January 14, 2009
Michael Waltrip, Scott Speed to Split Time in Michael Waltrip Racing's #99 Car
Today Michael Waltrip Racing announced that they would field four full-time teams in 2009, three Cup cars and one Nationwide car. As has been previously announced the Cup lineup will be Michael Waltrip in the #55 with sponsorship from NAPA Auto Parts, David Reutimann in the #00 and Marcos Ambrose in the #47 with a variety of sponsors via the alliance with JTG-Daugherty Racing. Although there had been an announcement a number of months ago that David would return to the #99 Nationwide car for a handful of races it appears that won't be happening. Instead, Michael and Red Bull Racing's Scott Speed will split the schedule. There's been some video and photos posted on the MWR Facebook page that relates to the Aaron's sponsorship for the #99, but apparently Best Western will also be sponsoring Michael for some races as well. Of course Red Bull will be on the car when Scott is behind the wheel.
I have to admit that I have mixed emotions after reading today's announcement. While I'm thrilled that Michael will apparently be racing more Nationwide races than previously thought, I'm not so happy that it appears that Josh Wise not only won't be in the #99 for any races as originally planned but since he's not mentioned, may not race for MWR at all in 2009. I understand completely why that might be since there probably isn't any sponsorship to put him in the #99 or another car. However, as a fan of Josh's who had high hopes that he would not only develop into a very successful and winning driver, but do that at MWR, it's disappointing that he doesn't appear to be part of their plans right now. It also concerns me because it's important for MWR to develop young talent for the future and at least for the moment it seems like a lack of sponsorship dollars is going to prevent that from happening. Of course MWR isn't the only team who will be scaling back on driver development this season and I don't think that's a good trend.
The other thing that's a concern is that MWR still hasn't found sponsorship for the remaining half season for David and the #00 car. While Michael said today that MWR will still field the car on a full-time basis in spite of there not being a sponsor for every race, that could present a problem since MWR will have to pay to field the car out of their own pocket. I suppose that they're still better off than some since there are teams that don't have any sponsors let alone a sponsor willing to cover half a season. Apparently the remaining races will be offered to potential sponsors at a discounted rate so hopefully that will appeal to some companies even if they only sign on for a few races. David is a very talented driver who showed last season that he can race up front and contend for wins. He's an overall great person and very fan-friendly. So David can get sