to take the points from the #00 to the #44 at the beginning of the season, and while they've indicated they will allow points swaps during the off-season, there seems to be increasing concern by fans, the media and maybe Nascar themselves about points swaps even between teams at the same organization so I just hope they don't make some rules changes about what they're going to allow in terms of points swaps.

Last week there was a Jayski "I heard" rumor that indicated that J.J. Yeley might race the #00 at Martinsville. Many fans were horrified but I actually liked the idea because Yeley had very good stats when it came to qualifying at Martinsville which is important. But as it turns out J.J. won't be racing the #00, but he did have some conversations with Cal Wells and Ty Norris not only about the #00 but apparently about whether there might be any future opportunities for him at MWR according to what he said this morning on Sirius. I thought that was interesting that he was talking to them about whether there might be anything for him at MWR next season because it's a further indication that McD likely won't be back at MWR even if they find sponsorship for another Cup car.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)

October 06, 2008

A.J. Allmendinger Will Race the #00 for Michael Waltrip Racing at Charlotte

Michael Waltrip Racing announced today that A.J. Allmendinger will take a turn behind the wheel of the #00 at Lowe's Motor Speedway this weekend in Charlotte in a continuing effort to try to get that car back into the top 35 in owner's points. Michael Waltrip said,

"Our singular focus with the #00 team is to reposition the team in the top 35 in owner’s points and be there in end. The decision for us to continue to make changes is about our organization. Kenny Wallace did a tremendous job for us at Talladega and recorded the team’s best finish of the season. I know AJ will do a great job for us too in our Toyota Camrys."

I think A.J. is going to do a great job too! I'm so excited that he's going to race the #00! When it was said on Jayski that A.J. had said this weekend he might be back racing as soon as Charlotte I had a feeling he might end up in the #00 and I'm so glad that's exactly what happened! A.J. definitely understands not only what it means to have to qualify for races and race as a go-or-go-homer but also how to get a car back into the top 35 in owner's points. He did an outstanding job of racing the #84 back into the top 35 and it was out by a lot more than 39 points which is all that separates the #00 from the #7 in the owner's points.

A.J. said,

“I look forward to it and I think this is a great opportunity. Over the past couple of months the organization has really picked up with how everyone has been running. Hopefully, I can go out there and do a good job and get the No. 00 Champion Mortgage Toyota team back inside the top 35.”

It's definitely a great opportunity, if only to help out a team and keep himself visible in the garage area while he's still looking for a ride for next season. Odds are that A.J. is going to end up racing for Chip Ganassi Racing next season and that MWR is only going to use him for this race and maybe if he does well in this race for a few more this season but I would be thrilled if somehow it ended up that sponsorship was found for a fourth car and A.J. ended up in it!

Michael added that they're "...moving in the direction of having multiple drivers based on their experiences at particular tracks" which sounds a lot like there will be some other drivers who take a turn behind the wheel of the #00. Jeremy Mayfield is another driver who is available so I can see MWR possibly using him, particularly since he's talked with MWR in the past about a ride. If Johnny Benson wasn't in the thick of the championship hunt in the Truck Series I can see him racing the #00 as well. Maybe even Michael McDowell will get to race it again though I wouldn't be surprised if that didn't happen.

I've always enjoyed watching the races at Charlotte and I can't wait to cheer on Michael, David and A.J. this weekend - I just wish it was going to be in person!

Posted by silverdsl at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2008

Michael McDowell Out, Kenny Wallace in the #00 at Talladega

Michael Waltrip Racing announced today that Michael McDowell will be replaced this weekend at Talladega by Kenny Wallace in an effort to help get the #00 back into the top 35 in owner's points. I'm very happy that Kenny is going to get the chance to race the #00 and I'm really looking forward to seeing how he does! At the same time it's kind of sad though - McD may very have raced his last race for MWR since a determination will be made prior to each of the remaining races this season about who the driver will be based on who MWR thinks can help them achieve their goal of being in the top 35 at season's end. Michael Waltrip said,

"We have a singular focus with the #00 team now and that is to get it in the top 35 in owner’s points when the checkered flag falls at Homestead-Miami. This is not about an individual, it is about an organization. Kenny has a lot of experience restrictor plate racing and a lot of friends who trust him, which is critical at that race. He has a great record at Talladega and we felt like he was our best shot at scoring maximum points. We’re going to make the same evaluation for the remaining 2008 Sprint Cup races. That could include multiple drivers based on their experiences at particular tracks. Teams have done this at road course events and we have the flexibility to do this with the remaining oval races."

I can't say I'm surprised. I was very disappointed when McD failed to qualify for the race at Kansas when he had only two cars he needed to beat to make the show, and if I was unhappy, I'm sure those at MWR were ten times as upset considering until this weekend all three MWR cars had made every single race this season and the organization overall had come so far since the start of the season. Beyond that, getting the #00 into the top 35 is extremely important and still very much do-able since there is only 29 points separating the #00 from the #7. Some fans may think that putting Kenny behind the wheel is a poor decision but I think it's a wise choice. For one thing Kenny showed his skill at restrictor plate tracks when he raced his way into the Daytona 500 earlier this season. Although MWR would surely love it if Kenny were able to finish up front at Talladega in the #00, their expectations are probably simply that Kenny qualifies for the race, stays out of trouble and gets a solid finish to help get the car back into the top 35, and helps Michael and David when it comes to drafting. As a veteran driver Kenny can do all of those things. McD? Based on what we've seen, maybe not.

The other thing about Kenny is that he's a good friend of Michael's. In the past when MWR was run out of Michael's backyard he used to put his friends, including Kenny, in his cars routinely but as MWR grew decisions needed to be made on the basis of what was best for the business and competition sides, so it became less likely that Michael would be able to give a ride to a driver solely out of friendship. But I'm glad that Michael had a situation in which he was able to ask Kenny to race for him. Getting these kinds of opportunities seems to mean a lot to Kenny and Michael surely knows that. One thing about both Michael and Kenny is that a lot of fans assume that because they both joke around and act goofy a lot, that they aren't serious about racing but the reality is that both are very serious and passionate about racing. I've seen Kenny and Michael both be dead-serious and focused completely on their cars and what they have to do on the track. Kenny has also continued to be a good friend to Michael the past couple of years and based on what Michael has said the same can't be said for everyone. I saw for myself a way in which Kenny, his wife Kim and brother Mike, stepped up for Michael and helped him out in a way that Michael may not even be aware of. And I saw Michael help Kenny out with something as well. So I'm happy that Kenny is in one of Michael's cars, even if it's just for one race.

While MWR is saying that McD could race the #00 again, I wouldn't be surprised if he was out of the car for good. MWR said all the right things when he was taken out of the car the first time for Mike Skinner about how they were committed to having McD race the car for the remaining races once he got back behind the wheel but I had a feeling that might not be what actually happened. McD seems to be a very nice person with a lot of personality and he's very media savvy. He's also got talent behind the wheel, no question of that. However, as I've said before in this space his attitude has bothered me at times and I think he can be overly aggressive behind the wheel which has gotten him in trouble at times. It's a very good thing to race hard, but as a rookie he also needs to learn when to dial it down, and I've gotten the sense that he's not all that open to learning. Given his lack of experience in Cup and Nascar overall, MWR couldn't have been expecting him to race up front all the time. But they probably expected that he would be able to race well enough to keep the car in the top 35, and that he would be able to race competitively at road course races since those are his specialty. But he wasn't able to do either of those two things In fact, the highlights of McD's Cup career to date are his spectacular practice wreck at Texas and the huge wreck he helped cause at Watkins Glen - not good. McD. may very well develop into a successful Cup driver one day but it may have to be with another organization where there are no pressures about racing to stay in the top 35 and where he might be able to get some experience on the Nationwide level before being thrown into Cup.

Sure hope Kenny - as well as Michael and David - have a great race weekend at Talladega!

Posted by silverdsl at 11:40 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2008

Was Kansas Kyle Petty's Last Race for Petty Enterprises?

Although there's been no official announcement, Patti Petty is telling the media that yesterday's Cup race at Kansas was the last for her husband for Petty Enterprises. If that's true I think it's ridiculous, not that PE made the decision to take Kyle out of the car, but that they made no announcement about it. Maybe Kyle himself didn't want a fuss made or PE wanted to avoid a controversy or they felt that no one would care since Kyle hasn't raced competitively for quite sometime. But since it might not be easy for Kyle to find another Cup ride for next season, at least not a full-time ride, given how much he's done for the sport I think he deserved to be saluted by the fans and his peers in the garage area. At one time Kyle raced up front and won races, but he's also contributed to the sport in other ways. His charitable efforts with the Victory Junction Gang Camp are well known, and Kyle is also extremely fan-friendly. In addition, he's outspoken and a good ambassador for the sport. On top of all of that, the #45 has great personal meaning to Kyle, and he's also racing for the organization that bears his family name. I think more respect should be shown than to just try to shove Kyle out the door and under the rug as if he doesn't matter.

According to Patti, Kyle still wants to race Cup and Wells Fargo is willing to sponsor Kyle for twelve races next season at another organization. Given how hard it is for teams to find sponsors these days, there may be some interest from other teams. Although Patti mentioned Chip Ganassi Racing specifically I can't help but think of Michael Waltrip Racing since Cal Wells has talked about possibly fielding a fourth team on a part-time basis. Michael and Kyle are long-time friends and Michael lived with the Pettys when he was just starting out in racing so I can see Michael maybe wanting to help Kyle out now, not to mention more sponsorship money would be a good thing for MWR. All of that said, it may still be difficult for Kyle to find another Cup ride, even with a sponsor in his pocket, particularly a Cup ride, given how poor the results have been for him for so long. I hope this wasn't his last race though - Kyle has plenty to keep him involved in the sport even after he's retired from racing from the TV work he does to fund raising for the VJGC, but there's been a Petty on the track for so long, he will be missed when he does stop racing for good.

The question becomes, who takes over the #45 from Kyle? It's been thought for quite some time that Chad McCumbee was a sure thing for the #45, and he has made some starts in place of Kyle. However, there are rumors that PE is talking to other drivers including A.J. Allmendinger and Michael McDowell. I can't see Allmendinger going to PE if the #41 at Ganassi is an option for him. But I can see McD ending up in the #45. He's a young driver who is media savvy and has some talent behind the wheel so he's someone they may feel they can develop into a successful Cup driver. However, part of the problem for McD at MWR has been the top 35 situation for the #00, a lack of sponsorship, and that the cars he has to race aren't always that competitive. He would likely have similar challenges at PE which might not be such a great thing when it comes to his development as a driver. Still, it could be one of McD's only options if there's nothing for him at MWR next season.

When Boston Ventures bought into PE, some, including myself, thought that it would make a big difference in terms of making the organization back into a successful one. That may still happen. However, I don't have a good feeling based on the way they're treating Kyle and the relatively silence - that doesn't necessarily mean anything - regarding not only next season but what they have planned to try to improve long-term. Bobby Labonte still needs a sponsor for his car and if Wells Fargo leaves, they will likely need sponsorship for the #45 as well. No matter how well-funded Boston Ventures might be it's essential they have outside sponsorship because it would be close to impossible to field two Cup cars full-time next season almost entirely out of their own pocket and expect them to be competitive.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2008

Tough Weekend for Michael Waltrip Racing

Things didn't go quite as well for Michael Waltrip and his drivers at Kansas as they did at Dover but there were still signs that Michael Waltrip Racing has come a long way since the start of the season. For one thing, even though Michael struggled in practice and didn't qualify up front, on race day he had a competitive car and was able to race his way into the top twenty. For a while it was looking like he might be able to contend for a top fifteen, or even better, another top ten, until he got spun by David Ragan and then a number of laps later, had a blown tire which caused extensive damage to the right front. It's unfortunate because Michael's 35th place finish doesn't reflect how well he raced for quite a bit of the race. So while I'm disappointed that Michael wasn't able to finish well, I'm still happy that he had a competitive car again.

I was also happy to see David Reutimann and the #44 team rally to finish in the top twenty. David and his team also struggled all weekend and spent the first part of the race mired in the back. But even after losing a lap they kept digging and on a re-start David was able to race his way in front of the leader which allowed him to get back on the lead lap when the caution came out. David ended up finishing 19th and while I'm sure he would have liked to have finished a lot better, that's still pretty good considering he started the race in 40th. I continue to be impressed with David and his team and I think next season there's a good chance that he'll be a Chase contender.

Although MWR is probably pretty unhappy that the #00 team missed the race (particularly since this was the race when some winners of a Champion Mortgage contest were slated to be guests of the #00 team), things could have played out a lot worse than they did. Thanks to Robby Gordon and Sam Hornish, Jr. having poor finishes today, the #00 is still in 36th in the owner's points, just 30 points behind Robby in 35th. So it's definitely still possible for the #00 to get back into the top 35, though I don't think it's going to be easy. Robby is pretty good at restrictor plate races so it could be tough to finish ahead of him. Of course Michael McDowell will still have to qualify for the race but MWR has shown that they can field very good cars at restrictor plate tracks so hopefully he won't have any problems making the race.

Of course any fan of Michael's gets excited for Talladega since it's one of Michael's best tracks. In fact with some help from Jimmie Johnson with the laps winding down at the Spring race at Talladega it looked like Michael might visit Victory Lane there again. So with MWR racing so much more competitively right now I think there's a very real chance that an MWR car could contend for the win next weekend! I would love to see Michael win but I would be almost as happy if he ended up in Victory Lane as an owner. Anything can happen at Talladega but I sure do hope to see the MWR cars in the mix at the end of the race!

Posted by silverdsl at 07:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2008

Michael Mcdowell DNQ's at Kansas

Michael McDowell failed to qualify for Sunday's race at Kansas, which is a major disappointment to say the least. I knew he was in trouble when there was only one car slower in practice, but with how much progress Michael Waltrip Racing has made that they'd somehow figure out some adjustments to get him the speed he needed to make the race but in qualifying he was still among the slowest on the track. It's so unfortunate because to this point all three MWR cars had made every race. It just goes to show as Michael (Waltrip) said on his XM show how quickly momentum can disappear - in a fraction of a second since that's probably about how much McD missed the race by.

Getting back into the top 35 in owner's points was extremely important, both for MWR who is still looking for sponsorship for their third team and McD, who is likely racing for a ride either at MWR or with another organization. I think what bothers me is that McD only needed to beat two cars to make the race and he didn't even have enough speed to do that. MWR as a whole wasn't impressive today - Michael was okay in practice and so-so in qualifying but David Reutimann was also lacking in speed in qualifying. Maybe Michael and David will be better on Sunday but it's not great that all three teams seemed to struggle from the start today. I'm probably the most understanding and quickest to make excuses for MWR - as a still young team there are going to be bumps in the road and things that are more challenging for them than for other teams - but I don't think it should be too much for them to show up a car with enough speed to beat two cars to make the race and particularly when they've shown recently they can field competitive cars.

What also bothers me is that Juan Pablo Montoya's pole-winning time was disallowed because of an issue with the rear shocks. However, he's still going to be able to race on Sunday. Thanks to being in the top 35, he'll still make the race, though he'll have to start 43rd. This in spite of having qualified with a car that was in violation of Nascar's rule book. Meanwhile, McD (and Johnny Sauter) had cars that were completely within the rules and both are going home. That just doesn't sit quite right with me, but it certainly shows the importance of being in the top 35.

I suppose there's still a chance that McD can race his way back into the top 35 if some of the other drivers who are in the danger zone finish poorly this weekend. But his chances are certainly a lot less now and especially since his finishes haven't exactly been up front not just recently but at any time this season. I'm hopeful that somehow he can do it as I think it's important for MWR that they have three cars in the top 35 at the end of the season, but I'm certainly not going to be surprised if McD isn't able to do it.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:23 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (9/15)

Michael Waltrip Racing fans were thrilled recently when it was announced that not only would NAPA Auto Parts be returning in 2009 to sponsor Michael Waltrip and the #55 car again, but also that Aaron's Rent and Lease would be sponsoring David Reutimann in the #00 for half a season in 2009! However, as happy as they are about the positive sponsorship news, fans remain nervous about the remaining sponsorship that MWR needs to find for the other half of a season for David and for the full season for the third car. But according to Ty Norris there's reason to be optimistic. MWR is talking with three sponsors about next season, one that is already in the sport and two others that would be new to Nascar. He said,

"Two things are happening at the same time. Some of the people that we've been talking to are starting to get into some serious conversations with us, saying we're starting to run better. Interest always seems to be heightened when you're performing better on the racetrack, because we always have been able to perform for sponsors off the track. Now that we're getting some on-track performance -- David Reutimann and that team has been terrific lately, and Michael McDowell, for the second straight weekend, has come here loaded for bear -- we feel like we're getting very competitive. So actually there is a tremendous amount of momentum going forward, especially with groups we've been talking to. There is optimism."

I'm very happy to hear that there are sponsors that have noticed how well David has been racing and the overall progress that MWR has been making lately!

However, that doesn't mean that things are easy when it comes to finding sponsorship, particularly given the difficult economy. Which is why Ty would like to see new categories of sponsors come into the sport. He said,

"The sport needs new blood; it needs new money, no question. What I would love to see is new categories, because if a new category comes into the sport, it seems to open it up for all the other companies in that same category. So it will be interesting to see if there are any new categories coming in that can penetrate the sport. For instance, when Pennzoil does something on the primary level, then it almost in a defensive mechanism makes Valvoline and Mobil and some of these other companies look at it -- because if they're going to be here, then they figure they need to be here. Red Bull came in as an energy drink. So Pepsi countered it with Amp. And that's new money."

Ty is absolutely correct. I think some have their heads in the sand a little in terms of the sponsorship situation in the sport. They say contrary to what some believe the sponsorship situation isn't that bad because a lot of sponsors are choosing to stay in the sport. Sure, there are sponsors who are staying but many of the large sponsors that have the most money to spend are consolidating themselves with a small group of elite teams. Without new sponsors, what are the rest of the teams supposed to do for sponsorship? New categories opening up would definitely help some of the teams in need of sponsorship since competing companies would sponsor a variety of different teams.

In possibly related news, Bob Margolis from Yahoo! Sports wrote in his Observations from Loudon:

The hottest rumor floating around the Cup garage this weekend is that Chip Ganassi still is trying to make a deal with another team to keep himself in NASCAR. This week it was supposedly an arrangement with Michael Waltrip Racing, which would expand to four cars and put Montoya in a Toyota.

I take everything that Margolis writes with a grain of salt since he was the one who reported that it was an absolute certainty and a done deal that Bobby Labonte was going to race for Richard Childress Racing in 2009 and that was completely false. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have accurate information so maybe there is some truth to the persistent rumors that have been circulating for a few months that MWR and Ganassi are going to merge. At first I thought some were reading into the breakfast meeting between Rob Kauffman, Cal Wells, Felix Sabates and Chip Ganassi a little too much - and that still might be the case - but it seems like there's been so much talk about something going on between the two organizations that maybe there is. And the more I've thought about it, the more I like the idea.

Both MWR and Ganassi have issues on the competition side that likely have a lot to do with the financial and sponsorship side. They might be stronger together as a four-car organization than if they were separate, each as a two-car organization. NAPA, Aaron's, and Target are all long-time Nascar sponsors, and Wrigley's has been involved in the sport for a few years as well, so they're all committed to the sport. Some of my fellow MWR fans are horrified by the thought of Juan Pablo Montoya racing for Ganassi but I would love to see him race for MWR - he's got a huge amount of talent and I don't think we've seen anywhere near the best of him in Cup so far. I don't always like the way he races but I do like that he seems to be fan-friendly and he's certainly not afraid to speak his mind. As for the 4th car, if not Michael McDowell I would love to see A.J. Allmendinger in that car if Red Bull Racing decided not to keep him.

Posted by silverdsl at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2008

Another Solid Race Weekend for Michael Waltrip Racing

Yes, there were some issues but overall it was a solid weekend for Michael Waltrip Racing at Loudon, particularly since all three teams leave New Hampshire in the top 35 in owner's points. I really love what I'm seeing from the MWR teams right now and it makes me really optimistic for the future! David Reutimann and the #44 team continue to lead the way with a 15th place finish today. David has now finished in the top 15 or better in four of his last five races and hasn't finished outside the top 25 in that stretch I'm sure he'd love to be racing even better but I think it's really outstanding the way that team has come along, particularly considering they were outside the top 35 to start the season and had their share of struggles to contend with just like the other MWR teams. There's been a lot of talk about how drivers like David Ragan or Brian Vickers who just missed the Chase could be in it next season and if David continues racing as well as he had and carries that momentum over into next season, I think he'll be right there in the mix for Chase contention.

Michael Waltrip had a trying day but it ended on a positive note with a top 25 finish. He and the #55 team struggled to get the car right all weekend and were extremely slow in practice which really worried me for this race. However, it soon became clear that Michael actually had a pretty good car. That really made me happy because at times this season when the car has been bad in practice they've struggled to make the right changes to make it right for the race, but they've seemed to make some improvements lately in relation to that. Michael even seemed poised to race his way into the top 20 with David but a slow pit stop cost Michael a significant amount of track position on a track where it can be hard to pass. Michael eventually went a lap down but that actually happened on pit road due a second slow pit stop. Prior to that he did an outstanding job of outracing the leader at the time, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., to stay on the lead lap. Michael actually was as fast as Junior at that point which is why he was able to hold him off for so long - it really was great to see Michael be able to race Junior so hard so successfully for so long! Michael wasn't happy about the slow pit stops and I can't blame him - he really did an excellent job of racing his way through the field and I'm sure he had high hopes of coming close to repeating his second place finish at this track earlier in the season. It wasn't to be but I think Michael and his team did a good job of overcoming the pit road issues to get the top 25 finish. Not what they wanted but it keeps them in the top 35 in owner's points. Michael should feel good - although there are still issues to work out such as with the pit crew and in terms of getting the handling on his cars right, there is a big improvement between now and the start of the season in terms of the competitiveness of the cars he's racing.

Although Michael McDowell was able to race well enough to keep the #00 in the top 35 in owner's points and that's a good thing I really didn't like what I saw from him today. I try to give McD the benefit of the doubt since by all accounts he's an extremely nice person, a talent race car driver and he's in a very difficult situation in that he has very little experience in Cup and he's racing for a team that likely has less resources due to financial reasons in comparison to the other two MWR teams. However, McD isn't new to racing and I didn't think he raced very smart at times today, particularly since at one point it appeared he was also going to finish in the top 25. McD's first mistake was wrecking A.J. Allmendinger - maybe McD didn't realize that he was there but it seemed like he didn't let off and A.J. ended up wrecked, which looked bad since A.J. is also fighting for a spot in the top 35. In fact, thanks to McD wrecking him A.J. is back out of the top 35 so McD is taking some heat from some fans who think maybe he deliberately wrecked A.J. to ensure that he (McD) stayed in the top 35. I don't think that's the case - McD said recently he planned on racing extra aggressively and that's likely what he was doing, which isn't always the best course of action.

McD's other issue came on restarts. During a late restart McD was just behind Michael. Ty Norris, Michael's spotter said to him something along the lines of "just so you know McDiddle has been going down on the apron on restarts" to which Michael responded something along the lines of "just so he knows what will happen to him if he hits me" in a rather threatening tone of voice. Just like at Sonoma, McD shouldn't need to be reminded not to get into his owner! But McD saved his best for last - on a late restart when he seemed poised to finish in the top 25, he passed on the left on a restart which isn't allowed, got black-flagged, and had to serve a pass through penalty. Luckily he only lost a handful of positions, but every position and point count when fighting for a spot in the top 35. McD is racing for a sponsor, a spot in the top top 35, and his career since he doesn't have a guaranteed ride for next season - as a rookie he's going to make mistakes but it seemed like he made a lot of them in this race and he can't really afford that given the position he's in.

But aside from some of the issues with McD it really was a positive weekend for MWR! The next race is next weekend at Dover and I'm optimistic that it's going to be another very good weekend for all three teams! David is racing so well right now, Michael has always liked racing at Dover and hopefully McD will learn a few things from this race that will keep him out of trouble next weekend. Maybe next weekend we'll see all three teams finish in the top 20 - I know most organizations are aiming to have all their teams finish in the top 15 or better, but for such a young organization that has had to deal with so many struggles they need to keep their expectations a little lower - but I sure would love to see all three of those MWR cars racing up front!

Posted by silverdsl at 08:23 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2008

Outstanding Race for David Reutiamnn at Richmond!

For the second week in a row David Reutimann finished 9th in Cup! Two top tens would be reason enough to celebrate but it gets better - David not only finished 9th at Richmond but for a while it looked like he might even win the race! David led 104 laps, the most of any driver, and at one point was ahead by four second! The results for David and his team have continued to get better and better every week - maybe it's the generation three COT that the Michael Waltrip Racing teams are using, maybe it's that it took until now for David and his crew chief, Ryan Pemberton, to fully gel, or maybe it's just the comfort for David and his team that comes from knowing that they'll racing together for the next three years. Whatever the reason it's awesome to see David not only race competitively up front but contend for the win! I wouldn't be surprised if David won a race before the season's over!

Richmond was pretty good to the other MWR teams as well. I admit I had my doubts about what was going to happen at Richmond after Michael McDowell said that he was going to take a page from Juan Pablo Montoya and race extra-aggressively, but McD raced a clean race and finished 20th, which put him back in the top 35 in owner's points! That has to be a big relief since having to qualify into races adds an extra level of stress and McD is already under a lot of pressure since he's racing to attract sponsorship for the third MWR car for next season and also for his career. McD actually raced even better for a good portion of the day and looked like he was going to finish in the top 15 before losing some ground over the last few laps of the race.

McD may have felt victim to the same issue that caused Michael Waltrip to lose positions over the last 30 laps of the race - based on what was said over the radio, the set of tires they put on the car during the last pit stop didn't work out very well. Michael's 28th place finish in no way reflects how well he raced for quite a bit of the race. It looked like Michael was on his way to a top 15 or top 20 until he lost a lot of ground. Michael had really done an excellent job of battling a loose handling car - often when the car is loose Michael is racing not to wreck instead of racing for position - but at Richmond Michael was able to hold his own and actually race. That had to be a lot of fun for him to be racing up front among the Chase contenders! At the end of the race Michael was extremely frustrated with his finish and I don't blame him - he and his team worked really hard all day and for much of the race everything went their way. It's unfortunate that the finish isn't as good as it looked like it was going to be. However, Michael's finish was not only good enough to keep him in the top 35 in owner's points, but he also moved up a few spots. That's definitely a good thing!

Overall, MWR has to be very happy with the way all three teams raced at Richmond and particularly with David and his team! Seeing the #44 be so competitive is a sign that MWR is making progress and moving in the right direction! Everyone at MWR has to feel encouraged and optimistic about the future - I know I do! I can't wait for the day when Michael or one of his drivers wins a Cup race - what David did at Richmond shows that it's possible! It will be awesome to see Michael celebrating in Victory Lane!

ETA - Just saw Michael's post-race notes. Apparently why he lost so many positions at the end of the race wasn't a bad set of tires, but because a right rear tire was going down and that effected the handling of his car. Michael's probably very lucky that tire didn't blow completely!

Posted by silverdsl at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2008

Michael McDowell Returns to the #00 at Richmond

After being out of the #00 for three races so that Mike Skinner could race it as a consultant and offer Michael Waltrip Racing some feedback in an effort to help performance not only for the team but for MWR overall, Michael McDowell will be getting back behind the wheel this weekend at Richmond. While I like McD and think that he's got a lot more talent than he's been able to show so far, I wasn't entirely convinced that he would be back after the three races were over, so I'm glad that he's going to be back racing this weekend!

McD's been making the rounds and over the past two days he was interviewed on both XM and Sirius. Luckily, I was able to catch both interviews since he had some interesting things to say. One thing that's been of concern to a lot of fans is whether MWR is going to field a third car next season, particularly since the odds are if there is no third car there is no McD at MWR. This morning on Sirius McD said that Michael Waltrip and Rob Kauffman have put a lot of their own money into fielding the third car this season and that they can't do it again next season. Apparently Michael told McD straight out "no sponsor, no car." Although I would be sad if McD left MWR, and for the most part organizations have a better chance of success with more teams, not less, I'm glad that MWR won't be fielding a third car out of their own pocket again. Having to spend millions on an unsponsored car means they can't spend money in other areas, and that car could end up being a drain on resources, financial and otherwise, that are needed for cars that do have sponsorship. It's really important for MWR to improve performance and maybe just being able to focus their efforts on just two teams would help them do that. Don't get me wrong - I would be thrilled if they found sponsorship for a third car but I won't be as broken hearted as some if they scale back to two teams.

As much as I like McD I continue to be a little concerned about his attitude. For one thing when he was asked by Claire B. Lang on XM yesterday about what he had learned from Mike (Skinner), McD didn't really come up with much of anything other than that it reaffirmed to him that it was the cars that were the problem, not him. Let me get this straight - a 23-year old rookie with less than a year's experience in Nascar, let alone Cup didn't learn anything to help him improve from a 20-year veteran of the sport who is a former Truck Series Champion? Mike didn't have that much success in Cup but that didn't stop A.J. Allmendinger from sticking to him like glue and trying to absorb as much as possible that might help him improve as a driver.

To his credit when asked about learning from other drivers McD did say that he spent time listening to Jimmie Johnson and the #48 team and that he learned a lot about communication from listening to them. It's true that Jimmie, Chad and the rest of the #48 team not only communicate very well but also work well together as a cohesive unit. As McD mentioned, he's not had a lot of time to gel with Peter Sospenso, the new crew chief of the #00, but maybe listening to the #48 team gave McD some insights that he can bring back to his team and use to develop good communication with Peter.

It's not just the #48 team that McD was paying close attention to. Apparently he also spent a lot of time watching Juan Pablo Montoya and plans to emulate his hard racing style, even if it upsets people. He talked about it on XM but also in his pre-race notes for Richmond in which he said,

"I got a valuable lesson from watching Juan Pablo Montoya at Bristol. I know everyone was upset with how hard he raced the leaders. He raced everybody as hard as he could every single lap. He ended up getting a top-20 finish and he probably had a 35th-place car. I think that's something that you've got to look at. There is a balance and you probably are going to upset some people, but at the same time you are trying to get into the top-35. You are trying to keep your job and improve your finishes."

McD was even more blunt about it on XM. No talk of finding a balance - he plans on racing hard on every single lap of every single race from start to finish no matter how many other drivers might get upset because he's racing to get back into the top 35 and for his career. I'm all for drivers racing hard, particularly as the laps wind down in a race but I also think that drivers need to use good judgment and know when to dial it down. Being aggressive has already been an issue for McD several times this season. Early on he upset Jeff Burton with how hard he raced him, his aggressive style meant that he had to be warned not to run over his own owner during a re-start at Sonoma, and most recently at Watkins Glen he played a role in starting a huge wreck by the way he was racing David Gilliland. Now he says he's going to race even harder?

I have to wonder how well being even more aggressive is going to work out for him. JPM might be in only his second season in the Cup Series but he's a veteran racer who has been tremendously successful in other series. I think he's earned the right to race his fellow competitors as hard as he wants, but is it such a good idea for a rookie? It hasn't always worked out well for JPM since it's led to conflicts with his fellow competitors and many fans don't really like him too much either. In addition, McD needs to keep in mind the car he's racing. He says that he'll be racing a new generation three COT like the #44 and #55 teams have been using so maybe he'll have a more competitive car to race from here on out, but previously I don't think his cars were good enough for him to race all of his fellow competitors super-hard on every lap. That doesn't mean that he needs to pull over for them - far from it - but I think he needs to be mindful of what his car is capable of and make sure he's not overdriving.

I just want everything to work out for McD and for MWR overall. The last thing he or MWR needs is to be embroiled with any more controversy and sometimes aggressive racing can led to incidents. Of course some say there's no such thing as bad publicity and the exposure could help find a sponsor and thus secure him a ride next season with MWR, but I just hope that McD is mindful of that balance he talked about in his pre-race notes.

Posted by silverdsl at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2008

David Reutimann Finishes 9th in Fontana!

Although Sunday's race at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana was pretty forgettable for the most part, there was one major highlight - David Reutimann finished a career best 9th! The past few weeks David and the #44 team have really started to come on strong - at Michigan David qualified 7th and finished 14th, at Bristol he qualified 2nd but only was able to finish 25th and this past weekend he qualified 12th and finished 9th. Maybe it's because they've started to use the new generation three COTs that Michael Waltrip Racing has been working with, maybe it's because David and his team have really come together as a solid team or maybe it's because any uncertainties about David and the future of the team have been resolved now that David and Aaron's have been signed for the next three years. Whatever the reason may be David is showing that he is an outstanding driver who can race up front when he has a competitive car. If things continue in this direction I think we'll be seeing him contend for wins before too long!

Unfortunately the result wasn't as good for Michael Waltrip - he had to race hard just to finish 33rd due to how loose the car was. Based on the radio communication during the the race, the team made some adjustments after practice on Saturday that didn't really work out for the race on Sunday. Seems like that's not the first time that's happened - they gamble with changes that don't end up turning out the way they'd like and then they have to spend the race trying to make more changes to get the car right. To the team's credit they often make changes that make the car better but by the time the car is faster and more competitive Michael is often stuck a lap down or otherwise has poor track position. It may be difficult for Bobby Kennedy and the rest of the team because I think Michael likes his cars to feel a very specific way so it might be hard to get the cars perfectly the way they want them but I think they need to work on showing up to the track with the car being closer to right because it seems like they're almost always playing catch up right from the start. Obviously MWR is moving in the right direction with the cars they're building since David's results have been good recently, but there's still a ways to go - Michael complains almost every week about his cars being so loose that he's racing just to not spin out as opposed to racing for position. He also often complains about the right front not feeling right. They need to work on resolving those issues for him so that he can race up front like he's capable of like David has been.

Mike Skinner raced his last race for MWR at Fontana. Hopefully MWR learned something from the three races that Mike was in the #00 for that will help them for next season and beyond, but I have to admit that I'm scratching my head a little over just how much value the feedback he's providing to the team is going to be considering he apparently was racing an older version of the COT, as opposed to the gen three version that the #44 and #55 teams are going to be using moving forward. At the very least hopefully he helped with team communication and provided some valuable advice to Michael McDowell which will not only help him when he gets back in the #00 this weekend at Richmond but in the future. I like McD a lot but part of me wonders why they're putting him back in the car. There's still a chance that the #00 could get back into the top 35 which would make it more likely that MWR field three Cup cars next season and I think another veteran driver with more experience would have a better chance of achieving that. I suppose they want to try to showcase him for potential sponsors if he's the driver they intend on using in a third car next season but I'm not that optimistic that he's going to pull an A.J. Allmendinger and suddenly start racing up front once he gets back into the car.

Like I said above, the race overall was pretty boring. This time I don't think it was just the TV coverage that made it that way either since some who were at the race in person also talked about how unexciting it was. Last night on This Week in Nascar Michael brought up his idea to turn the track into a restrictor plate track, and while I'm not sure that's feasible, I think he's correct when he says that the track needs to be sure that they're giving fans the best possible show, something they aren't now. Michael said that the track does a great job with everything that surrounds the race in terms of making it very fan friendly and it gets everyone all hyped up but once the race actually starts there's a let-down. That's something that needs to be addressed particularly now that fans are being more picky about what races they buy tickets for. In light of the uninteresting racing at this track it's hard to believe that this track got a Chase race for next season.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:48 AM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2008

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (8/15)

*When Felix Sabates was on XM a while back talking about the decision to shut down the #40 team, he mentioned that Ganassi Racing was close to re-signing Reed Sorenson. He made it sound like there was no question that Sorenson would be back. Well, it's weeks later and it's still unclear as to whether he'll be racing for Ganassi or not next season. Sorenson says that he's still talking to Ganassi about a new contract but apparently those at Ganassi have said that they've re-signed him. Since there's been no official announcement yet that he'll be back in the #41 I have to think that it's not yet a done deal. The question becomes if he doesn't re-sign with Ganassi, where will he go and who would take his place?

*DEI has hired Bobby Hutchens to be vice president of competition. Previously Hutchens was general manager of Earnhardt-Childress Racing Engines and before that spent 20-years at Richard Childress Racing. What's interesting is that this came about because of a joint decision between DEI and RCR. Although RCR and DEI have long worked together on a variety of projects it seems like it's unusual for two organizations to jointly decide on a major personnel move like this. I've already seen some Earnhardt fans try to spin this into a negative like they do with just about everything that DEI does, but I don't see how DEI hiring someone with a huge amount of experience on the competition side is a negative. It seems to me that this is a good move for DEI.

*Apparently the plan is for Joey Logano to make his Cup debut at Richmond next month and then race another six or seven Cup races through the end of the season. What's unmentioned is what car he'll be in. Some have speculated that Tony Stewart could be released early from the #20 if he doesn't make the Chase so that Logano could get some experience in the car and with the team he might be racing for next season. Others have wondered whether he'll be in the #96 since that team is a Joe Gibbs Racing satellite team. Since Dave Moody said that Logano might have sponsorship from Gatorade that seems to indicate that it will be a fourth JGR car since both the #20 and #96 are fully sponsored.

*Apparently Mike Skinner will be in the #00 in place of Michael McDowell for three races and then McD is slated to get back in the car for the September 6th race at Richmond. Everyone is saying all the right things about how this is just temporary, as a way to evaluate the program and get feedback that might help the team and MWR improve, and that MWR is still committed to McD and fielding a car for him next season if they can find sponsorship. But I don't know... I can't help but think of the performance clause that McD said is in his contract that goes into effect in September. I have no idea what that entails but it would seem to me that if he hasn't met the performance goals outlined in his contract which I would guess would be to keep the car in the top 35, which he hasn't, they might be able to get out of the remaining time on his contract without owing him any money. With sponsorship being an issue it seems to me that if they don't find a sponsor soon they may end up letting McD go regardless of how they feel about him because how long can they keep him if they don't know if they're going to have a ride for him?

*Speaking of McD he was on XM saying all the right things about being replaced by Skinner. I was a little surprised by his comments about the wreck on Sunday in that he pretty much said it was no big deal though he said he was sorry for all the wrecked cars and that the fans had to sit through the long red flag. He said that it was just a racing deal that got blown out of proportion. He said there was no ill will between himself and Gilliland, neither of them was angry at the other, there was no intent and it was just a matter of them racing for the same piece of real estate and that neither gave to the other. Just a matter of hard racing. He said that Nascar recognized that it was likely just hard racing but wanted to double-check to be sure that there was nothing that would carry over into Michigan. So essentially McD contradicted everything that his owner and teammate, Michael Waltrip said on TWiN last night when he said that Gilliland deliberately wrecked McD in anger. I don't even know what to think about that. I assumed that one reason why Michael made the comments that he did was because he talked to McD and found out more about what led up to the wreck but doesn't sound like that's the case.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

In All Fairness, Another View of Gilliland vs. McDowell

I didn't like what I saw from Michael McDowell in terms of his role in causing the huge wreck on Sunday at Watkins Glen. However, in all fairness I feel that I need to make note of what his car owner, Michael Waltrip, said on This Week in Nascar last night. There was talk over the #55's radio during the red flag after the wreck that McDowell was at fault but I assume after speaking with his driver and seeing more video Michael came to a different conclusion because last night he said that David Gilliland was at fault and that he had intentionally tried to "hook" or wreck McDowell and that was what led to the big wreck. I don't really agree with Michael's assessment of the incident, though he surely is in a position to be a better judge than I am. Thing is, even if Gilliland made the move that led to the wreck, one has to ask just what McDowell had done prior to that which got Gilliland so angry that he tried to wreck him? Regardless of who actually caused the wreck, it seems to me that it's not likely that McDowell is a completely innocent victim who was just minding his own business and then suddenly out of the blue Gilliland tried to wreck him.

Naturally there are more than a few fans who are ripping into Michael for blaming Gilliland. Michael's really in a no-win situation. There are people who are calling him names because he blamed Gilliland but if he places blame on his own driver then there are fans who will feel that being openly critical of his driver is wrong too. Even though I didn't entirely agree with what he said, I have to commend Michael for his willingness to stand behind and support his driver even though he was expressing an unpopular opinion. That's a good thing. Owners need to be supportive of their drivers and maybe even more so when there's negativity being directed towards them. It's particularly important when it's a young driver like McDowell who is still learning the ropes in Cup and developing as a driver.

Speaking of learning, I hope that McDowell is going to be open to learning from Mike Skinner who will be in the #00 at Michigan and maybe for a few more races. Presumably Skinner won't just be giving feedback to the team about the cars but will also be giving advise to McDowell. A.J. Allmendinger really benefited from working with Skinner, and I think McDowell can too. Even though Skinner hasn't had a tremendous amount of success in Cup, he's an accomplished racer who won a Truck Series championship, he's very good at qualifying cars into races even when they're not the greatest and he was a big help to the #84 team. Hopefully he can work the same kind of magic for the #00 team and Michael Waltrip Racing overall.

Michael also commented last night on NAPA Auto Parts re-signing with him next season. According to Michael, the reason why it was just a one-year deal is because they'd like to see the performance improve. If it does approve, they would then continue their partnership with Michael for a lot longer. Michael expressed a lot of confidence that they are close to making big gains in terms of performance and I hope that's true. I want to see Michael and his drivers be able to race up front and contend for wins like I know they're capable of!

Just getting back to those who are bashing Michael for his comments about Gilliland, it's a little disturbing the degree to which some are taking this. I think it's a little extreme to be talking about organizing a fan boycott of NAPA or going over to Raceworld to express displeasure in person because Michael is of the opinion that Gilliland was at fault. Michael has the right to his opinions - and people have the right to disagree with him. But I think fans need to keep things in perspective. Michael didn't attack Gilliland. He simply gave his opinion and then explained why he thought Gilliland might have done what he did.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2008

McDowell Out, Skinner in at Michigan

Turns out Michael McDowell wasn't just racing to get back into the top 35 next season or to make a good impression so that he would have a ride for next season, he was also racing to stay in the car at Michigan. McD will be replaced by Mike Skinner in the #00 next weekend at Michigan, something the team was considering even before the mess on lap 83. Cal Wells, Michael Waltrip Racing's Executive Vice President said,

"If we choose to do that, it would be for two reasons. One would be to evaluate the package itself, and the other would be to make sure we get in the shows. Not that McDowell can't bust a lap off - because he can - but anything's possible."

Since there's only 44 cars entered in the race I'd say that they probably weren't too worried about whether McD could get the car in the race. Skinner did an outstanding job of helping the #84 team improve, so MWR is probably hoping he'll be able to work the same kind of magic for them. However, since Wells indicated that they didn't have anything definite in place on Sunday to replace McD, one has to wonder whether the massive wreck he helped cause played into the decision to replace him next weekend, since MWR seems to have made the decision to replace McD for sure at Michigan very quickly.

As for McD's long-term future at MWR, Wells said,

"We have a lot of things in the hopper that involve Michael. All of the things we're selling are built around Michael McDowell. We made a very big investment in him. He's a very talented guy. I like Mike a lot personally, and I feel he's really championship-caliber. It's just going to be a matter of sequencing - when he matures, when that team matures. As far as sponsorship, we're not selling around anybody else. I just hope the timing works out, but I don't know right now."

The first part seems to indicate that MWR very much wants to keep McD for next season but the last part in relation to when he and the team matures makes me think that the performance needs to improve if that's going to happen. Not to mention there's the pesky little issue of sponsorship. McD is always smiling and seems like a great person. I also have no doubt that he has a lot of talent behind the wheel - if he didn't he wouldn't have had so much ARCA success, nor would MWR have had the confidence in him to put him in the #00 this season. However, as I've mentioned a few times recently I haven't had a very good feeling about McD since Sonoma - that the #55 team felt that they had to stress to the #00 that McD better be sure not to run his owner over on a re-start wasn't a good sign. I sense that it's not just his skills behind the wheel that need to mature but also his attitude and approach. Today I got to thinking about what Scott Speed said on Michael Waltrip Out Loud last week about how never goes in thinking he's going to win and he just tries to make the best of what he's given to race and tries his best to make good decisions. I wonder what McD's approach is? Sometimes it's hard to know for sure how much of what a driver says in an interview is what they really think and how much is spin but I also wonder at times if McD gets over-confident. Cup racing is hard and good results don't come easy no matter how much talent a driver has or how much experience they have at particular tracks.

It'll be interesting to see if McD returns to the #00. Ideally I would like MWR to be able to field three Cup cars next season and I'd have no problem if one of their three drivers was McD. But I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up elsewhere in 2009.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2008

Not too Happy With Michael McDowell After Watkins Glen

With help from David Gilliland, Michael McDowell caused a huge wreck at Watkins Glen and I'm not too happy about it. While racing for position McDowell got into Gilliland and set off a massive wreck that results in nine wrecked race cars - including that of his owner Michael Waltrip, and sent Bobby Labonte to the hospital for evaluation after he got out of his car in obvious pain. The race had to be red flagged for 40 minutes for clean-up and I have to say it was one of the scariest wrecks that I've seen on a non-restrictor plate track in a long time. I'm very thankful that they race the COTs because if not there might be more than just Bobby making a visit to the hospital right now.

I'm all for hard racing particularly towards the end of the race and I know that sometimes when drivers are being aggressive and racing hard it could result in a wreck. When Jeff Burton criticized McD for racing him hard earlier in the season I defended McD's right to race him aggressively. But what troubles me is that it's possible that McD was retaliating against Gilliland for the way he was racing him. That's not acceptable to me to retaliate against another driver and particularly in a way that results in a massive wreck. But regardless of whether McD was just racing hard and made a mistake or deliberately got into Gilliland he has to use better judgment and be aware of the big picture which is that he's racing to get back into the top 35 in owner's points.

The other thing is that McD may not have a ride for next season since MWR may not continue to field the #00 if they can't find a sponsor for it. That means he's racing to impress sponsors and teams. After today he may very well have raced himself out of a ride for next season, particularly when one considers that he's a very experienced road course racer and the expectations for him at this track are likely for him to finish a lot better than 25th.

I'm now understanding why at Sonoma Michael (Waltrip) made a point of telling his spotter, Ty Norris, to tell McD's spotter to make sure McD didn't run him over. I'm also starting to understand why there's been some rumors that McD has fallen out of favor at MWR. Teams want young drivers who will race hard and be aggressive on the track but they also want them to make good decisions - I'm not sure McD did that today. I didn't hear it myself but I saw somewhere that supposedly Michael called McD "McDiddle" over his radio. If so, that certainly says a lot about what Michael thought of that incident - and maybe of McD. That wouldn't be very good for McD considering Michael owns his car.

McD isn't very far out of the top 35 so a few good finishes and he could race his way back in. I have my doubts about whether that's going to happen though given that the results haven't been very good for him this season. And if he can't get the car back into the top 35, I have to wonder if MWR is going to continue to field the #00 or whether they might pull the car before the end of the season so they can concentrate on the #44 and #55, since there's a question of whether they're going to field the #00 next season.

I was leery of the plan to put McD in the #00 with almost no Nascar experience but based on how well he did in ARCA I knew he had talent behind the wheel. I figured that he'd at least race well enough to keep the car in the top 35 particularly given his road course expertise. It's kind of disappointing the way things have gone with him. I really didn't expect him to race up front, particularly given that MWR is still struggling to field competitive cars overall, but I expected more than McD has shown so far.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2008

Michael McDowell in the Silly Season Mix

Michael McDowell said today at Watkins Glen that even though Michael Waltrip Racing has an option on him for next season, he may have to look for another ride due to a lack of sponsorship. In fact McD has apparently already spoken with several teams including Petty Enterprises. McD said,

“The way the situation is right now, we’re looking really hard to lock down funding for next year, and we have a tough time doing that with today’s economy and how we’ve been running. I’m committed to Michael Waltrip Racing. They have an option to take up on me in the next couple weeks. But in the meantime, I have had some conversations with Petty and a few other teams to kind of put my name in the hat to make sure that if we aren’t able to secure the funding at Michael Waltrip Racing for the third car that I’ll have a place to run next year and build upon my rookie season.”

I find this all pretty interesting since it wasn't too long ago that it was being rumored that the NAPA sponsorship could move from Michael Waltrip to McD - as per today's announcement obviously that won't be happening. Although it hasn't yet been made official supposedly Aaron's will be sponsoring the #44 for at least part of a season. I would guess that David Reutimann would then stay in the #44 which is also interesting if that's were to happen since often teams choose youth over a veteran's experience.

I can't say it would entirely surprise me if McD wasn't at MWR next season. Any regular reader of this space might have noticed that I've not been as high on McD as I once was. Of course a driver can only make the most of the cars they're given and MWR is still struggling to field competitive cars. However, I think the expectations for McD weren't all that much this season - keep the #00 in the top 35 and race well on road courses. So far the #00 is outside the top 35 and he didn't do all that much at Sonoma, in spite of saying that he would race up front and contend for the win heading into the race. Maybe he'll have a great race this weekend at Watkins Glen in Cup - it's unlikely he'll do much in the Nationwide race since he'll be "racing" a car that normally starts and parks, but I kind of doubt he'll race the way it was predicted he would on road courses earlier in the season.

That said, McD may still develop into a successful Cup driver. He did extremely well in ARCA so he does have talent behind the wheel. Although I've heard some say that he's complained about teammates and MWR openly, at least publically McD is always smiling. He handles himself well in the media, he's attractive, seems to be a nice person and is also fan-friendly. So there's a lot about McD to like and that would appeal to sponsors and teams. He may end up racing well and winning races in the future, it just might not be for MWR. I suppose some will say if McD ends up leaving MWR that they should have had more patience with him but if there's no sponsorship for his car it probably wouldn't be a wise idea to continue fielding it out of their own pocket as they've partially been doing this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)

August 05, 2008

Michael McDowell to Race in the Nationwide Race at Watkins Glen

Michael McDowell is going to race in the Nationwide race at Watkins Glen on Saturday but it won't be for Michael Waltrip Racing. Instead he'll be in the #91 for MSRP Motorsports. I'm really surprised that MWR is putting McD in the #91. Both cars that MSRP has fielded this season, including this one, have started and parked in every race this season, with the most laps that either cars has lasted is 45 (and usually much less). Phil Parsons, who is on the board of directors at MWR, is one of the owners of MSRP so it might be a favor to him, but it still strikes me as pretty odd. I hope that MWR plans on giving MSRP some money, a pit crew and maybe even a car so that McD can go the whole distance and get some seat time that might help him in Sunday's Cup race, but I wouldn't be surprised if he wasn't on the track for long. At Montreal both MSRP cars went to the garage on lap two with "transmission" issues. After seeing that I wondered if MSRP even brought pit crews with them to Montreal for the race?

It's possible that MWR is just trying to get McD some additional experience. Although MWR and McD himself have boasted of his road course experience to the point where Ty Norris predicted that he would contend for wins at both Cup road course races, he certainly didn't live up to those expectations at Sonoma. But this doesn't seem like the car a team would want to put a driver in for seat time and experience.

I just hope that it ends up being a legitimate effort to race. There's a lot of fans who don't think well of teams and drivers who start and park. I don't care for it too much myself but I do understand why teams opt to do it, as well as why drivers might agree to "race" those cars. However, there are a lot of fans who don't and I would hate to see McD's image tarnished by doing a S&P - there's already some negativity being directed towards him for this. You just don't usually see young drivers like McD - or any Cup drivers for that matter - taking part in a S&P effort. Unless someone wants to teach McD a lesson about where his career could end up if things don't improve for him in Cup it's really hard for me to understand why MWR would agree to put a young driver they think so highly of in this car. Maybe if there's any pre-race notes it'll shed some light on how this came about.

Posted by silverdsl at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip - New NAPA Commericials and More

I've been remiss in mentioning that there are two new and very funny NAPA Auto Parts commercials that Michael Waltrip is in with NHRA funny car driver Ron Capps is also in. Ron is also sponsored by NAPA and I guess that must be a new thing because in the commercials Michael is welcoming him to the NAPA family, naturally in his own unique and humorous way. I love the way NAPA has supported Michael through the years but perhaps the best thing about them sponsoring Michael is that it's resulted in some very creative and very hysterical commercials. From NAPA's standpoint perhaps the best thing about these commericals is that they're so memorable - fans still talk about classic NAPA commercials with Michael from years ago just as much as they talk about how much they love the NAPA commercials with him from today. The great thing is that these days most of the current batch of NAPA commericals are available on YouTube here and here.

In other entries I've discussed a variety of other things about the Indy race but there's one thing that I haven't yet mentioned - Michael's unfortunate lap four wreck that occurred when he was racing Sam Hornish, Jr. for position, got loose, spun and then got run over by Paul Menard who really couldn't avoid getting into him. That meant that Michael had to spend almost 70 laps behind the wall while his team made repairs which is very unfortunate not only because there isn't much margin for error for Michael in relation to owner's points but also because he had been so excited about the new car with the lower center of gravity that he was going to be racing this weekend. Michael took the blame for the wreck on TWiN last night and I was impressed with how much restraint he showed in relation to his comments about Paul - based on what he said over his radio during the race I think he was pretty upset that Paul got into him since he probably would have been able to drive away without significant damage if not for that. But perhaps seeing a replay made him re-think that incident - there really wasn't much that Paul could have done since the #96 probably blocked much of his view. I can't say I was overly thrilled with the way some fans placed blame on Michael for spinning himself - as noted Michael did say he made a mistake but I guess I just saw it the way I see many racing incidents - two guys racing each other and sometimes it just doesn't work out. Unlike a lot of fans I don't always feel the need to place blame - wrecks are going to happen. I hate to see it happen on lap four and especially to Michael but at the same time the drivers have to race each other and there's always the risk that it might result in a wreck. I would much rather Michael be trying to race his way forward and have things go bad then just race around in back never making any effort to gain position out of fear of what might happen if he races certain drivers or puts himself in certain positions.

Neither of Michael's drivers had a good race at Indy either. David Reutimann scrapped the wall and had a flat tire so he finished 30th. Michael McDowell finished 39th, which was very costly because it dropped him out of the top 35 in owner's points something that has to be very disappointing not just for McD but for all at MWR who had made getting and keeping all three teams in the top 35 one of their biggest goals this season. I have to admit it's pretty disappointing to me too. I had higher hopes for McD. Not that I thought he was going to race up front of anything, not by a long shot, not for a rookie with zero Cup experience before this season racing cars that even his more experienced teammates are struggling with. But I really thought that he would be able to race well enough to stay in the top 35. I thought his aggressive style of racing and his confidence in his abilities would help him make the most of the cars he was given. But that didn't happen.

Although McD is less than 20 points out of the top 35 it might not be easy to get back in. His average result is 31.9 in Cup and I haven't seen much to make me think that's going to change. Of course a driver can only race the cars that he's given and if the cars he gets to race aren't very competitive he can't finish very well but I really expected to see something from McD, at least at Sonoma. On the surface his 21st place finish there seems good but he raced around behind Michael for the majority of the race and a top 25 is a lot less than the top five finish that he predicted he would get. Although McD seems like a good guy with a lot of personality who is very media savvy, from the start I've been concerned that he might be a little over-confident about racing Cup - he certainly admitted he was over-confident about Sonoma afterwards. So I'm just wondering how much that kind of an attitude and having to readjust his expectations might be effecting him. I'm also wondering if he isn't able to get back into the top 35 whether MWR might consider pulling the #00 before the end of the season since it's not fully sponsored. Especially if there's any truth to the rumors that his future at MWR is in doubt - he has acknowledged that while he's signed to a multi-year deal there is a performance clause in his contract. I highly doubt that 36th in the owner's points is the performance MWR was looking for.

Posted by silverdsl at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

July 13, 2008

Disappointing Night for Michael Waltrip at Chicagoland

David Reutimann finished 14th in yesterday's Cup race at Chicagoland but it was a dismal night for the other two Michael Waltrip Racing teams. Michael McDowell had a brush with the wall within the first few laps of the race that resulted in damage that led to a 43rd place finish, nine laps down, and Michael Waltrip had an ill-handling car and a loose splitter so he was only able to finish 36th, three laps down. However, all three cars remain in the top 35 in owner's points heading to the race at Indy, which is one of the biggest races of the season.

It had to have been difficult for not just the MWR teams, but all the teams to figure out a set-up for Saturday night's race. For one thing they had never raced at Chicago at night and never raced there in the COT. But what complicated things even more was that the conditions under which they practiced on Thursday and Friday weren't anything like the conditions under which they raced. So it was a complete guessing game - unfortunately the #55 team guessed wrong. From the sounds of it they made the changes that Michael thought they should in the last practice since that made the car feel the best to him but they hadn't even turned one lap - literally they were still on the parade laps - when Michael said that the car didn't feel right. I have to wonder whether there was an issue with the splitter from the start, but regardless the spin he took through the infield grass really ruined his night. It wasn't his fault either - Patrick Carpentier got loose in front of him and although Michael slowed up Jeff Burton who was right behind him couldn't get stopped in time and the contact sent Michael for a spin. The team had to spent every pit stop for the rest of the race making repairs to the splitter braces and trying to make sure it was on tight enough - at one point it even started dragging and throwing off sparks. Michael is probably lucky that his team was able to keep him in the race thanks to all the hard work they put into working on that splitter. Unfortunately all the time they had to take with the splitter probably took away from time they might have spent on making the car more competitive which is a shame because at one point he was turning some fast laps that were comparative with those of drivers in the top ten. But by that point Michael was already trapped several laps down.

Michael was extremely unhappy during the race. He took full blame for having the team set the car up in the wrong way so that probably kept him from getting quite as angry as he has in the past when he's had a bad car. However, he was no less frustrated. One thing that was bothering him was that he felt that Bobby Kennedy wasn't listening to him or wasn't acknowledging the things that Michael was saying over the radio about his car. This is the second race in a row in which there's been some communication problems between Michael and Bobby in which each doesn't seem to be hearing what the other is saying. Bobby often does acknowledge Michael with a "10-4, we'll get the car fixed up for you on the next stop" but I guess Michael wanted to hear more than that. Bobby said that one reason why he wasn't saying much was because they were figuring out their plan of action in relation to the splitter but even after Michael said that he wanted to hear more, there wasn't much more communication from Bobby. Michael can be very difficult and I think he has his issues when it comes to communication - even Ty Norris sounded annoyed with him on Saturday which is rare - but it's a two-way street. As crew chief, Bobby also has to be responsive to Michael and especially when there's issues like there was on Saturday.

There are fans wondering why David was able to finish in the top 15 but not Michael or McD and as per usual there are questions about why MWR can't make all three cars as competitive. But if you look at other organizations during any given race usually they don't have all their teams racing up front even though that's certainly the goal. Even though each team may come to the track with a similar set-up they will make adjustments to suit each individual driver and what works for one driver might not work for another. You look at Hendrick Motorsports where Dale Earnhardt, Jr. is up front in every race but the other three teams haven't performed as well as expected, or how Kyle Busch is winning race after race for Joe Gibbs Racing but his teammates haven't enjoyed the same kind of success. So it's not just MWR that has trouble getting all of their teams right, it's just magnified for them since their overall struggles are greater.

I'm starting to be a little concerned about Michael McDowell. There have been rumors recently that he's fallen out of favor at MWR and he apparently acknowledged on Sirius that although he's signed with MWR for the next three years there is some sort of performance clause. What's becoming increasingly clear to me is that as much talent as McD might have and as much potential as he might have, they probably put him in a Cup car too soon. Any number of people raved about how much talent he has and how he was going to surprise people and maybe even make a run at Rookie of the Year. Maybe the expectations should have been keep a wee bit more reasonable given the level of competition in Cup and McD's lack of experience not just in Cup but in Nascar overall. That McD didn't even do much at Sonoma, a track where Ty, Michael and McD himself predicted he would contend for the win reflects just how much out of his element he is right now. I really wish that it had been possible for MWR to either have him race the Nationwide Series for a full year before they promoted him to Cup or at least have him race most if not all of the Nationwide races at the same time he was racing Cup - the extra seat time would likely have helped him a lot. I just hope they have patience with him and don't give up on him without giving him time to gain experience and develop.

Over the past few weeks it seemed like the #55 team and MWR had been making some progress - I hope the struggles in yesterday's race doesn't derail that progress.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2008

Peter Sospenzo to Become Crew Chief For Michael McDowell

Rumors continue to swirl about the future of Michael Waltrip Racing and its drivers but one change was confirmed today - Peter Sospenzo will take over as crew chief for Michael McDowell and the #00 starting at Indy. The current crew chief for the #00, Bill Pappas will become head of engineering for MWR. Sospenzo, who has also been a crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports and Penske Racing, said,

"Walking into Michael Waltrip Racing for the first time [Tuesday] night, I was surprised by how beautiful the facility is and how efficient the operation has become and I am really looking forward to working here. When I heard there may be a change, I started talking to Dr. Eric Warren and Cal Wells. I worked with Ryan Pemberton at Ginn Racing and stayed in touch with him. It's going to be nice to work with him again and also work with Bobby Kennedy."

I guess because of all those rumors, particularly as it relates to MWR's financial stability, even those in the garage area are surprised when they find a nice looking facility that's professionally run. I'm glad that MWR is making this change. Pappas is obviously an intelligent person if he's going to become head of engineering for MWR, and I have no doubt that he's a hard worker but I was never crazy about him as crew chief given his lack of experience with stock cars and especially since he was going to be paired with Michael McDowell who had very little experience in Nascar himself. So I'm glad that MWR is bringing someone on-board to work with McD who has a lot more experience as a crew chief in Cup and is very familiar and comfortable with Nascar overall. I suspect McD will still struggle as it's a lot to expect him to race up front against drivers who are much more experience but hopefully Sospenzo will be able to help make the #00 more competitive and help McD develop into a solid Cup driver.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:35 PM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2008

Michael Waltrip Finishes Second at Loudon!!!

I am so excited and happy right now! Michael Waltrip raced his way from a 42nd place starting position to finish 2nd today in New Hampshire! Make no mistake - although strategy played a role in why Michael finished 2nd, it was also because he raced hard all day to be in a position where a call to stay out put him in 2nd when the race ended due to rain! Words can't even begin to describe how thrilled I am for Michael and his team. This is the third or fourth week in a row that they've had a good car but prior to this week the other pieces they need for success haven't been there. But this weekend everything fell into place in exactly the right way! Michael really did have a great car today and had the race gone back to green I have no doubt we would have seen a great battle between Michael and Kurt Busch for the win! Interestingly enough the last time Michael finished 2nd was in 2005 at Phoenix and the winner of that race was also Kurt. Had they finished racing this race maybe the outcome would have been different and it would have been Michael in Victory Lane!

There's no doubt that the team made a great call to stay out when other teams pitted during the caution for the Jamie McMurray/Dale Earnhardt, Jr. incident. However, to me a key moment that made everything that followed for the #55 team possible happened much earlier in the race. Around lap 80 or so Kevin Harvick was leading the race and as happens so often at this track he was catching the tail end of the field and lapping cars. Although Michael was racing fairly well in the top 25-30, he was still in danger of going a lap down. But he wasn't going to give up without a fight. Michael raced Kevin hard - and held him off for quite some time. I suspect Kevin, and probably more than a few fans, got pretty frustrated with Michael that he wouldn't pull over and let Kevin go by. But the reality is that Michael had as good of a car as Kevin did and at times he was even faster which is why Kevin had so much trouble passing him. In fact, what ended up happening is that the caution came out due to Dario Franchitti spinning on lap 86 and because Michael raced Kevin so hard he was able to stay on the lead lap. That was huge! Michael was never in danger of going a lap down for the rest of the race and that enabled him and his team to be in a position to make the call to stay out which paid off big time!!

Today's finish shows that anything is possible. Just because a team struggles one week doesn't mean that something magical can't happen the next week - it sure did for the #55 team this week! It also shows that Michael Waltrip Racing is very much capable of fielding competitive cars that can finish up front! Some are saying that this will be Michael's only good finish of the season but I wouldn't be so sure of that. I don't expect that they're suddenly going to be racing up front every week just because Michael got a top five this week but they have definitely made progress over the past three weeks or so which means that they can make even more progress as the season goes along. Contrary to what some believe Michael is a terrific driver who can race up front when he has a competitive car so if he has a car in other races as good as his car was today, I have no doubt we'll be seeing more of him racing up front! This is so good for MWR - it should show NAPA and other sponsors what Michael and his drivers can do!

Of course there are more than a few fans - and some in the media - who are downing Kurt's win and the fine finishes for Michael, J.J. Yeley and some others who finished up front because they used good pit strategy by staying out when others didn't to gain track position. However, that those teams used good strategy to finish as well as they did shouldn't make their accomplishment any less of something to celebrate. Like it or not, strategy is a part of the sport. Always has been and always will be. It's why racing isn't just an individual sport where the decisions that the driver makes on the track and the way they race are the only things that matter. That the crew chief makes good decisions on the pit box - like the call to stay out - and that the team does their job well on pit road is necessarily for success as well. These teams also had to have good cars to be able to have raced as well as they did on the lead lap to be in a position to stay out and finish up front. Kurt, Michael, J.J. and the others should be very happy with the way they and their teams performed today!

It wasn't quite as good of a day for Michael's teammates. David Reutimann raced well for most of the day - in fact he was ahead of Michael for much of the race including being in the top ten at one point. However, the pit strategy didn't work out quite as well for the #44 team as it did for the #55 team. In addition, David was the one who spun Dario to bring out the caution on lap 86. As it turned out that caution was very beneficial to Michael and luckily David escaped without any damage. Unfortunately it was a very bad day for Michael McDowell - he went a lap down early and then lost an engine. That really hurt him in the points but he's still hanging on in the top 35 in owner's points. Thankfully Sam Hornish, Jr. and Scott Riggs both had bad days as well. Scott wasn't able to race his way back into the top 35 and Sam wasn't able to gain any ground either. But it's absolutely essential that McD races well next weekend at Daytona.

Speaking of owner's points what's great about today's finish for Michael is that he moved up to 28th in owner's points. Things are still tight down to 36th or 37th but Michael put some room between himself and some of the other drivers since some of the others who he was racing against to stay in the top 35 had bad days. The best part is that next weekend is Daytona - that's a track where Michael is always a threat to win at and I think we'll definitely be seeing him race up front! A 2nd place finish this week, maybe a win next week? Call me a dreamer, say I have my rose-colored glasses on, but I definitely think it's possible!

Posted by silverdsl at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2008

Michael Waltrip and Michael McDowell Do Well at Sonoma... David Reutimann, Not So Much

Going into this weekend at Sonoma Michael Waltrip Racing had two cars in danger of slipping out of the top 35 in owner's points. But while many fans were predicting that doom and gloom for both Michael Waltrip and Michael McDowell, I had confidence that both would be able to race well enough to not only stay in the top 35 but make gains. I'm happy that's exactly what both did! The news wasn't as good for David Reutimann who struggled all weekend on the Cup side, though he finished 4th in the Nationwide race at Milwaukee. Overall, I'd have to say that this past weekend was a positive one for MWR since two out of their three cars raced well at Sonoma, all three cars are still in the top 35 in owner's points and David did so well in Milwaukee.

Michael has always been a good road course racer and he was able to hold his own this past weekend. I'd like to say he was able to race competitively but there wasn't all that much actual passing for anyone - it seemed like being able to make a pass and advance positions was a matter of luck. And Michael did have some luck in passing and ultimately ended up finishing 25th which is more or less around where he raced for a good portion of the race. He did lose some spots at the end of the race, but I think he was better off racing conservatively and letting a few cars get by rather than trying to fight hard to hold on to his position - that could have resulted in getting bumped out of the way which would not have been a good thing considering where he is in the owner's points. Finishing 25th allowed the #55 to move into 32nd in owner's points and a few more solid finishes will move the team up even higher. I was happy that Michael seemed calm on the radio and satisfied with his car - so many times this season he's been frustrated and miserable at having to race a poor car. Although it's sometimes more interesting when he has a lot to say over the radio, I'll definitely take the silence if it means that he has a decent car that he can race with! Even a pit road speeding penalty didn't doom him to a poor finish as might have happened in the past when his car wasn't very good - Michael simply re-grouped and eventually got the spots back he had lost due to the penalty.

The one area in which the #55 team (and maybe MWR as a whole) continues to need to work on is with fuel mileage. Seems like fuel mileage strategy has crossed them up a few times this season and it almost happened in this race as well. The caution flew on the lap that Michael was about to come in for a pit stop and there was concern that Michael was going to run out of fuel before the pits were opened and Michael could make it around the track to stop. What bothered me is that as he's done a time or two before in the recent past Bobby Kennedy totally lost his cool and started cursing about how they were "f**ked!" Much panic ensued as they thought that Michael had run out of gas and that they had to get the #44 or the #45 who was just behind Michael to push him to pit road until Michael told them that he wasn't actually out of gas he was deliberately coasting in an effort to save fuel. I understand that everyone is on edge given the top 35 situation and that there's a lot of pressure for the results to improve to increase the chances of the sponsors re-signing but the crew chief needs to stay calm and in control of the situation. He needs to know for sure if Michael's out of fuel before he starts freaking out and regardless of whether they have fuel or not he needs to be prepared. That the crew chief is so quick to wig out when there's a problem can't be a morale booster for the team, but at least it's better than Michael screaming and cursing all the time as was happening earlier in the season.

As for McD, his 21st place finish is a career best in Cup and I think it's something that he and his team should be very happy about considering how poor his finishes have been previously this season. But a 21st place finish is well short of the top five or win that McD, Ty Norris and Michael had been predicting for him. I was actually surprised that McD wasn't able to race more competitively considering how much experience he has at Infineon. I had thought he would qualify better but just like the rest of the MWR cars he started from the back and never really seemed to make much forward progress. In fact, for much of the race Michael, not McD as predicted, was the top MWR driver - it was only on the last lap that McD was able to get around Michael. What was interested was that Michael actually told Ty to warn McD about not running him over on the last re-start, and Ty said that he had already spoken with McD's spotter about it. I had heard that McD has a reputation for racing very aggressively and running people over so I guess there must be some truth to it. One would think that a driver wouldn't have to be reminded that punting his owner isn't a wise idea but better to remind him then have things turn into a mess because McD makes a mistake.

As well as the weekend went for Michael and McD at Infineon it was a complete disaster for David, who had never raced at the track before since he was taken out of his car last season for both road course races. I kind of suspected it might be a tough weekend for David given that he didn't race there last year but since he seems to adjust well to any kind of circumstances and he's finished fairly well on road courses in Nationwide, I was hoping that he might be okay. But things started out bad when he crashed his primary car in practice and had to go to a back-up and didn't improve any during the race. David started at the back and that's pretty much were he was all race long until he cut a tire and wrecked towards the end of the race. No driver wants to wreck but David was probably glad to be out of the car. His struggles this weekend may not bode well for how he's going to do at Watkins Glen. This weekend he was coached by road course expert Chris Cook, who I'd think will help him at Watkins Glen as well, but based on what was said during the broadcast about David lacking confidence he needs a change in mindset as well because going into it thinking he's not going to do well isn't going to be conducive to good results.

Next weekend the Cup Series heads to Loudon which is another track Michael seems to like going to so I think we should see a decent result for him, as well as David. Unfortunately I have a feeling McD won't be able to carry his momentum from this past weekend to New Hampshire and he could fall out of the top 35, but hopefully I'll be wrong.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:08 PM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2008

Twice the NAPA Goodness at Sonoma!

As a way of saying thank-you to NAPA Auto Parts (and I would guess to woo them to re-sign) there will be two Michael Waltrip Racing cars sporting a NAPA paint scheme this weekend at Sonoma. NAPA will be on the #55 as usual but also be on the #00 driven by Michael McDowell. This is a great move by Michael to put NAPA on the #00, the reason being that there's a good chance that McD will finish well this weekend. So since Michael is also an excellent road course racer, much better than many people realize, there's a chance that NAPA could get a lot of exposure this weekend which would be awesome!

I've seen more than a few fans say that Michael should have gotten a road course ringer for the #00 because of how close that car is to falling out of the top 35 in owner's points and that he's showing how bad of an owner he is by not doing so. Well, what these self-proclaimed experts don't know is that McD has enough road course experience to where he practically qualifies as a ringer! McD is very familiar with Sonoma having both raced and tested there frequently. So while he doesn't have any Cup experience at Sonoma he definitely knows the track well. I have a feeling that McD could end up opening some eyes this weekend about what he's capable of and why MWR put him in a Cup car this season despite how little experience he has in Nascar. I don't know if McD will still be in the top 35 at the end of the season but I don't think he's going to drop out this weekend.

That said, my one concern is that everyone from Ty Norris to McD himself have been talking in terms of poles and wins regarding the expectations for McD this weekend. While I think there's reason to be confident, I can't help but think of what Michael has said a few times this season about how one lesson he learned from last year was about the importance of under-promising and over-performing instead of over-promising and under-performing. The level of competition in the Cup Series is very high and there are a lot of drivers who excel at road course racing. I'd love to see McD contend for a pole or a win but I think it's a little more realistic to expect that he'll race competitively and might be able to finish in the top 15. So I guess I'm just a little worried that the pressure of trying to live up to the expectations that have been set for him could get to McD. He does seem to realize this though. Yesterday he did an interview on XM in which he talked about the need to be careful about how he raced and that he planned on being "aggressively cautious."

I'm really looking forward to the race this weekend. Some fans hate road course racing but I love it! I love that it's something different and a challenge for the drivers. I also like road course racing because Michael (Waltrip) is actually an excellent road course racer himself. One of my biggest disappointments last season was that he took himself out of the car for the road course races as I'm very confident in his abilities at those kinds of tracks. One of my favorite races is the 2004 race at this track when Michael started 40th and finished 4th - I really thought he had a chance to win that race and I loved how he battled some of the best road course racers in Cup up front in that race! If he's got a good car this weekend I have no doubt he's going to finish well this year too!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2008

Good Race for Michael Waltrip at Michigan!

I'm sure Michael Waltrip is somewhat disappointed in his finish at Michigan considering it seemed as if he was on his way to a top twenty or even a top fifteen. In addition, Michael has said in the past that being in the top 35 in owner's points isn't something that he thinks he should be congratulated on since the expectation should be that's where he and his teams should be. However, this fan can't help but be thrilled about most of what happened for Michael during yesterday's race!! Best of all, and perhaps most important is that Michael's back in the top 35. It might not be much but he's still in and that means he won't have to worry about qualifying next weekend at Sonoma. Michael is a very good road course racer but anything can happen during qualifying and especially on a road course so it's good that he won't have to worry about potentially missing the race if something goes wrong.

Someone said recently on Steve Park Central that seeing Steve race as well as he has made racing exciting for them in a way that it hasn't been for a long time. Racing for me has been plenty exciting even though Steve hasn't done much of it until recently and one of those exciting moments was yesterday. I was so excited, thrilled and happy with how well Michael was racing. Hearing them say over his radio that he was the second fastest car a couple of times during the race made me smile so big! I loved watching Michael make his way through the field! Even though the results haven't been too good for Michael in recent times I've never lost faith in his ability behind the wheel. When he has a good car I know that Michael can race up front with the best - if anyone has any doubt while he was racing in the top 15 Michael was racing his way past drivers like Tony Stewart, Kasey Kahne and others yesterday! It was really great as a fan to feel that excitement about the way the race was playing out!

Heading into Michigan I was pretty worried. Not only was Michael outside the top 35 in points meaning that he was going to have to qualify for the race on speed/time, but he even said himself on his XM show that Michigan was the kind of track that has been a struggle for all three Michael Waltrip Racing teams this season. So I was pretty nervous as to how things were going to turn out. But on Friday qualifying got rained out which mean that Michael was guaranteed to start the race, and as it turned out Michael had an outstanding car, maybe the most competitive car he's had to race in a long time - or at least it seemed that way. At times Michael was among the top five fastest cars on the track, he was able to actually race for position as opposed to just hanging on as he's had to do a lot this season, and he spent a considerable amount of the race in the top fifteen. Definitely a big change from other races where due to a ill-handling, slow and non-competitive car he's ended up laps down and racing at the back. It must have felt really good to Michael to be racing towards the front and have such a strong car!

Michael's crew also seemed to have a good day in the pits. At times his crew has seemed to struggle but yesterday they were definitely on their game and pulled off some fast stops that enabled Michael to get out of the pits without losing any positions. I don't think there have been major changes to Michael's pit crew so my guess is that seeing how competitive the car was really motivated them to have a strong day in the pits. It's not that the team doesn't always work hard but when the car is obviously bad it's got to be discouraging to the crew because they know that no matter how good the pit stop is the finish probably isn't going to be too good. So I was really happy that the crew showed what they can do when things are going right for the team.

What wasn't so great and was confusing to a lot of people was what happened towards the end of the race. Like many teams the #55 had a strategy in terms of fuel mileage. Bobby Kennedy decided that he would take a gamble and keep Michael out when others pitted towards the end of the race, presumably in the hope that he would gain positions as people pitted or ran out of gas for those teams that were gambling like the #55 did. Well, Bobby also had Michael back off and slow down so much that he lost a considerable amount of positions. So when cars were pitting they were all coming back out onto the track ahead of him. In addition, so many cars pitted for gas ahead of him there wasn't going to be much to be gained by staying out in terms of cars potentially running out. Bobby's strategy just didn't seem to make sense and some wondered why he didn't have Michael come in for gas once he saw so many others pitting. However, a late caution for a spin by Sam Hornish, Jr. negated all of that since everyone was able to come in to pit if they wanted. Bobby had Michael come in and he made a good call to have Michael take just gas as opposed to tires as they had originally planned. That got Michael out in 16th and had he finished that well he would have gained even more spots in the top 35.

But as per usual Michael once again he got bit by bad luck. On the last lap Martin Truex, Jr. got loose and apparently got into Michael which caused him to get into Patrick Carpentier, sending them both for a spin which is what caused Nascar to throw the caution which enabled Junior to win without running out of gas. Michael still finished 24th in spite of the wreck at the end, but it was a little disappointing since it had seemed like a sure thing at one point that he was going to finish in the top 15 or top 20 at one point.

The other disappointment for Michael was probably that his other two cars didn't finish very well. David Reutimann battled a tight and then a loose condition during the race so he was only able to finish 35th. Michael McDowell was never competitive and he finished 37th which dropped him to 35th in the owner's points. So now Michael has to worry about the top 35 status of two of his three cars. McD has a lot of road course experience so he may very well get a solid finish at Sonoma which would keep him in the top 35, but after that the results may go back to being not very impressive so I suspect he may fall out of the top 35. That's not because McD is lacking in talent, just that he's got so little experience in Cup and at some of these tracks that he's still learning what he's doing.

Still, it was a good day for Michael. It's a really good sign that he had a competitive car at this track. That tells me that MWR can get things figured out with the COT and can race competitively. I'm definitely not expecting that Michael's going to be racing up front in every race from here on out but I'm hoping this is a sign that things are starting to come together for him and his team and that we'll start seeing a lot more positive results on race weekends than we've seen so far!

Posted by silverdsl at 10:38 AM | Comments (0)

June 03, 2008

Champion Mortgage to Sponsor Michael McDowell for Ten Races

Starting this weekend at Pocono Champion Mortgage will be the primary sponsor for Michael McDowell and the #00 car at Michael Waltrip Racing for at least ten races. That's outstanding news for MWR and for McD! The best part is that the release says "a minimum of ten races" so there's a possibility that Champion could sponsor McD for more races, presumably depending on the results and the kind of exposure they get through their partnership with MWR and McD. Apparently Champion is a presence in the Northeast and would like to expand to other parts of the country so they're going to use their sponsorship of the #00 to help them do that. They'll surely have a lot of success - even the smallest of sponsors with the tiniest of decals on the least successful teams seems to get exposure and become known to fans. Sponsors who make the most of their associations with drivers and teams through promotions at the track and beyond can increase fan's awareness of their brand even more.

Champion definitely made a good choice in a driver to be associated with and hopefully McD will get them a good finish at Pocono!

Posted by silverdsl at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)

May 29, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip (5/29)

A few weeks ago Microsoft Small Business became an associate sponsor on the #00 and this weekend at Dover they're going to be the primary sponsor on the car. I've seen some photos of what the car is going to look like and it's a very colorful paint scheme that's going to be very eye-catching! Michael McDowell has to feel pretty good about himself that a company whose brand is internationally known wants to be on the hood of his car! Michael Waltrip Racing must be pretty proud about this too - as I've said previously it makes them look good to be associated with a sponsor like this one.

Microsoft Small Business isn't just stopping with sponsoring the car, they're also going to have the Microsoft Across America Mobile Event Experience Truck at the track so that fans can learn more about the services that Microsoft Small Business offers. McD is also going to make an appearance for them in the fanzone this weekend. Most sponsors have their drivers do appearances for them at least but it's good to see that Microsoft Small Business is going to take thing a step further and have a presence in the fanzone as well. That's an indication that they're at least somewhat committed to this sponsorship and that they want to find ways to maximize their involvement with MWR and the sport to market to fans - some sponsors seem to do virtually nothing with their sponsorships outside of being on the car.

Last week McD and Ty Norris, MWR's Vice President and General Manager, took part in a Q&A with the media in relation to the Microsoft announcement. Ty had some interesting comments on McD and other topics. I've seen some fans be down on McD because the results haven't been very good for him so far but Ty said that MWR is very happy with him so far. This is an excerpt from the Q&A:

Norris: ...We thought he was a 35-year-old veteran so when we met him and he just turned 22, and it was his first year in stock cars, so that’s what attracted us to him. We wanted him in our camp, and we wanted him right away. We wanted to have him and get him signed up with our company long term. The issue that came up was typically that you go from ARCA to truck racing or Nationwide racing. You might dabble a little in Sprint or Nextel cup. The problem we had was that the only seat we had available was a Sprint Cup car so it was a bit unfair to take Michael from all the success that he’d had and he has never been in a series where he hasn’t dominated in. To take him straight from ARCA to a Sprint Cup car without the ability to run any Nationwide or truck races. What people have to remember is that we made the giant leap from ARCA to Sprint Cup without any Nationwide races or truck races. Michael, how many tracks have you been to that you’ve actually seen before?

McDowell: Two. Martinsville and Texas.

Norris: He’s actually seen those places. Not only have we taken him into a company that is in its only its second year, we’re taking him to tracks he’s never even seen before except for on a simulator. And expecting him to outrun guys that have been in the series a long time and have a lot of experience. If you look at all the factors, I think he’s been one of the stories of the year and runs like he can run.

Ty is exactly right. It's ridiculous for fans to think that MWR should get rid of McD when he has next to no experience not only in Nascar but on most of the tracks that the Cup Series race on. Of course that's one reason why a lot of fans think he shouldn't have been given the ride in the first place but as Ty indicated the opening that MWR had was in the Cup Series. While McD has made some mistakes which is to be expected for any rookie, he's also shown that he can hold his own against drivers with significantly more experience than he has. Although the results haven't been impressive, McD has raced well enough to keep the car in the top 35 in owner's points which is no easy feat these days.

If MWR has enough patience with McD given the talent that he has he could develop into a very good Cup driver. Many fans wrote off David Ragan after his rookie struggles but he's shown this season with over a year of Cup racing under his belt he can race competitively up front. I'm not sure we'll see David in Victory Lane this season but I'm pretty sure we will see him win some races over the course of his Cup career. The same could be true for McD.

Ty also talked about the progression that MWR had made since last season as well as the effects that the current state of the economy has had on organization and others. In terms of their progression Ty spoke about how they're still a young organization as compared to some of the more successful teams that have been around for years and about how they've achieved some of their goals such as getting all three of their cars into the top 35 this season. He said,

"We’ve improved by enormous percentages that some people from the grandstands can’t see because they weren’t here when we started. They weren’t here when we had to go to Daytona in 2007. They weren’t here when we went to Dover in 2007 compared to where we are today."

For the most part the only thing that fans have to go on is what they see at the track or through the media. That doesn't give a complete picture about what's really going on with the different teams. Some fans only see that the MWR cars aren't racing up front and think the worst but in reality MWR is an organization that is still growing and moving forward. The ways in which they've changed and advanced over the past year aren't always visible to the fans but they are there. MWR isn't the same organization they were at this time last season and a year from now they won't be the same organization they are now.

Some of Ty's most interesting comments were in relation to how the economy and other factors are effecting their operations. He said,

"I think I’d be naïve to think it hasn’t affected us in some way shape or form. Dominos last year on some of their core products went up so high, that Dominos saw a decrease in their sales about four or five straight quarters, which is something they haven’t seen in years. It made them scale back in their marketing dollars so that effected us. The price of petroleum, oil, and gasoline. You have to remember we move about 75 people a week and just in one line item, not budgeted, our fuel costs have increased $400,000 this year. When you start talking a $400,000 unexpected increase in expense. And you have a decrease in revenue because some of the sponsors were not able to maintain the marketing dollars they spend, the gap starts to widen in the wrong direction. As far as being able to be in front of new sponsors and new opportunities to go forward, a lot of people are waiting to see what happens in the upcoming election. There are probably six or seven teams that are all searching and talking to the same companies. So it’s not just the economy but it also rests on the election that I think has made it a very difficult time to be in the marketplace."

First of all that's a confirmation that contrary to what some fans believe Domino's didn't leave MWR because of performance issues, they left because they no longer had the budget to sponsor the car because of a decrease in sales. That's probably true for more than a few other current or potential sponsors in the garage area, that they're rethinking how their marketing money is going to be spent which may not be a good thing for some teams other than those at MWR. Ty's comment about how much more fuel is costing them is chilling - where are the smaller teams (including those in other series), some of which don't have a lot of sponsorship getting the money to pay for the rise in the cost of gas? How much longer are some of them going to be able to absorb the rise in costs not only for fuel but for other things? Even for some of the larger organizations it can't be easy to find the extra money particularly considering some of them are even bigger than MWR and are probably spending even more on fuel.

It's also interesting that some companies might be waiting to see how the election plays out before they make some of their decisions. Considering the election isn't until November it seems to me that this leaves some teams in a precarious position because they can't really wait that long to find out whether they have a sponsorship or not for the following season.

Ty ended on a positive note by saying that he felt that things were going in the right direction in terms of performance and that MWR was capable of winning more than one race before the end of the season, and how that might help them in terms of sponsorship. He said,

"Ultimately we have to get to where our performance on the track is respectable and its definitely turning in that direction so that’s made us happy. We sat on the outside pole at the Daytona 500 with Michael Waltrip and I think when we go who may forget, and they’ll be reminded how good Michael McDowell is in a road course park. I think we’ll really open some eyes. This is a little bit bold but my gut feeling says that Michael Waltrip Racing can win two races before Daytona. I think we can go to Sonoma and run well enough. I know Michael can take a good racecar and running up front. And I think we’ll go to Daytona and have a shot at winning that race as we did before. That would just be incredible game changes for us. The economy might loosen up if we win a couple races."

I'm really looking forward to Sonoma. Michael (Waltrip) didn't race there last season and I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he can do this year. He's a very underrated road course racer and if the car is decent he'll be able to get a solid finish there. McD from all reports is an outstanding road course racer and I agree with Ty that he may very well surprise a few people at Sonoma. The only MWR driver I'm not too sure about is David - he didn't race either road course race in Cup last year so we'll see how Sonoma works out for him this season. I know that a lot of fans including some MWR fans will think I'm insane but I have to say that after seeing Michael race up front at Talladega, I very much believe that given the right circumstances and a good car he absolutely does have a shot at winning Daytona and Talladega too. I'd say a few wins would definitely change a lot of things for MWR and their drivers!

Posted by silverdsl at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (5/21)

Michael McDowell won't have a blank car this weekend at the Coca-Cola 600 - Aaron's has signed on to be the primary sponsor of the #00 for another race. It makes sense that Aaron's would want to sponsor the car for this race too since this race is one of the ones that gets the most attention all season. I suspect if the #00 doesn't have a sponsor for Indy, they'll be on the car for that race too since that's another opportunity for a lot of exposure. Unfortunately Aaron's probably doesn't have the budget to sponsor the #00 full-time especially since they're sponsoring David Reutimann in the #99 in the Nationwide Series but it's good to see them continue to sponsor McD for some races. McD has a lot of testing that he'll be doing over the next few weeks and hopefully that will pay off in good results during the races. Since he has a lot of road course experience, though in other series, I suspect he may surprise a few people with how he does at those tracks later in the season.

Yesterday Michael Waltrip did a taping of Michael Waltrip Out Loud, his XM show, in front of an audience of about 125 people at Raceworld. I dearly wish I was there for that! I love the XM show to begin with but I also hear that everyone was given a very delicious lunch from a local BBQ, and that overall it was a very fun time ! I really wish I lived closer to North Carolina so I could be in attendance for events like that!

Michael had McD and Josh Wise on the show as guests and I was happy to learn that it was said during the taping that Josh will be racing this weekend in Fitz Motorsports's #22 Nationwide car. Since Mike Bliss left the team and they lost sponsorship, the #22 has seemed to fall off in terms of performance but given how long it's been since Josh has been behind the wheel of a car for anything other than testing I'm just happy that he'll be racing! Michael Waltrip Racing had hoped to field a second Nationwide car for him this season but there was no sponsorship to make it possible which left Josh on the sidelines. MWR has tried to use him for testing and keep him involved as much as possible since I think he still fits into their long-term plans, but if he's going to continue to develop as a driver they really need to have him be racing. So I'm glad he'll be racing the #22.

It won't be the last time we see Josh in the Nationwide Series this season either. There's three weekends coming up where the Nationwide Series and Cup Series will be at different tracks, which makes for a lot of traveling for those drivers who are racing Cup full-time while also racing for the Championship in the Nationwide Series. David is one of those drivers and he said,

"There are three weekends in a row where the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series are at different tracks. The first weekend in June, Nationwide is at Nashville while Cup is at Pocono. The next week Nationwide is at Kentucky and Cup is at Michigan. The tough one is the third weekend when Cup is at Infineon while Nationwide is at Milwaukee."

Josh will practice and qualify the #99 for David those three weekends and presumably also be on standby in case there's any weather or other issues that prevent him from getting from the Cup track to where the Nationwide race is. I have to admit that as much as I adore David and would like to see him win the Nationwide championship this season, I wouldn't be so upset if Josh had to race the #99 in his place. It would be great to see what Josh could do in a competitive car!

Although I'm not optimistic about the quality of the racing we'll see at Charlotte this weekend in the Coca-Cola 600 based on what we saw in the All-Star Race, Michael has had good results at Charlotte so if his car is right he's very capable of racing up front. In the spring race in 2004 he finished 2nd and just last year in the fall race he finished 10th. Michael said he loves racing at Charlotte,

“All the drivers, including myself, love to go to Lowe’s Motor Speedway to race. It’s not only in our backyard, but mainly because it is a great track. It’s a fun track to drive. You can race from the bottom to the top. I can’t wait to see how the 600 plays out. There are some definite and different grooves you will see working in throughout the race.”

So hopefully we'll see a good result for Michael! Apparently he had a competitive car for the Sprint Shootout but they made a lot of changes that turned out to be the wrong ones so Michael feels that he and his team learned a lot that will help them this weekend. In addition, the #44 team was able to race competitively during the Shootout, and ultimately David finished 6th so the plan is for all three MWR cars to start practice with the same set-up that David had during the Shootout and then go from there. Hopefully that plan will work out for Michael and his teams - they really need some strong results to stay in the top 35 in owner's points.

Michael will also be making some appearances on Friday during the Speed Street festival in downtown Charlotte. First he will be a guest on a live airing of Trackside on Speed and then he'll be taking part in a Q&A session with Dale Jarrett and Jeff Burton at the Coca-Cola stage. The Speed Street festival is enormously popular with fans so I expect both of these appearances as well as those of all the other drivers to be very heavily attended.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

May 08, 2008

Office Depot to Michael Waltrip Racing?

Jayski has an "I heard" rumor today that says:

Office Depot to MWR? Hearing Office Depot, currently the sponsor for #99-Carl Edwards, is considering a move to Michael Waltrip Racing with driver #00-Michael McDowell. UPS has been rumored as a possible sponsor for Edwards and Roush Racing in 2009.(5-8-2008)

Of course given that there's no source that rumor could be completely false but frequently there's some grain of truth to the rumors that Jayski reports, so I would guess that at the very least Office Depot is looking around and one of the teams they're talking to is Michael Waltrip Racing. Getting a sponsor like Office Depot for the #00 would be wonderful news! Actually any news related to sponsorship for the #00, or the #44 for that matter, is great news! If Office Depot was interested in being the primary sponsor of the #00 for the full season that would be the best scenario but even a partial sponsorship or associate sponsorship would be good to because it would be more than what they have now.

Some fans seem shocked that Office Depot would consider leaving Carl Edwards and Roush-Fenway Racing for Michael McDowell and MWR but it's really not that outrageous. For one thing Roush is supposedly asking for $25 million or more from companies to sponsor the #99. That's a lot of money, particularly with the way the economy is right now, and I'd guess that it would cost a lot less to sponsor the #00. In addition, although Carl is a much more experienced driver who has won a lot, McD is a dynamic, media savvy, young driver with a great attitude just like Carl. Plus, McD has a lot of potential - he could very well develop into as good of a driver as Carl over time.

In addition, Office Depot would be able to associate themselves with Michael, who has a knack for getting his sponsors exposure. I'm quite sure that any sponsorship deal would involve incorporating Office Depot into Raceworld somehow and that's something that other teams can't offer. In addition, there may be other creative packages that MWR could put together for Office Depot. In fact, last week on "Michael Waltrip Out Loud" Michael talked about how MWR would work with sponsors to find a package that fit their budget in and met their marketing and sales goals. That kind of flexibility is essential these days with how hard it is to keep and find sponsors and especially for an organization like MWR where the on-track results haven't been that strong yet since they're still developing.

Some fans have expressed surprise that a major sponsor might be interested in McD over David Reutimann who is more experienced and thought to be a better driver than McD. Unfortunately for David in spite of his obvious talent behind the wheel there's some factors that work against him, his age for one. Sponsors often want to be associated with younger drivers and given that they're with Carl currently, that's likely true for Office Depot. In addition, as much as I can't stand bringing in the driver's appearance into anything because I think it should be irrelevant, a lot of people don't share my beliefs. The fact is that David's "beak" which is why he has the nickname "Beak" and his overall goofy look may not be as appealing to Office Depot as McD who is very attractive and polished looking. David really needs to be paired with a different kind of sponsor - like UPS who is sponsoring him currently - that is a better fit for a veteran driver.

Hope this happens for McD and MWR!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:06 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2008

Microsoft Small Business to Sponsor #00 at Michael Waltrip Racing

Starting this weekend at Talladega, Microsoft Small Business will become an associate sponsor of the #00 at Michael Waltrip Racing in 2008. If I understand correctly this sponsorship is a way for companies that participate in Microsoft's small business program to market and promote themselves using Michael McDowell, MWR and Michael Waltrip. This is the same sponsorship that was at BAM Racing before that team suspended operations and I would guess that they'll get a lot more exposure through their sponsorship of the #00 than they would have with the #49, particularly in light of how much attention McD has gotten since his spectacular wreck during qualifying in Texas. In addition, the companies who participate will be able to take contest winner to Raceworld, a facility that is a lot more impressive than anything BAM had to offer.

Michael (Waltrip) said,

“My race team has been blessed by partnerships with some of the most recognizable companies in the world and it makes me proud to represent a powerful international brand such as Microsoft. My team will deliver to the many Microsoft Small Business partners marketing assets that will help their businesses grow, which is ultimately the goal of this relationship.”

It's outstanding for Michael and MWR to be associated with a company like Microsoft which is known throughout the world! It could even encourage other companies to sponsor MWR since it sends a message if a prestigious company like Microsoft is willing to be involved with MWR that maybe it's worth it for other companies to become sponsors at MWR as well.

The other thing is that it's a creative kind of sponsorship. If I understand correctly small businesses pay a certain amount of money to get a marketing package that includes race tickets, a logo on the car and other things. That's the kind of sponsorship that I can see appealing to Michael since he thinks out of the box a lot. These days with how hard it is to find and keep sponsors I think teams need to think of different ways to generate sponsorships and also ways to sweeten sponsorships - being able to offer sponsors the use of Raceworld is certainly a nice perk that other organizations can't offer.

Even though it's not a primary sponsorship it's still great news that the #00 has some additional sponsorship and that it's for the entire season! Hopefully some other companies will decide that they want to sponsor McD or Aaron's who are sponsoring the car for a few races will decide to extend their sponsorship!

Posted by silverdsl at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2008

Decent Night for Michael Waltrip Racing at Phoenix

Although the results weren't as good as they might have liked, it was still a pretty good night for Michael Waltrip Racing at Phoenix. The best news was that David Reutimann was able to race his way back into the top 35 in owner's points which means that he won't have to worry about qualifying on time at Talladega, but I was also pleased with how the race went for Michael Waltrip as well. Even Michael McDowell did okay, though he apparently stalled the car on pit road which caused him to finish five laps down.

Almost every race since Daytona has been a tremendous struggle for the #55 team either because Michael has been unhappy with his car and unable to race with it or because they've had some sort of problem. However, last night Michael might have had his best car of the year since Daytona. Sure, he complained that it was loose and that his team wasn't doing much to help him out, but Michael finally had a car that he was able to race with, and race he did. Michael was able to race his way up to 21st, and while that isn't spectacular, that's definitely a lot better than other races this season when he's struggled to pass to the point where he's had trouble finishing 35th let alone in the top 25. Ultimately Michael had to pit late like a lot of others for gas and finished 25th, but I was still pretty happy with that result. I know Michael really wanted to finish better but given how much they've struggled this season racing up front may not happen as quickly as he'd like it to at a lot of tracks where many teams including his own are still figuring things out with the COT. This week Michael finishes in the top 25, maybe next race he's able to finish in the top 15 (or better considering it's Talladega which is a very good track for him). All they need to do is not get discouraged and keep building on what they learn each week.

What I also really liked last night is the communication over the radio. I'm usually positive about just about everything about Michael but one area that I've discussed in this space before where I think he could use some improvement is his communication with his team during races. Things improved somewhat when Paul Andrews was replaced with Bobby Kennedy as his crew chief but I think where they've gotten even better is with Ty Norris spotting. Michael's spotter had been Mark Green who he had seemed to work with fairly well but the last race that Mark spotted for him Michael seemed very frustrated. So I wasn't entirely surprised when Ty took over. Ty had spotted for Michael in the past and until hearing him the other week I had forgotten how good he is. I'm sure Mark is a good spotter but from a fan's perspective I really like Ty's style better. Some of the differences are subtle like Ty's voice which seems louder and clear (to my ears) than Mark's. Some are more obvious like the kind of information he gives Michael and the way he encourages him.

Someone brought up to me that it's a concern that Ty is taking on one more role at MWR when he already has so much to do but I'm hoping that Ty continues spotting for Michael because I really think he can help not just Michael but the entire team. His way of communicating is very good, not just with Michael but with Bobby Kennedy as well. I also think that Michael benefits from working with two people - Ty and Bobby - who aren't afraid to stand up to him and won't be intimidated by his strong personality or his outbursts. I suspect Michael probably has an easier time viewing Bobby and Ty as his equals than he might with Paul or others who have been his crew chief. There's also more trust there since he's known and worked with them both for a long time. So it's been really good to hear Ty over the radio and I hope that continues.

David finished 17th (or 18th depending on how Nascar sorts out the finish), his best finish since Daytona. That was good enough to get him back in the top 35 in owner's points something that's very important given all the talk about UPS possibly looking to leave for another organization. David is a terrific driver and with better luck and more competitive cars he could definitely race up front against the best regularly. I feel confident that we're going to see some good things from David in the near future. I'm very happy for him that he won't have to worry about qualifying at Talladega. It's nerve-wracking for every driver to have to deal with trying to qualify for races but David actually gets sick to his stomach he gets so nervous. I feel really good about what Talladega might bring for him (and all of MWR) now that he can focus on the race and not worry as much about qualifying.

Michael McDowell's finish wasn't very good but he brought the car home in one piece and wasn't involved in any problems on the track. That might not seem like much but for a rookie driver with so little Cup - or overall Nascar experience, it's a good thing when he can successfully finish races and not find trouble on the track. He did stall the car on pit road when he pitted for gas at the end of the race but there were a number of veteran drivers who did the same.

I know a lot of my fellow fans are disappointed and frustrated with the way this season has gone for Michael and MWR and I can understand why they feel that way since all of Michael's fans are anxious for him and his teams to race competitively and contend for wins sooner rather than later. But MWR is an organization that is still growing and learning in a very competitive sport. Positive results may not happen right away but they will happen - I just hope that Michael's fans and the sponsors have the patience to stick around to see it happen.

Posted by silverdsl at 08:41 PM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2008

Scary Qualifying Wreck for Michael McDowell

Qualifying for Sunday's Cup race at Texas was red flagged for 72 minutes this afternoon so repairs could be made to the SAFER barrier after Michael McDowell crashed just about head-on into the wall and then rolled his car at least nine or ten times before it finally came to a rest with pieces strewn everyone. Almost everyone watching was certain that McD was injured if not worse, but McD got out of the car under his own power, waved to the crowd and walked to the ambulance which took him to the in-field care center where amazingly he was found to be completely uninjured. I'm very happy that I had walked out of the room briefly and didn't see the wreck live when it happened. By the time I got back McD had already gotten out of the car so I knew he was okay. Truly a scary, scary wreck and it's a testament to the advances Nascar has made when it comes to the rules regarding safety that McDowell was able to walk away. Without the safer walls, the head and neck restraints, the advanced seats and probably also the COT, the outcome of McD's wreck could have been much worse.

Even McD wasn't quite sure why he wrecked but there was oil dry on the track after David Gilliland lost an engine during his qualifying run and it's possible that getting into that is part of what caused him to lose control. McD also felt like something was off with the car so it's possible there was a mechanical failure of some sort as well. Or maybe he just lost it. That happens to even the most veteran of drivers, though some fans tried to blame his inexperience in Cup for why the wreck was so spectacular and that it was an indication that Michael Waltrip made yet another mistake with one of his teams by putting a rookie behind the wheel. Nonsense. Mistakes are made by even the most experienced of drivers and in this case there's quite possibly other factors that played into why the wreck was so bad.

I can't imagine what it was like for Michael Waltrip, anyone at Michael Waltrip Racing or anyone who knows McD personally such as his wife to watch that wreck unfold and then wonder if he was okay or not. I know Michael has a lot of confidence in the safety of the COT and in the safer walls but despite how much safer the cars are than they were years ago this is still a risky sport, so Michael still had to be pretty scared for a couple of minutes wondering whether he lost on of his drivers. I'm so happy that wasn't the case! McD certainly had someone looking out for him today!

Although I'm sure McD would rather be noticed for finishing up front in races, he's made quite a splash in the two races he's been in Cup and there's certainly a lot more people who know his name - and that Aaron's is on his car - than two weeks ago. Hopefully he'll continue to make headlines for MWR, only it'll be about how great he races!

I'm just so glad that he walked away from today's wreck!

Posted by silverdsl at 08:10 PM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2008

More on Jeff Burton vs. Michael McDowell

I'm still bothered by Jeff Burton's comments after the race about Michael McDowell and how McD didn't move over for Jeff to let him by at the end of the race. I understand that Jeff had just gotten out of his car and his emotions were running high. I also understand that he was frustrated because he felt McD was in his way and preventing him from possibly catching Denny Hamlin for the win. But as Michael Waltrip, McD's car owner said tonight on This Week in Nascar, Jeff's comments were disappointing. I don't agree with his remarks but he has the right to his opinions. But was it really necessary to say them on TV? It seems to me if he thinks McD needs to be told a different way to race in that kind of a situation Jeff could speak with him privately where the advice might be better received rather than giving him a public tongue lashing.

I think Jeff and all the fans who are complaining about McD need to remember that this was his first Cup race ever - he's going to make mistakes and he can't be expected to react to things exactly like a veteran would. There's yellow tape on his back bumper for a reason. Maybe that's part of the problem though - maybe Jeff was taken aback by a rookie being such a handful for him to race against. Well, whether it's a veteran or a rookie racing isn't supposed to be easy. If Jeff really wants to get by, find a way by even if it means moving McD out of the way if Jeff thinks that's what needs to happen.

But the more I think about it the more I think McD had every right to be racing in that spot. For one thing it's not like McD was many laps down - he had just gone one lap down so he was racing the leader to potentially get back on the lead lap. Secondly he was trying to catch Travis Kvapil for 18th. Why is Jeff allowed to race hard to better his position but not McD? How about Travis who was also racing the leaders? Why doesn't anyone have a problem with him racing the leaders? If it's okay for a veteran than it should be okay for a rookie too. It's true that there is a protocol or etiquette which dictates moving over for the leaders but if a driver thinks that they are still racing for something like McD did, then I don't think they should have to move over so quickly.

In general I get a little irked with how often some feel that drivers should move over all the time. I definitely think that cars that are many laps down or that are slow should move over. But some seem to think that drivers shouldn't fight to stay on the lead lap, if they're already a lap down should just give up instead of trying not to lose another lap, shouldn't race for position if they aren't as much of a "name" as the driver they're racing against, etc... Then there's how in some situations teammates are expected to lay back for teammates such as when one is a Chase contender and the other isn't. If everyone was moving over for each other as much as some seem to want we might not even see any actual racing!

What really gets me is that fans will complain about how the racing is boring and how the drivers just ride around single file. Yet a lot of times when a driver races hard fans - and some drivers - don't like that either. It seems like someone is always unhappy with something.

McD was on XM this afternoon and he talked about how he felt like he was racing for position and that at the time he didn't do anything wrong but now in looking back he might do a few things differently. While I think McD and all the drivers should race each other with respect, I also hope he won't do things too differently. Drivers should be racing each other, not just moving aside for each other. It's really unfortunate that that lost in all this controversy is that McD raced in the top 20 for almost the entire race and that's extremely impressive for a rookie at Martinsville in his first Cup race ever.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)

March 30, 2008

Denny Hamlin Wins in Martinsville, Bad Day for MWR

Denny Hamlin must be thrilled to have won today considering Martinsville is his home track! There's probably a lot of fan who are very happy that a non-Hendrick car ended up in Victory Lane too. Personally I like Jeff Gordon so I was hoping that he'd win but I'm okay with Denny winning too. What gets me is that there are some Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans who are up in arms because Junior "only" finished 6th when at one point he looked like the driver to beat. If I understand correctly the issue is that some disagree with Tony Eury, Jr.'s decision to pit toward the end of the race. Apparently a set of tires were put on the car that weren't very good. It's ridiculous to be calling for Tony, Jr.'s head when Junior finished in the top ten for the fifth time in six races. Junior fans have no idea how good they have it. Tony, Jr. may not be perfect but no one is, and he's one of the better crew chiefs in the garage. I'd love for someone to make a rash decision and decide that Tony, Jr. is the wrong crew chief for Junior because then maybe he'd be reunited with Michael Waltrip - Tony, Jr. helped Michael race the best he ever has.

Speaking of Michael he was on his way to a top twenty finish until he got into Aric Armirola on a restart which ended up resulting in a cut tire and a tangle with the wall. That sent Michael to pit road for repairs under green, and in spite of how bad it was I suppose it could have been worse because at least he was able to continue. Not DNF'ing meant that because of attrition he was able to finish 35th and stick in the top 35 in owner's points - but not by much. It's going to be essential that the #55 team is on their game and finishes well next week in Texas. Michael was clearly more comfortable with Bobby Kennedy as his crew chief but the communication was still rocky and Michael even said so at one point. Even with Bobby Michael didn't always give a lot of feedback about the car - at one point all he said was that the car had issues, but Bobby seemed to know what changes might make the car more to Michael's liking. Generally Michael gets along well with Mark Green, his spotter but today he seemed very frustrated with Mark and told him at one point that he needed to get his head in the game. What really bothered me is that early on no one seemed to know who was talking to who - they need to be on the same page and not be confused like that. I feel bad for Michael because he blamed himself for their bad day, but at least he left Martinsville still in the top 35. Also, the car was pretty good so hopefully that's a good sign about the competitiveness of the cars moving forward.

It was a bad day for David Reutimann as well. Nascar not allowing Michael Waltrip Racing to swap points between the #00 and #44 really bit David in the butt. For a while it seemed like he was on his way to a top 20-25 finish but mechanical problems sent him to the garage and eventually caused him to DNF. That was deadly because David had zero margin for error. So now the #44 is outside the top 35 in owner's points and David will have to go back to qualifying on time again next weekend. I have every confidence that David can qualify for next weekend's race and finish well enough to get back into the top 35 in owner's points but it's really not a very good position to be in. UPS can't be happy either - finally it seemed like they were guaranteed to race each week only to have that slip away thanks to mechanical issues.

What was really surprising was that Michael McDowell in his first Cup race ever ended up being the highest finishing MWR driver. I was extremely impressed with McD! I wasn't sure how he'd fare at such a tough track but he ended up racing in the top 20 for the majority of the race until he got a flat tire with just a few laps to go. He ended up finishing 26th which has to be a disappointment considering he was in the top 15 at one point, but again, for his first Cup race ever isn't too shabby. After the race Jeff Burton was displeased because McD didn't move over for the leaders like Jeff thought he should have but it should be expected that a rookie in his first Cup start ever might make a mistake. The other thing is that I believe at that point McD had just gone a lap down - generally the protocol is that that a driver who is many laps down should move over for the leaders but when a driver is just a lap or two down they can race the leaders a little since there's no telling what might happen that could results in them getting a lap back. I understand Jeff's frustration at being held up and it probably would have been better if McD had just let them go by, but on the other hand Jeff just needed to make his way around McD like the other leaders did. Overall, I really liked what I saw from McD and if he races like this at other tracks he is going to be very successful for MWR.

In terms of the top 35, I feel for Dave Blaney - it looked like he was on his way to a solid top 10 or top 15 finish that might have gotten him back into the top 35 but mechanical gremlins - yet again - sent him to the garage. The further behind Dave gets the harder it's going to be for him to get back into the top 35.

Posted by silverdsl at 06:07 PM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip (3/28)

All the charges against Michael Waltrip stemming from his accident last April have been dropped "in the best interest of justice" after Michael spoke to several schools about driving safety. I'm not surprised that the charges were dropped. After the court date was delayed and delayed, I figured that they would work something out where he would just do community service, particularly since what he was actually charged with wasn't all that major in the grand scheme of things. Michael said,

"What I did was really beneficial for me... I look at it as just an opportunity to change one child’s life forever with their decision-making … is what makes me proud. I got a lot of positive feedback from it. I’m very thankful to turn something that was an unfortunate accident into something could be positive for many people for many years to come.”

I'm glad that he was able to take something positive from what was a very negative situation and that he got the opportunity to do something that could make a different in other people's lives. If just one young driver learns from the mistake that Michael made it would be a very good thing.

Michael Waltrip Racing's request to swap owner's points between the #00 and #44 in conjunction with David Reutimann switching from the #00 to the #44 has been denied. Nascar has decided that unless there's a merger they won't allow teams to swap owner's points during the season. That means that David and the #44 will have very little margin for error since they will be 34th in owner's points. Although I understood why MWR was looking to make the change, I wasn't crazy about the plan to swap points since both cars were in the top 35 in owner's points. That said, I agreed with Michael when he said that owners should be allowed to do what they want with their owner's points. After all, the owner puts together the team and hires the driver that earns the owner's points for each car. So why shouldn't they be able to switch them around between teams internally?

However, I can also understand why Nascar might have decided to not allow teams to move owner's points around since it could lead to some abuses of the system, particularly if teams swapped points between their teams multiple times. What this means is that Petty Enterprises won't be allowed to swap points between the #45 and #43 as they were considering to take advantage of Bobby LaBonte's champion's provisional, nor would Roush-Fenway Racing be allowed to do any points swapping if Jamie McMurray can't race his way back into the top 35. Nascar hasn't stopped the points swapping practice completely - as noted they'll allow it if it comes via a merger between two teams, and teams will also be allowed to swap owner's points between their teams during the off-season such as what Penske Racing did with the #2 and #77.

There was an excellent article on Michael McDowell in Nascar Scene last week. Michael (Waltrip) said of his driver,

“What we like about him is being humble and eager to learn, and wide-eyed and open and everything you hope a kid would be when he gets an opportunity like this. Out of all the thousands and thousands of kids who want this chance to be one of the 43 drivers, you should be very grateful. And he is, and that means a lot to me.”

One thing I keep hearing over and over about McD is what a great attitude he has. And I think having the right attitude is really important. Some teams may overlook attitude issues when a driver has an immense amount of talent, but I think for the majority of drivers all those things that Michael cited, being humble, willing to learn and being grateful, among other qualities are the things that make the difference when it comes to being successful and sticking around in this sport that chews up and spits out so many.

One thing in this article that I wasn't aware of is that McD's mother had passed away three years ago from cancer at age 45 - that's something that has a deep and lasting effect. As happy as he must be to be making his first Cup start, It must also be sad for him in some ways to be taking this step in his racing career and not have his mother there to see him do it.

So far with just the go-or-go-homers left to go Michael and David have qualified pretty well for Martinsville - 14th and 15th. Starting in the top 20 at this track would definitely be a good thing! Hopefully all three MWR cars will finish well on Sunday - it's a tricky track and it's easy to get swept up in someone else's mistake but hopefully things will go well for Michael and his teams!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2008

Aaron's To Sponsor the #00 Cup Car at MWR for Five More Races

One of the concerns for Michael Waltrip Racing fans this season has been what the sponsorship situation was going to be for the #00 Cup car after David Reutimann moved to the #44 since Aaron's was only scheduled to sponsor that car for the first five races of the season. However, the #00 won't be blank at Martinsville - Aaron's stepped up and decided to extend their sponsorship of the #00 for another five races, through Richmond. Ken Butler, President of Aaron's said,

“We are thrilled to continue to be on the #00 for the next five races and help introduce Michael McDowell to the Cup side. We are proud to be able to extend our involvement in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series with Michael Waltrip Racing and look forward to having McDowell in the Aaron’s Dream Machine especially at Talladega Superspeedway for our race, the Aaron’s 499. I have seen Michael race in the ARCA Series last year and was impressed with his driving. I think he will do well at this level and everyone at Aaron’s will be behind him 100 percent.”

I'm really happy that Aaron's decided to stay on the car for a few more races! Sure, it's not a full season sponsorship and I wouldn't be surprised if MWR gave them a deal to convince them to sponsor the car for additional races but some sponsorship money coming in is better than no money at all. The costs for fielding a competitive Cup car are immense and while MWR has said they can field the #00 for the full season regardless of whether there's sponsorship or not, I'd think it will make it much easier for them to give McD good cars if they have some additional financial resources.

Of course it's a complete unknown as to how McD is going to do in Cup. But I have a good feeling about him. His attitude is terrific and he seems willing to work hard. It's a big jump from ARCA to Cup but I have a feeling if anyone can handle it, McD can. That he's at least starting out at Martinsville with being locked in to the field because the #00 is in the top 35 in owner's points is going to be a big help to him. At least at first he won't have to deal with the pressure of trying to make races on time which is difficult for veterans to deal with, let alone a rookie who has never raced Cup before. Hopefully he'll be able to finish well enough at Martinsville and beyond to keep the #00 in the top 35. I'm going to keep my expectations reasonable though. As good as McD might be it's still quite a challenge to be a rookie in Cup and especially since he doesn't have a full season in the Nationwide or Truck Series under his belt. There may be torn up race cars and mistakes made but hopefully McD will develop into a solid driver who will eventually win a lot of races for MWR in the future.

One unknown at the moment in relation to McD getting into the #00 and David taking over the #44 is what the exact owner's points situation is going to be. On his XM show last week Michael indicated that MWR was going to ask Nascar to allow them to swap owner's points between the #00 and #44 so David could keep the owner's points that he earned while he was in the #00. I can understand why MWR is looking make that point swap since the #44 would then be 27th in owner's points instead of 34th which would give David a greater margin for error, and it's important to do everything possible to try to keep the fully sponsored cars in the top 35. However, I would have liked to have seen them let things play out for a week or two before making the points swap. What happens if the #55 falls out of the top 35? And now that the #00 has a sponsor for five more races is it really fair to Aaron's for their car to not be 27th in owner's points anymore? Hopefully everything will go as planned for MWR with all of this and all three of their cars will continue to be locked into races for the remainder of the season!

Posted by silverdsl at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2008

All Three MWR Teams in the Top 35!!!!

The results might not have been as good as they wanted, but today was an outstanding day for Michael Waltrip Racing! All three teams are in the top 35 in owner's points which means that they will all be locked in for the race at Martinsville and hopefully for the rest of the season! Whoo-hooo!!!! What an accomplishment for MWR, especially in comparison to last season when they didn't have any chance of being in the top 35 at this point in the season. I'm so happy for Michael and everyone at MWR!!! It's been a struggle this season but they're still so far ahead of where they were at this time last season!!!

This is so awesome for Michael! Finally he doesn't have to deal with the pressure and stress not only about worrying about qualifying for races himself, but he doesn't have to worry about it for his other two teams either! He should feel proud of what he and MWR accomplished today! After all that he's had to endure, Michael really deserved something going his way! So many fans were predicting that Michael would drop out of the top 35. Well, not only did he not drop out, he gained positions to give himself a little breathing room! Yay! Of course he's still not completely safe but I have a good feeling that Michael's going to be able to stick in the top 35 now that his team can concentrate more on the races than on qualifying.

When I think about it, the #55 team really did a terrific job of overcoming a lot of difficult challenges this weekend. For one thing Michael wrecked his primary car in practice on Friday. If not for qualifying being rained out it would have been a nail-biter as to whether he would have been able to make the race because he would have had to try to qualify with a back-up car that got no laps in practice. But things worked in the #55 team's favor and qualifying was rained out. I was pretty nervous because Michael was the slowest on the track during both practices yesterday and since he was starting at the rear of the field, I was afraid he would get trapped laps down early which would could prevent him from finishing well. But as it turned out the #55 was pretty good and thanks to staying out when no one else did they got a lot of track position which really helped them finish well even when a problem developed with the tires. It was hard to know exactly what the problem was but apparently an issue in the pits was causing a loose wheel(s) which made it very hard for Michael to race, let alone hold his position. But Michael and his team never gave up and they made some improvements to the car which enabled him to finish 23rd, his highest finish of the season. It's probably a little disappointing since he likely had a car better than that, but it was good enough to put him where he needs to be in owner's points!

David Reutimann and his team also did a good job of not giving up. The #00 was one of the fastest cars in practice but by race day it seemed like they had lost something. David was also hurt by a pit road penalty that caused him to lose an extra lap when he was already a lap down. However, David and his team kept at it and he ended up finishing 20th which puts the #00 23rd or 24th in owner's points. Of course at Martinsville David will be getting in the #44 which is lower in owner's points and there's some speculation that MWR might swap the points around so that David gets to keep what he earned. I think the only reason they were considering doing a points swap was if one of the fully sponsored cars dropped out of the top 35. David is a great driver and he should be able to get the #44 higher in owner's points.

It was Dale Jarrett's last race and I think everyone was hoping that he'd be able to finish up front but it was not to be. DJ struggled all day and ended up finishing 37th because a tire going down forced him to make an unscheduled pit stop. That dropped the #44 to 34th in owner's points but that team is still locked in for Martinsville so that's the most important thing right now.

I still can't stop smiling about all three teams being in the top 35!!! I was pretty nervous about this weekend but things turned out the way they needed to for MWR! I feel so good right now and I'm confident that MWR is going to keep heading in the right direction!

Posted by silverdsl at 05:53 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip (2/6)

Like every other driver Michael Waltrip will be in Daytona tomorrow for media day where the drivers are forced to perform like trained seals... I mean meet with every TV, print, radio and online journalist who covers motorsports, has to pose for countless photos and tape promos for Fox Sports and others. If I were a driver's PR person I would dread it because the PR people have to drag their charges to endless interviews and other obligations for hours on end which probably leaves the drivers very grumpy. I'm sure they get asked the same questions over and over again and the whole process seems very tiresome. Which is probably why the majority of photos from media day usually seem so bad - it's probably hard for the drivers to muster up a bright smile and show some personality when all they want to do is just get everything over with as quickly as possible.

But once media day is over the fun begins - it's time to go racing! At least for those drivers who will be participating in the Bud Shootout on Saturday which this year includes Michael Waltrip Racing's Dale Jarrett, a three-time winner of the event, and Michael himself thanks to his pole at Talladega last season. Although the Bud Shootout isn't a points race, it's a chance for drivers and teams to show a little of what they've got for their fellow competitors. Last year DJ pulled the pole position (drivers draw for where they'll line up for the Shootout) for the Shootout but dropped to the back very quickly. In fact, DJ was so slow that little old ladies were probably getting around the track faster than he was! That was an early sign that it was going to be a rough season for MWR. But I have a good feeling that things will be different this season. I'd love to see DJ or Michael win the Shootout, but I'd also be happy if both were just able to race competitively and finish well. That would start things off on a positive note which would be good for MWR.

Michael feels that it's important for MWR to show that they've made advances since last season and that the Shootout is the perfect opportunity to do that. He said,

"So now with everything that happened last year, I feel like we have a lot to prove by running in this year’s Budweiser Shootout. We think we have proved a little bit with testing at Daytona, Las Vegas and California. However, the truth will be told when in high definition on FOX with the NAPA and UPS Camrys in the race, and with my big-mouth brother calling the race, there will be no hiding. Darrell loves me and he loves what I am doing. But he’ll be the first to say, ‘Ooh, it looks a whole lot like last year’, if it doesn’t look good. I am determined it is going to look a whole lot better this year than it did last year. The Shootout will be a good indication of whether or not we have turned a corner at Michael Waltrip Racing.”

I'm very confident that MWR has turned a corner, but after how bad things went last year at Daytona, even though Michael is outwardly confident, he must be a bundle of nerves inside! But his determination to show not only his brother, but also all his critics and everyone else who has doubted him that they MWR can be a successful Cup operation, is hopefully going to translate into better results not just in the Shootout, but also all season. Unfortunately Michael probably is right that DW will be among the first to point out any of MWR's failings. As I've said before, while I have no doubt that Michael and DW are close and love each other very much, I'm sometimes troubled by the way DW seems to slip in little digs or criticisms of Michael even when he's saying something positive. Maybe DW thinks that if he doesn't that he'll be accused of not being objective, but I sometimes wonder just exactly what's behind some of what he says.

Unlike fans who have been sitting idle since last season, Michael has been working hard to ensure that MWR is a much improved organization in 2008. He said,

“I haven’t been waiting for the 2008 season to start. I just have been preparing for it. I haven’t been wishing for each day to pass by. I have been trying to make the next day better. I think everything happens for a reason. You just constantly dig and try to make tomorrow better. I am very proud of where I am today. I don’t focus on ‘what if?’ I did what I thought I needed to do. I am OK with everything that happened last year, especially if it allows us to be more successful in 2008. I believe we will be, so I have no regrets.”

Well, I'll be honest and say that I'm not okay with everything that happened last season - I could have done without the scandal at Daytona, his accident in April, the DNQ's and some of the other negative things that happened for Michael and MWR. It was a really tough season for us fans, so even though Michael has such an upbeat, positive and forward-looking attitude, I think last season still had to be very hard on him. But I'm really glad that it didn't keep him from giving 110% towards working towards this season. I like hearing that he tries to make each day better than the one that came before it and I'm also happy to hear that from the sounds of it he's accepted last season and moved on. He's also right in that all those problems last season likely taught them a few lessons that will pay dividends not just this season but far into the future as well.

Speaking of working towards the future, one of the ways that MWR strengthened themselves over the last few months is by adding more management personnel. Rob Kauffman came on-board as an owner and Cal Wells joined MWR as the Executive Vice President of Operations. Both of them are also members of MWR's board of directors which also includes Johnny Harris who is very involved in the real estate and sports industries in the Charlotte area, Mike Malone who recently retired from Bank of America, Phil Parsons who works the Truck broadcasts along side Michael, and of course Michael himself. With all these changes, and particularly after he gave up half ownership of MWR, I had been concerned that Michael was going to lose control of his own company. But after seeing the board and management structure, I feel much better. Michael is CEO, President and Co-Owner of MWR and he's also the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Since it's a five-person board, that means that as Chair, Michael has the final and deciding vote, and as CEO he remains in control of MWR. While having input from others is going to be a very good thing for MWR and Michael, I've always thought one reason Michael wanted to go this route of expanding MWR and fielding multiple Cup teams including one for himself was so that he could be in control and I'm glad that appears like it's going to continue. (One note on the board of directors page on the MWR site is that Eric Warren is listed with Ty Norris's title - based on other recently updated pages I believe that's an error and Ty remains as VP and General Manager and Eric Warren is still VP and Technical Director.)

Back to the competition side, Michael McDowell will be racing the #00 with Bobby Kennedy as his crew chief in the Nationwide race at Daytona. I think pairing McD with Bobby is a good idea and I kind of wish they were going to do that on the Cup side as well, though Bobby is probably needed to do other things among all three Cup teams rather than just focusing on one team. Bobby has a tremendous amount of experience and he's worked extremely well in the past with Michael and David Reutimann. Of racing at Daytona McD said,

“Daytona is the home of motorsports. It’s such a unique atmosphere that feels so intense. There’s so much media around it and an enormous amount of sponsors and fans attend each event. Things can happen so fast at a place like Daytona and it’s in my hands not to wreck the car and have a good run. You can be running well and all of the sudden get caught up in a wreck that ends your day. It’s all about paying attention and being there at the end.”

Luckily McD has some experience at Daytona since he's raced at this track in an ARCA race that he finished 10th in. He also seems to have a good sense of how easy it is to get into trouble when you least expect it at Daytona. First, McD will have to qualify into the race on time, but after that hopefully he'll have an incident free race and will not only be there at the end, but be up front somewhere - maybe pushing David to the win?

Even if there's no wins in the cards for MWR during Speedweeks, I'll still be happy if they have a good showing in the Shootout, if all three cars make the 500, if both cars make the Nationwide race and overall MWR has an uneventful and strong Speedweeks!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:04 PM | Comments (0)

February 05, 2008

Thoughts and Predictions - Toyota

Seems like everyone is making their predictions about what the 2008 season has in store for the various teams and drivers, so I figure I might as well get into the act too. I'll take a look at each manufacturer's Cup teams in a separate entry, then maybe do an entry for the Nationwide and Truck Series as well.

Michael Waltrip Racing- I figure I'll start with my personal favorite organization. I feel very optimistic that Michael is going to surprise some who have written him off as being done as a driver - in the races that he was able to qualify for last season he showed that he can still race up front at restrictor plate tracks, and is capable of solid finishes at other tracks. I believe Michael will contend for wins at the four restrictor plate tracks and his results overall will improve but it all depends on how competitive the cars are that MWR are fielding this season. David Reutimann will continue to be consistently good for MWR. He's shown he can race up front in every series he's raced in when he has a good car - we may see a lot of that this season from David, again depending on how good his cars are. There's no question in my mind that in the Nationwide Series David will once again contend for the Championship and will hopefully win it! Dale Jarrett and his team will likely be highly motivated to improve on their results from last season so that DJ retires on a high note but I'm not expecting a trip to Victory Lane before he steps out of the car. While everyone seems to think very highly of Michael McDowell's ability behind the wheel and there's no question he has talent, I'm a bit concerned about how things are going to work out for him in the #00 - it's a big jump from ARCA to Cup. Sponsorship has to be a concern as well - if MWR can't find a sponsor for the #00 how might that effect their ability to give McD a competitive car?

Of course I'm biased because I'm such a big fan of Michael's but overall I believe MWR is going to show a significant amount of improvement between last season and this. MWR has added a lot of good personnel on the competitive and management sides including Cal Wells and Dr. Eric Warren. Ryan Pemberton and Paul Andrews as crew chiefs for David Reutimann and Michael Waltrip respectively should be assets as well. While test results aren't really all that meaningful, it's still a positive sign that the MWR teams had more speed in pre-season testing this year than at the same tests last season - that's an indication that they've made progress that will hopefully translate into improved competitiveness on the track. Michael is very determined to show that he can be successful as an owner and I think this season he and MWR both will not only start to achieve that success but show that they have a long-term future in this sport.

Joe Gibbs Racing - As much as I'd like to see a MWR driver get Toyota their first Cup win, I suspect it's likely to come from a JGR driver and it probably won't take long. JGR is likely to be just as successful affiliated with Toyota as they were with Chevy - this is an established organization that knows what it takes to field competitive cars and their drivers are extremely talented. JGR will help the other Toyota organizations not only via information sharing and with the shocks project they're all working together on, but also because all the expectations and attention will be focused on them which should take some of the pressure off of the other teams.

Any of the JGR Cup drivers are capable of contending for wins on a weekly basis and with luck on their side all three could make the Chase. That is, if none of them trip themselves up. All three are among the most talented drivers in the garage area but both Tony Stewart and Kyle Busch are also among the most volatile, and Denny Hamlin has let his emotions get the best of him in the past as well. Tony can't seem to go more than a couple of months before he's ripping a fellow competitor - sometimes even a teammate, tangling with the media or angering Nascar. Questions about whether Tony is going to sign an extension to his contract with JGR could end up being a distraction as well.

Hall of Fame Racing - An association with JGR should help, as will that they are starting the season in the top 35 in owner's points, but HoF is still a one-car team with a driver whose results have been unimpressive in Cup so far. J.J. Yeley will have to race well consistently throughout the season. J.J. hasn't been in Cup for long so he may be still developing as a Cup driver, but I don't anticipate we'll be seeing him contend for wins too often. HoF will be fielding a second Cup car at selected races for Brad Coleman, who I suspect could turn into a more successful Cup driver than J.J. one day.

Red Bull Racing - Another organization that I think will show a lot of improvement over last season. While RBR hasn't seemed to have made as many changes as MWR has, they have added some key personnel and like MWR they had very positive tests last month. I think Brian Vickers could be another driver like Michael who shows significant improvement over last season, particularly when once considers in the races that he was able to qualify for he often raced in the top 10 or top 15. I'm not sure we'll see quite as much improvement from A.J. Allmendinger since he doesn't have as much experience as Brian does - racing every weekend would help him a lot but it remains to be seen as to whether he'll be able to qualify for every race this season. If A.J. doesn't improve over last season there could be a driver change at some point - RBR is backing Scott Speed in an ARCA car this season so he could be waiting in the wings to take over for A.J.

Bill Davis Racing - I think BDR's problems are often overlooked by the fact that they have so much success in the Truck Series and because Dave Blaney was Toyota's most successful Cup driver last season. As an established organization that isn't new to fielding Cup teams BDR should have been better than they were last season, even though it was Toyota's first season in Cup and there were issues to deal with in relation to that. There are major questions as to whether BDR will be able to field two cars for the whole season to the point where Jacques Villeneuve may have to pay the costs of his car out of his own pocket. Many are expecting a breakout season for Dave in 2008 but given BDR's struggles for a few years now I don't expect to see him racing up front as much as his fans would like. Though test results don't provide a true picture of how a team's season is going to go, it's not a good sign that they struggled to find speed at times during testing last month. That could be an especially big problem for JV since he will have to qualify for races on time. Although some liked what they saw from JV in the truck and Cup races he was in, I was unimpressed and I'm particularly concerned that it seemed as if he caused a few incidents in a truck race or two, likely because of his inexperience. If BDR can't give him competitive cars and he struggles his time in Cup could be a short-lived disaster.

Overall, Toyota should have a lot more success in the Cup Series than they did last year. I'm not convinced that they'll dominate the series like Chevy did last season which is what some fans seem to think is going to happen but I do think that adding JGR will help get them to Victory Lane pretty quickly.

Posted by silverdsl at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2008

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (1/30)

Testing at Las Vegas for the Cup teams concluded yesterday and I'm happy to say that things continued to look good for Michael Waltrip Racing, at least in comparison to where they were last year. David Reutimann was the fastest of the MWR cars, with enough speed to be 11th on the cumulative speed charts. Michael was 18th, Dale Jarrett 20th and Michael McDowell 28th. I'm sure that MWR would have have liked to have been as high on the speed charts as they were at Daytona, but they have to feel good about not being at the bottom of the speed charts like they were last year at this test. I haven't really heard much about how MWR thinks this test went for them - and most times teams will say they had a good test even if they didn't - but I think they should feel pretty good about where they are.

Unfortunately the test didn't go completely as Michael (Waltrip) might have wanted it to. With just a half hour left in the test, Michael wrecked one of his cars due to a mechanical failure. Had it been earlier in the test it might not have been a big deal because MWR could have swapped that car out for another one, but with the California test starting tomorrow, there's not enough time so Michael will head to the California test with just one car. He'll be in good company though since several other drivers also wrecked cars yesterday as well.

As noted, Michael McDowell tested a fourth car for MWR, the #32. I have to wonder if this means that McD will be entered into any of the first five races of the season in the #32 before he takes over the #00 at Martinsville. While I'm all for anything that gets him as much seat time as possible, I can't help be a bit concerned about MWR fielding another car during those first five races if that's something they're considering. It's going to be hard enough for all three of their primary cars to make all of those races and get in the top 35, let alone worrying about a fourth car. Michael said in Daytona that he wasn't really comfortable with inexperienced drivers like the open wheel drivers at Daytona so I tend to doubt that he would put McD in a car for the Daytona 500 - a rookie mistake could cause carnage that could damage the way fans and his fellow competitors view McD for a long time to come. But we'll see what happens with the other four races.

This past weekend McD raced in the Rolex 24 and his team did very well, finishing 15th for Spirit of Daytona Racing out of 66 teams which is very good. I'm not sure if McD will be taking part in Nationwide testing today at Las Vegas but he will be testing the #44 at California on Friday in place of DJ, who will only be testing California tomorrow due to a previous commitment. Hopefully the California test will go well for McD and all the MWR drivers!

Posted by silverdsl at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2008

It's Official: Michael McDowell to the #00

In early January word leaked to Nascar.com what many had already suspected that Michael McDowell would take over the #00 at Michael Waltrip Racing after the first five races when David Reutimann shifted to the #44 in place of Dale Jarrett. Last night as part of Nascar's media week, MWR had an event for 200 members of the media, at which it was officially announced that McDowell would indeed step into the #00 in March at Martinsville. That's a tricky track for any driver, let alone a young rookie with very little experience in any of Nascar's three highest levels. McDowell will race the Nationwide race at Daytona, and I would assume that MWR will look to put him behind the wheel either in actual races or at testing as much as possible from then until March to ensure he's as prepared as possible to take over the #00.

It's obvious McDowell has talent otherwise he wouldn't have done so well in ARCA last year, I'm just not sure if he's going to be able to have similar success in Cup with so little experience. However, those at MWR have a lot of confidence in him. As do others. Apparently one reason that Michael picked McD (McDowell's apparent nickname which I'll use to distinguish between the two Michaels) over Josh Wise is not only because he felt McD was more ready than Josh, but also because Boris Said vouched for him. Michael said,

"Boris said, `That kid gets it. He can go. No matter what he gets in, he's fast. Once I talked to Boris, and went to a couple of tests with Michael, to me it was a no-brainer. And there's never been that many of them."

I have to admit that part of me wishes they had put Boris himself behind the wheel of the #00 until McD got a little more experience. That would have given MWR a veteran driver who is good on restrictor plate track and outstanding on road courses. Boris is a bit of an unknown on other tracks, but so is McD. If McD knows how to fast that's big - Michael's said before that you can teach a young driver when to ease up but it's almost impossible to teach them how to go fast. I also like that Boris also said that McD is good on road courses - those kinds of tracks can be very challenging to even veteran drivers.

As for McD, last night he said,

"Michael said at a press conference last year that I was a candidate for the No. 00 Toyota Camry, but said that if I couldn't get the job done, somebody else would. I will never forget that. It pushes me even more to be prepared and I'm glad he said it. It's game time and there is no time to celebrate this opportunity. It's time to get serious."

I like the fact that McD realizes that he can be replaced if he doesn't get results and that it's giong to motivate him. The fact is that there's a lot of young drivers who would love a shot in Cup - including Josh - and some of them might have sponsorship to bring with them. I think it's too much to expect that McD is going to run up front every week as a rookie who has never raced in Cup before and has only a few Nationwide races under his belt. But as long as he can show improvement from week-to-week, not tear up too many race cars and hopefully race well enough to stick in the top 35 or qualify for races if he's outside the top 35 I think they'll keep him in the #00.

As I probably said in a previous entry about McD, while I'm very happy that MWR has found a talented young driver to work with, I'm the slightest bit disappointed that so far it doesn't seem like there's anything in the works for Josh. It just seems like ever since McD came along Josh is an afterthought which is unfortunate because I think he also has a lot of talent. I would hate to see his development be stalled or for MWR to lose him. So hopefully between now and the start of the season MWR can put something together for him like they did for McD.

Posted by silverdsl at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2008

A few Minor Changes...

I've added new categories on this blog for Josh Wise and Michael McDowell so if any fans of those two drivers happen to wander by here they can easily find entries related to both of Michael Waltrip Racing's development drivers who I suspect I will be blogging a lot about this season. Although I blog a lot about Nascar in general, the focus of my interest is often with Michael Waltrip, MWR, and Michael's drivers so many of those who find their way here may do so because they're searching for topics related to Michael and MWR. So I may as well make it easy for those people to find what they're looking for easily.

I may make some other adjustments to the featured categories, including removing the category for Elliott Sadler - I really like Elliott but I've not found inspired to blog much about him. I haven't decided yet though - if Elliott has a good season and there's a lot of news about him I might be more inclined to keep that category. I may add categories for those who might be interested in entries by series - Cup, Nationwide and Truck Series but I haven't decided about that yet either.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)

Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts

*More than a few fans - mostly disgruntled Robby Gordon fans naturally - keep saying that by canceling the Dakar Rally the organizers let the terrorists win. And to an extent I can see their point since it does seem like the organizers are caving to the threats that they received. However, if terrorists were to carry out their plans and disrupt the rally though sniper shootings, kidnappings, bombs and other mayhem, aren't they winning that way too? This was a lose-lose situation for the organizers in which they would be the subject of criticism no matter what they did. If they went forward and there was an incident, the same people who are saying that they shouldn't have "let the terrorists win" would probably be ripping the organizers for stubbornly ignoring the threats and carrying on as usual. I wonder if those who wanted Dakar to go on as planned in spite of the threats realize what an immense and likely impossible task it would be to ensure the safety of the competitors, teams, spectators and media members in some hostile and remote regions. It's not the same as a race taking place at a track or a game at a football stadium where the event is contained in one location. None of those who are so convinced that the organizers made the wrong decisions have presented any kind of plan as to how the rally could have gone the full route safely - they just wanted it to happen. If Dakar is to be held in 2009 or in the future, the organizers are going to have to come up with a way to protect those they are responsible for from terrorists or anyone seeking to do harm.

*Apparently Kirk Shelmerdine is going to be testing a fourth Cup car for Richard Childress Racing at Daytona this week. I have to admit to being a little surprised that Shelmerdine will be behind the wheel instead of Scott Wimmer who tested and raced for RCR last season. That might mean that Shelmerdine will attempt the Daytona 500 in an RCR car - he made the Daytona 500 in his own car in 2006 so it's not out of the question he might be able to qualify for it this season as well, particularly in good equipment like he would have from RCR. However, there will be quite a few good cars competing for only a few open spots so it won't be easy to make the field at Daytona - or at any other subsequent races.

*Gillett-Evernham Motorsports will also have an additional car at testing - the #98 which will be tested by Jason Keller. Odds are that if Evernham fields an additional car at some point next season it won't be for Keller, so he's probably just lending them a helping hand.

*Boris Said won the Third Annual Chevy Bodine Bobsled Challenge this weekend at Lake Placid. It's turned into a real neat event and this year it featured Nascar drivers competing against NHRA drivers. Although those who participate aren't the most well-known drivers in Nascar, each year they've raised a good chunk of money for the U.S. Bobsled team, and had some fun too. This isn't Said's first win at the Challenge - bobsled racing must run in his family considering his father Bob was a member of the U.S. Bobsled team in 1968 and 1972.

*Michael McDowell didn't confirm that he'll be the driver of the #00 for Michael Waltrip Racing after the first five races of the season - the official announcement will come later this month - but it sure sounds like the rumor that he's been selected to race that car is accurate. Apparently McDowell has been testing with Bill Pappas, who will be the crew chief for that team, and he's going through the process to get approval to race Cup. In addition, McDowell said that he'll be racing the Nationwide race at Daytona. I had thought that MWR planned on putting Josh Wise in a Nationwide car full-time next season, but unless they plan on fielding three Nationwide cars, something I think is unlikely, it sounds like Josh will be missing at least the opening Nationwide race. I really hope they still have plans for Josh.

*Jimmie Johnson said today that there will be changes to his crew next season because they felt that they could get faster on their pit stops with two new tire changers. In some ways it's an indication of how good the #48 team is that they don't rest on their laurels and are continually working to improve their team. However, those two tire changers helped Jimmie win a championship and that's the thanks they're going to get? In addition, there's no guarantee that the next tire changers will be any faster, plus there could be an adjustment period while the crew gets used to working with new people.

Posted by silverdsl at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2008

Michael McDowell to the #00

Sources have confirmed to Nascar.com that Michael McDowell will take over the #00 for Michael Waltrip Racing once David Reutimann switches to the #44 after the first five races this season. I can't say I'm surprised in the least. Although Michael Waltrip had said in the press conference at Charlotte last season when this first came up that MWR hadn't made a decision as to whether they would use McDowell, Josh Wise or some combination of the two in the #00, possibly with a veteran driver behind the wheel for some races, I felt like the decision had mostly been made to put McDowell behind the wheel, based on the way McDowell was being talked about in such complimentary terms. In some ways it's unfortunate for Wise who was a part of MWR's developmental program before McDowell, but on the other hand I don't think it's going to be a bad thing for Wise to race in the Nationwide Series for at least a season or more before making the jump to the Cup series.

There's no doubt in my mind that McDowell is a very talented driver who is capable of being successful in Cup - his results in the ARCA Series in 2007 in which he won four races, was rookie of the year and finished second in the points indicates that he can race. He also held his own in the three Nationwide races he was in. However, I think the jump from ARCA to the Cup Series is a pretty big one, particularly for a 22-year old. It's not just in relation to whether he can handle racing a Cup car - I think he can. It's also adjusting to significantly more pressure, obligations to sponsors, demands from fans, media attention and all the things that go along with being a Cup driver that aren't there for an ARCA driver. It's also a matter of adjusting to racing in a much more competitive series. I would have liked to have seen McDowell race at least one full season in the Nationwide Series, either at the same time he's racing Cup or prior to him being put in the Cup car. That's the problem with David Reutimann insisting on racing the Nationwide Series full-time again this season since it means that there isn't room for both MWR developmental drivers to race that series full-time unless MWR was to field three cars which is probably beyond what they're capable of right now.

Part of me wonders how successful MWR is going to be with three cars next season. While I think the overall performance for the MWR teams will improve over last season, will they really be able to get three cars into the top 35 in owner's points and have them stick there, particularly when one car is being raced by a rookie driver with zero Cup experience? It will be essential that Reutimann gets the #00 into the top 35 before handing it over to McDowell so that he won't have to deal with the pressure and stress of trying to make races on time. That's something that's very difficult for a veteran driver to deal with, let alone a 22-year old with very limited experience in Nascar. I also think it's going to be very important for MWR to have a good support system for McDowell. They'll need people around him all the time to help show him the ropes, help guide and mentor him, not just on the track but off-the-track as well.

The only question is what the sponsor for the #00 is going to be beyond those first few races when Aaron's will sponsor Reutimann. MWR has said that they would be able to field the #00 without sponsorship but I don't think that's a good idea. It takes a lot of money to field a competitive race car and this is an organization that had some financial issues last season to the point where they had to bring on an additional financial partner in the form of Rob Kauffman. So I hope between now and the start of the season a primary sponsor turns up for the #00.

As for Wise, I really hope they find the sponsorship to put him in a second Nationwide car. I met him over the summer at Pocono and I was extremely impressed with him. I think he's the complete package in terms of having talent behind the wheel but also having a lot of qualities that would appeal to sponsors, fans and the media, so if he continues to develop I think he could be a future star in Nascar in Cup. I'm actually not all that disappointed that he's going to be brought along more slowly - in the long-run that could help him be better once he does make the jump to Cup, which I think will likely happen when Michael Waltrip retires or opts not to race full-time in a few years. Wise is the type of driver who I think would make a very good replacement for Michael with NAPA, assuming NAPA re-signs with MWR beyond this season.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:33 PM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2007

New Crew Chief Lineup for Michael Waltrip Racing in 2008

Yesterday Michael Waltrip Racing announced their crew chief lineup for 2008. In a previous entry I had said how great it would be if Ryan Pemberton ended up at MWR, but that I thought he would likely go to a more established team - I'm very happy that I was wrong about that! Pemberton will be David Reutimann's crew chief next season, first when he's in the #00 for the first five races of the season, and then when he moves to the #44 team. Pemberton was most recently the crew chief of the #01 at Ginn Racing and DEI, where he worked with Joe Nemechek and Mark Martin. Previously he worked with Ernie Ervan and Jerry Nadeau. Michael Waltrip will also have a new crew chief - Paul Andrews, who Michael knows from when they were both at DEI at the same time. Andrews was Steve Park's crew chief at DEI for one of his wins and also worked Jeremy Mayfield, Jeff Burton and most recently with Bobby Labonte and Kyle Petty at Petty Enterprises. The crew chief of the third Cup team will be Bill Pappas, who doesn't have any Nascar crew chiefing experience, but has had considerable success as a chief engineer for Chip Ganassi Racing and Panther Racing among others in IRL and CART. He was the chief engineer for Juan Pablo Montoya when he won the Indy 500 in 2000. In the Nationwide Series, Jerry Baxter will remain as crew chief of the #99 car for David.

I'm really glad that Michael is getting a crew chief who has a lot of experience with other veteran drivers and at a lot of different organizations. Buddy Cisco was officially the crew chief last season once they settled on someone, but Bobby Kennedy was clearly callling the shots on race day. I think Bobby and Michael worked together extremely well but Bobby is probably needed in other areas at MWR. Paul has worked with a variety of different drivers with different personalities so he likely has the patience and ability to handle Michael's strong personality, plus he will hopefully be able to give Michael competitive cars so that he will be able to make races and get good results. Having one crew chief from the start of the season to the end of the season will give the #55 team the stability that they didn't always have last season and that should help both the team and Michael. While the results can't be considered good for Michael last season since he DNQ'd for so many races, he did get two top tens which is two more than he got in 2006 in 35 races for Bill Davis Racing and a pole, so based on what they were able to do in a limited amount of races, I expect to see Michael and his team have a solid season next year, especially with the addition of Paul.

Although I suspect that David is likely disappointed about Frank Kerr not continuing as his crew chief since they worked so well together this season, I think that Ryan will really help David in his sophomore season. David is an extremely talented driver but he didn't often get the change to show that in Cup in 2007. With a crew chief who has guided other drivers into Victory Lane I think we'll see David develop even further as a Cup driver and race up front more often in 2008 than he did this year. I think some fans are upset about David getting a new crew chief but when an organization has an opportunity to get a crew chief like Ryan who can help them improve, they need to take advantage of it. In addition, at the moment it's unknown as to what Frank will end up doing next season - it's possible MWR has another role for him or maybe he was offered an opportunity with a different organization that he felt he couldn't pass up. He's worked for Robby Gordon previously, for some reason I get the feeling he could end up there again at some point.

As for Bill Pappas, while there is no question that he has impressive credentials in other racing series, I wonder about the wisdom of using a crew chief with zero experience in Nascar for a team that will likely have a rookie driver (and maybe two rookies drivers) with limited experience in Nascar themselves. That seems like a huge risk for an organization that doesn't have much room for error. Obviously MWR must be impressed with Pappas and believe in his ability to help them succeed otherwise they wouldn't have hired him, but things could be rocky for a while as Pappas adjusts to working in Nascar. One thing that occurred to me is that since the driver for the #00 after the first five races of 2008 hasn't been announced yet that MWR could have changed their minds about putting Michael McDowell and/or Josh Wise behind the wheel. While I think we'll likely see McDowell in that car for many, if not all, of the races, I wonder whether MWR is considering an open wheel driver like so many other teams have and that's why they brought someone in with experience in those series.

Overall while I'm a little unsure as to how Pappas is going to work out, I'm pretty excited about this lineup of crew chiefs for MWR for next season. I think it's really going to help them build on the progress they made at the end of last season! I can't wait for Speedweeks in February!

Posted by silverdsl at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2007

Season in Review: Michael Waltrip Racing

To a lot of people 2007 was a complete failure and a disaster of a season for Michael Waltrip and Michael Waltrip Racing. In some ways it was with the Daytona mess, Michael's accident and the struggles to make races and be competitive. However, there were some accomplishments and high points to this season too which prevent this season from being a failure in my mind.

For one thing Michael took MWR from a Busch team in his backyard with a handful of employees, and turned it into a huge organization with hundreds of employees, multiple major sponsors, fielding three Cup teams, a Busch car (likely soon to be two), and until the truck was sold a truck team, all of which is housed in an incredible facility - Raceworld USA. I'm in awe of the way that Michael was able to grow MWR. Some are thinking but he didn't do it successfully, but he still did it, and this was only the first year of a journey as an owner that will probably continue for many years into the future. For all the problems on the track, there's one thing that did turn out the way Michael wanted it to - Raceworld. Not only is a destination for Michael's fans, but for all race fans, and attendance has been very good since it opened in May. Raceworld is something for Michael to be proud of. I think what he did with Raceworld is innovative and will revolutionize how race shops cater to fans who visit.

On the track there were a lot of disappointments, particularly on the Cup side, there's no denying that. Still, as the season went along there was definite progress, particularly with the #00 and #55 teams. David Reutimann works so incredibly well with the #00 team and the way they've gelled as a unit is definitely a success of the season. Michael was able to get MWR their first Cup pole at Talladega, which was also Toyota's first Cup pole with an engine they built - no small victory considering that the Toyota built engines seemed to often be lacking in power. Plus, although Michael only made 14 races this season, he got two top tens, two top 15's and a top 20. That's not too good for an established team, but to me that's not bad for a team in it's first year that's struggled so much. With the additions of engineering expertise from Dr. Eric Warren and additional financial resources from Rob Kauffman, plus everything else that MWR is doing to make themselves a stronger organization, I feel very confident that we'll be seeing much better results for MWR in Cup in 2008. That doesn't mean I think that they'll be winning races and racing up front all the time next season, but I do think that MWR showed signs that they're capable of fielding cars that can race competitively and I think we'll be seeing a lot more of that in the future. I don't think a win is out of question either - David is an extremely talented driver, and when he has a good car, which he had at Talladega, Michael is always a threat to win at restrictor plate tracks.

On the Busch side, David was awesome! Not only did he win his first Busch race, but also his first Busch pole. And he and the #99 team were in the hunt for the Championship. Finishing 2nd in points is probably a disappointment to the #99 team but I think it's outstanding considering it was David's first full-time Busch season and he was dealing with a lot of stress on the Cup side. I'm really looking forward to seeing David battle for the Busch championship next season as well. It's also great that MWR added some more young talent in 2007 - in addition to Josh Wise, who we'll hopefully see in a second Busch car next season, they signed Michael McDowell, who also appears to have a lot of talent. Both of them are the future of MWR and it's going to be exciting to watch them develop.

One area in which it's hard to find as many positives is with Dale Jarrett and the #44 team. I have no doubt that the team worked hard all season, but they didn't seem to make as much progress as the #00 and #55 teams did as the season went along. At times, particularly towards the end of the season they did have a lot more speed in qualifying than they did earlier in the season, but even when they made races they never seemed to be able to do much in the actual race, whereas at times David and Michael were able to race their way to decent finishes in a few of the races they made. Maybe it was just that the team dealt with a lot of bad luck in the form of getting swept up in wrecks or having mechanical failures but I didn't feel like this team showed as much as the other two did. One positive is that contrary to some of the rumors that were circulating UPS is staying at MWR, and they'll be gaining a fine driver to represent them instead of DJ in David. Perhaps another positive will end up being that DJ is retiring earlier than expected. DJ is a past Champion and an accomplished driver who has won 32 races over the course of his career but his heart doesn't seem to be in racing like it once was. So it might do this team some good to have another driver behind the wheel. The #44 team will turn into the #00 team, most likely with Michael McDowell at the wheel possibly sharing time with Josh, and/or a veteran. An infusion of youthful excitement might be exactly what this team needs.

What Michael had to deal with this year might have broken some others who aren't as strong as he is. Not only did he have to worry about qualifying in for races himself, but also whether David and DJ were going to make it in. But Michael kept showing up week after week, no matter what, even when he had replaced himself with Terry Labonte. Some others might have given up, taken themselves out of the car, and stopped coming to the track. That would have been the easy thing to do, just quit racing, quit trying and only be an owner. Everyone would have understood if he had taken that route. But he didn't. Even on weekends that he DNQ'd Michael was there for his teams, took care of his hospitality obligations, and almost always did some sort of appearance for the fans. When he was able to race Michael sometimes the finishes were poor, but when he had a decent car he made the most of it, which resulted in those two top tens. No matter how difficult things were, Michael continued to be outstanding as part of the team in the booth for the truck races - I love his enthusiasm for the series and those racing in it! Although his smile was strained some weeks, Michael also entertained fans on Inside Nextel Cup each week. But best of all as far as his media work goes is the XM show he started doing this season. I looked forward to listening to Michael Waltrip Out Loud each week. Whether that week's results were good or bad Michael never hesitated to be candid on his show about MWR and everything else that was going on in the sport.

I'm a long-time huge fan of Michael's because of his talent behind the wheel, because of how fascinating and intelligent he is, and because of what a great person he is, but I've come to be even more of a fan of his this season. I wish that I had even close to the amount of determination, perseverance and sheer force of will that he has. There were times when Michael got down this season - sometimes very down - but overall, he continued to be forward-thinking and optimistic about the future for himself and for MWR. He rarely complained or blamed others and instead tried to find ways to make the best of things. I've come to admire all the go-or-go-homers and their teams because of how hard they work to make the best of the situation that they're in, but I really admire Michael's "no quit" attitude (as Ty Norris once put it).

In August I got to spend a little time with Michael at Pocono and he was wonderful as always. I always treasure the times I see Michael because I don't know when - or if - I'll see Michael again. For me that was a definite highlight of the season - seeing Michael and getting to experience all the sights and sounds of the garage area. Maybe the most incredible race-related experience I ever had was watching Michael get strapped into his car on pit road prior to the race and then standing there as the command to "start your engines" rang out. Hearing all those engines start up from so close was so awesome and almost overwhelming I thought I was going to pass out! Even though I knew that Michael wasn't likely to finish up front, I was still unbelievably excited - Michael made the show and I was going to see him race! Due to a fuel pump issue he ended up finishing 38th but I didn't care - I just loved being there! All of Michael's fans appreciate how terrific he always is - he made the day, no year, of many fans this season by taking the time to interact with them. But a big highlight for the Walnutz was definitely when he talked about how much he appreciated our support in the Chex Most Popular Driver Newsletter.

All in all it was quite a season with a lot of ups and downs - okay, a lot of downs. But the slate is wiped clean now and it's on to 2008, a year that will hopefully be filled with a lot more happiness and positive things for Michael and his teams than this season!

Posted by silverdsl at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2007

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (10/31)

Rumors have been circulating for a couple of weeks that the #00 truck team, officially owned by Darrell Waltrip Motorsports, but in actuality appeared to fielded by Michael Waltrip Racing was going to be sold. I had hoped that this rumor would turn out not to be true because I love the Truck Series and I love that MWR had a team affiliated with them in that series. Unfortunately it turns out the rumor was in fact true - it was announced today that the #00 team has been sold to The Racer's Group. Andy Lally will take over as the driver immediately and will also race the #00 truck next season. I don't know what assets from Darrell Waltrip Motorsports The Racer's Group actually acquired, particularly since most of the personnel were probably employed by MWR, but at the very least instead of starting from scratch, they're getting a team that's in the top 30 in owner's points and is therefore guaranteed a spot to race, at least through the first five races of next season, and they're getting some trucks that have been competitive. David Reutimann was very successful in the #00 truck from 2004-2006, even winning at Nashville in 2005.

What really makes me sad about the sale of this truck team is that it means that it's much less likely that Michael will get to race a truck in the future, something he's said he'd like to do if the opportunity were to present itself since he likes truck racing so much. I would love to see Michael race a truck, but I think not having a truck available through his own organization makes that tough to make happen. It's actually kind of surprising with how much Michael appreciates truck racing that he would sell this team (okay, okay it's supposedly Darrell who sold it, but it's been assumed for quite some time that Michael really calls the shots with this team), but I suppose it eliminates conflict of interest issues in relation to him working in the TV booth for Speed for truck races while owning a team.

The other thing that bothers me a little is that MWR was using the #00 truck for driver development. While they plan on having a second Busch team next season they have three drivers in their driver development program, Ken Butler III, Josh Wise and Michael McDowell, all of whom have seen time in the #00 truck. How is MWR going to develop those drivers and get Wise and McDowell enough experience to where they might be able to take over the #00 Cup car if they're not racing regularly? Seems like they need more than just one Busch car to develop those drivers, but maybe they'll form some sort of partnership with another truck or Busch team to get them seat time.

Speaking of McDowell, he'll be in a second MWR Busch car this weekend at Texas, as well as at Phoenix and Homestead. What about Wise? Is he going to race at all for them for the remainder of the season? I hope he's not getting forgotten about in the excitement of them signing McDowell. Wise has so much talent, a great attitude, plus with his good looks and youth he seems like he would be a sponsor's dream in the mold of a Kasey Kahne. I think both he and McDowell could be very successful for MWR if they have the patience and ability to develop them both. Not much has been said recently about Ken Butler III, but given that his father owns Aaron's, a major MWR sponsor, I have to assume he's still in the mix somewhere.

This weekend Trucks, Busch and Cup will all be in Texas. I don't know what to expect in terms of performance from the MWR teams. I have to admit that Texas isn't one of my favorite tracks (nor is Phoenix). The MWR teams seem significantly improved from the way they were earlier this season, but given that they still have to qualify in on time, there still has to be some concern. I never imagined that David would DNQ last week at Atlanta, but he did and it's a good reminder that even though they've been better there's still more room for improvement. Ideally I'd like to see all three MWR cars in the Cup race, but at least David and Michael. I'd love to see all the MWR cars that race at Texas finish in the top 15 at least, but I'll take just a solid race without any major problems where they finish on the lead lap.

Posted by silverdsl at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2007

Random Nascar Thoughts

*Nascar refuses to say exactly how many cars were found to have had water in their fuel, instead saying that the number is more than 2 but less than 43. Well, I'd say that number is likely a lot closer to 43 than 2. The best known victims of whatever went wrong that led to water in the fuel is Denny Hamlin and Dave Blaney both of whom experienced significant problems as a result. But varying degrees of water was also found in all three Richard Childress Racing cars, Jimmie Johnson's car, at least one Petty Enterprises car according to Kyle Petty on Sirius, in Dale Jarrett's car according to Michael Waltrip on Inside Nextel Cup last night and possibly in Greg Biffle's car as well. I would guess that many other cars had some water in their fuel as well but we just haven't heard about it. In spite of the fact that how the water got into the fuel is still a complete mystery, Nascar is spending a lot of time trying to absolve Sunoco of any blame and dismiss sabotage. However, maybe they should consider all possibilities until they actually know what happened. Finding out exactly what happened to cause the water to get into the fuel should be a priority and once they know how it happened they should immediately take steps to ensure it doesn't happen again. Several teams had their race dramatically effected for the worse because of this issue and it shouldn't be something that teams have to worry about.

*There's been persistent rumors that Bill Davis is going to sell Bill Davis Racing to Jacques Villeneuve or his business manager Greg Pollack, and Davis has acknowledged that he's be open to selling at least part of BDR. I'd say that sale is likely to happen and sooner rather than later considering that Bill Davis Trucking has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Given that Davis likely funds BDR through his trucking company it's hard to imagine how he could field race teams himself - or at all - if Bill Davis Trucking is such dire straights financially. Getting burned by 360OTC can't help either since Davis was likely depending on funding from that deal to finance the second Cup car for a few years but he probably didn't receive much, if any, actual cash from them. I have to wonder what kinds of changes we'll see at BDR if Villeneuve or another owner were to take over. Mike Skinnner is likely safe, Johnny Benson too, but I have to wonder if a new owner might push to replace Dave Blaney who is very low-key with a flashier driver.

*Nascar needs to put an end to the Champion's provisional. It's getting out-of-control the way teams are concocting plans to use it to lock their cars into races. I don't blame the teams for using the rule to the advantage, I blame Nascar for not putting a stop to it by eliminating the Champion's provisional. The latest team to indicate that they might use the Champion's provisional to their advantage is Penske Racing who might transfer the points from the #2 that Kurt Busch has earned this season to the car that Sam Hornish, Jr. races next season which would lock Hornish into the first five races of the season. Busch would then be locked in by virtue of his Champion's provisional meaning that if he didn't race his way in on speed, which would likely happen, he would be locked in anyway by virtue of that provisional unless a more recent past champion needed to use it. I think it's ridiculous that Penske would put Busch in that position. Odds are he wouldn't need to use a provisional but it would be a little embarrassing if he needed to. What Penske needs to do is make sure that Hornish has enough experience and is really prepared to race Cup next season so qualifying for races won't be an issue. Given his lack of experience, not just in Cup but in Nascar overall, I have a feeling Hornish wouldn't be in the top 35 in points anyway after those first five races so qualifying could remain an issue for him even after that.

*Of course if the champion's provisional isn't available for Dale Jarrett to use next season, either because another driver like Busch has to use it, or because Nascar gets rid of it, DJ may regret agreeing to race the first five races of next season. I'd like to think that he'll be able to make all of those races on time but the #44 team has been Michael Waltrip Racing's weakest team so I don't think it's an automatic that they'll easily be able to qualify in for those races. It would be unfortunate if DJ DNQ'd for one of his last races before he retires but it wouldn't surprise me if circumstances lined up in such a way that it happened.

*In other Penske related news, many fans speculated that when Penske's current contract with Dodge ran out at the end of next season that they'd sign with Toyota. Not going to happen as Penske has signed a multi-year deal to remain with Dodge beyond next season. Funny how all those people who were "in-the-know" and so absolutely certain that Penske was going to sign with Toyota are completely quiet now.

*Apparently Michael Waltrip Racing is going to field a second Busch car this weekend for Michael McDowell. It'll be interesting to see how that works out. Not only will it be his Busch debut, but just his second race in one of Nascar's three highest series. He's a talented driver, I just hope they're not rushing him along a little too fast...

Posted by silverdsl at 03:27 PM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2007

Michael Waltrip Racing Announces New Partner; Dale Jarrett To Retire

What a day for Michael Waltrip Racing!! Lots of exciting news for sure! As rumored, Dale Jarrett will race just six races next season before turning the #44 - and the UPS sponsorship - over to David Reutimann. David, who has extended his contract with MWR for the next three years, will start the season in the #00 before getting into the #00. In addition, Michael announced that he was bringing on a partner, Rob Kauffman, a founder of Fortress Investment Group, who has acquired 50% ownership of the new company formed as a result, Michael Waltrip Racing Holdings, LLC.

I'm thrilled that David was not only re-signed, but re-signed for the next three years! He's an outstanding driver and person, and I've been so impressed with him, not only this season but also when he was in DW's truck as well. David has so much talent as a driver, and I have no doubt we'll be seeing David win some Cup races as soon as he has cars that are competitive enough to allow him to race up front regularly. I think David will end up being a good fit for UPS - it's clear they like David, and from the sounds of it, DJ thinks very highly of him too and played a major role in getting David into the #44. It's a little disappointing that David won't be able to continue racing the #00 since that number has so much family history for him, but UPS would like to remain with the #44. What's good is that David said yesterday that he'll apparently be keeping his crew chief, Frank Kerr, and his team - that's outstanding for David because he has such a great rapport with them and they seem to work extremely well together.

David will also race the #99 again full-time in the Nationwide Series because he wants the opportunity to race for a Championship again in that series. While I love to watch David race in the now-Busch series, and I think his chances of winning the Championship next season are pretty good, if there's one thing that I wish was different is that I would have rather seen David concentrate on Cup only next season, and that the #99 would be used for driver development. But I can't really complain too much about having more opportunities to see David race!

Although DJ is only going to be racing a handful of races next season he plans on remaining involved with the #44 team and UPS. DJ talked about how much he wanted to help MWR and the #44 team grow, but I have to wonder if the extent to which he's going to be involved next season is because he still has contractual obligations to UPS and MWR because of the deal he signed prior to the start of this season which was supposed to be a two-year deal for DJ to race full-time through the end of next season. What makes me think that is when it was said that DJ would fulfill all his hospitality obligations to UPS. I can see how UPS might want to get as much mileage about of DJ as possible before he retires completely considering how closely connected DJ and UPS have been the past seven years. UPS is really going to get the best of both worlds - a talented driver in David, and continue to have DJ represent them. As I've said previously in this space I've never warmed to DJ, and once he said that he didn't care one way or another whether he continued to race, nor was he very upset when he didn't make races, I thought it was definitely time for him to get out of the car. So I can't say I'm as heart-broken as a lot of fans that DJ's retiring. I appreciate all that DJ has done to help MWR get off the ground and I can recognize that DJ has accomplished a lot in the sport, but I just don't have the same fond feelings for him that others do.

I also practically jumped up and down for joy when it was confirmed as part of this announcement that Michael will continue to race the #55 full-time next season! Michael had said that was the plan a number of times recently, but the best laid plans have a funny way of changing. Some have said that surely NAPA wants Michael to step aside, but it's pretty clear that NAPA wants Michael to continue representing them and racing for them otherwise another driver would be in the car next season. Eventually I know the day will come when Michael steps out of the car for good just like DJ is doing, but Michael told Nascar Now he has no plans to retire and that he intends on continuing to race as long as he feels he can race competitively. If he has a good race car I know Michael can race up front and contend for wins so now that the MWR cars are getting more competitive, I hope that means that Michael will continue to race for a few more years, but I suppose that depends on how quickly the drivers in MWR's development program progress.

One thing that wasn't announced at the press conference was who the driver of the #00 would be when David moves to the #44. It was said that they would consider putting either Josh Wise or Michael McDowell in the #00, but that they're also considering other options. So the speculation about who might get that ride will continue. I imagine that a lot of it will depend on sponsorship - whether they find some and who that sponsor wants in the car, though based on Ty Norris's comments just now on XM it also depends on whether Josh and Michael will be ready by next April to race in Cup. I'm very happy to hear that it sounds like Michael McDowell has joined the MWR driver development program. Michael has spoken highly about him recently and he appears to have a lot of talent and potential, just like Josh. I think it's a little soon to put either of those two drivers in the #00 though, especially full-time. I'd rather see them race full-time or share a ride in the Truck or Nationwide Series so that they can get experience before move up to Cup. Maybe putting a veteran in the car who is willing to split time with the two young drivers, as well as mentor them, much like Mark Martin is doing at DEI would work. No, I don't think Steve Park is going to end up in this ride. Not when he hasn't raced Cup or worked much with a sponsor since 2003. Though I saw elsewhere that apparently Michael mentioned in one interview or another that Johnny Benson was being considered - I wish Steve had hooked up with a Toyota truck team at some point because that might led to other opportunities with other Toyota teams.

Contrary to what David Poole reported, Fortress Investment Group isn't buying into MWR. However, Rob Kauffman, a founder and managing director of Fortress is making a personal investment in MWR. That was made clear several times, that this is a personal investment by Kauffman. I think this is ultimately going to be a very good thing. Kauffman will be a huge asset on the financial and business side, which will allow Michael to focus on the motorsports side, an area that Kauffman has no experience with. Since Kauffman lives in Europe I suspect that Michael will remain in control of most of the day-to-day operations and much of what happens just as he always had. It's interesting that this partnership is going to result in a new company, Michael Waltrip Racing Holdings, LLC. For one thing Michael's name remains prominent, but additionally, I have to wonder as someone else on Michael's forum wondered about as well what that new company actually entails and what kinds of protections are in place for Michael to retain actual ownership of Michael Waltrip Racing and the teams.

What no one saw coming was that Cal Wells, formerly the owner of PPI Motorsports would come on board as Executive Vice President of Operations. MWR essentially merged with PPI prior to the start of this season when they not only purchased the owner's points from the #32, but also hired most of the #32's crew and some other personnel. It had been thought that this deal was mostly on paper, particularly since Cal was working with Robby Gordon Motorsports as a consultant for a while. However, a few months ago Michael made a comment on his XM show that Cal was still actively involved, and it's clear now that was very true. Some of Robby's fans have to be all twisted up inside that Cal was hired by Michael, not Robby given that Cal has known Robby since he was young. However, Cal had said in an XM interview that while he wanted to help Robby out as much as possible he could never go into a formal business arrangement with him because he felt it would damage their personal relationship due to Robby's control issues and overall attitude as owner. Robby's loss is definitely MWR's gain! It'll be humorous to see all the ways that Robby's fans, a large percentage of whom can't stand Michael, try to spin what was announced today as negative news that's a sign that MWR is on the verge of folding as many are trying to convince them is going to happen - I think not! In fact, if Robby doesn't look to make some of the same kinds of moves that Michael has - develop young drivers so he can expand and bring on outside partners, his organization might be the one in trouble.

Believe it or not, this morning, a few hours before this announcement was made I actually got to talk to Michael. Some friends were visiting Raceworld today and got to spend a little time with Michael. So one of them was kind enough to put Michael on the phone. It was a very brief conversation, in which he did most of the talking since I was too excited about hearing his voice to say much! I honestly can't even remember exactly what was said beyond him saying that he wished I was there and that he hoped to see me soon - no clue if it was explained to him who I was and that he actually knew that he was talking to someone who is a familiar face to him or whether he says stuff like that to fans who he talks to on the phone all the time. But even in that short conversation, he sounded so happy - he's always happy around his fans, but I think what he was announcing today was making him happy too. This season has been such a struggle for him, but the future looks really bright for MWR. It has to make him feel good that someone believes in him and his organization and their chances for success enough to invest so much in it. I'm really, really happy for Michael - after a very rough start, it appears that things are really starting to turn around for MWR - I'm very excited to see what next season has in store for Michael and his teams!

Posted by silverdsl at 12:22 PM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2007

In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (5/22)

I'm a bit behind in discussing David Hyder and Bobby Kennedy getting their suspensions lifted by Nascar, but I was hoping we might find out a little more information about what led to them being reinstated now, and whether anything more would be revealed about the Dayonta mess overall. But it appears that's not going to happen. I have to admit that I'm surprised that their suspensions didn't last longer. After all, an "indefinite suspension" seems to imply that it'll be for a considerable period of time if Nascar can't define how long it's going to last. In addition, the #55 team being found with an illegal substance in the engine of the car was a major offense. So I expected that we wouldn't see either Hyder or Kennedy allowed back at the track until much later in the season, if at all.

I'd like to think that Nascar allowed Hyder and Kennedy to be reinstated because they were given proof that neither one was involved in putting the substance into the #55 car, and that both Nascar and Michael Waltrip Racing knew exactly who was responsible. Michael's comment seems to indicate that the responsible parties might have been found.

"They told us what was found in the intake was obviously a substance that was put there on purpose to enhance performance, and it had to be done by someone inside our company or inside our circle. I don't want to single out Hyder. I do want to say that a couple of the guys who came with him are no longer employed by us."

That Michael specifically mentioned that they've parted ways with some of the people that Hyder brought to MWR seems to imply that possibly one of those people were responsible. But were they? Unfortunately, though I had hoped that we would find out for sure who was responsible in the hope that it would repair the damage done to Michael's reputation since so many believe he had knowledge of what was going on, I suspect it's very unlikely at this point that we're ever going to find out who really put the substance into the car. Nor are we likely to ever know any of the details about what exactly the substance was or what the thinking was behind why the substance was put into the car.

One thing that's interesting is that Michael made mention of how it had to have been done by someone inside MWR or associated with them. A number of Michael's fans believe that the substance got into the car due to sabatoge by another organization who wanted to tarnish Toyota's entry into the sport. I've always thought that was extremely unlikely due to how hard it would be for someone from outside the team to get the kind of access needed to put the substance in without being noticed, and it appears that's probably true. Which in some ways is unfortunate because it means that someone who Michael and others in his organization put their trust in betrayed them by putting this substance into the car even after they were specifically told not to do anything that would be a violation of Nascar's rules.

In happier news, although the MWR teams didn't do so great in the All-Star festivities, the results were much better in the Truck and ARCA series. On Friday night A.J. Allmendinger did an oustanding job of racing his way to a second place finish in the Truck Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, and on Saturday MWR development driver, Ken Butler III, racing for Eddie Sharp Racing, won his first-ever ARCA race, although it was under controversial circumstances.

I didn't get to watch the ARCA race so I'm not sure exactly how it unfolded but basically Butler bumped his teammate, Michael McDowell, out of the way for the win. McDowell, who ended up going for a spin in the incident, was furious after the race, while Butler of course denied doing it intentionally. The other person who was livid about the incident was Ken Schrader who finished second. Schrader said,

"There's no kinda about it - he ran over him to win. I'm real mad about the way that kid took the lead... I just hate to see races end that way. That is clearly not the way to win a race. It's just not right."

I agree with Schrader that spinning one's teammate isn't the way to win a race. However, some have said that Schrader was so angry that at the end of the race he bumped Butler with his own car, and used his post-race TV interview to rip him. Seems to me that's a huge over-reaction since Schrader wasn't directly involved in the incident and McDowell's not his teammate. Not to mention surely Schrader has seen drivers win like that in the past. I don't remember him being so angry when Brian Vickers wrecked Mike Bliss to win the All-Star Open last year, or when Juan Pablo Montoya wrecked his teammate to win the Busch race in Mexico City earlier this season. Schrader's reaction to this incident seems out of character from a driver who is usually careful to keep his emotions under control and say all the "right" things. Perhaps some bottled up emotion over being removed from the #21 car came to the surface, or there was something about the incident that touched a nerve for Schrader, but it seems to me that he'd be better off expressing his displeasure to Bulter privately. That way he might be able to talk to Butler about the proper way to race for a win, particularly when one's racing a teammate. Butler makes his Truck Series debut this weekend at Mansfield, a race that Schrader will also be in, and it'll be interesting to see if Schrader looks to teach him a lesson.

Posted by silverdsl at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)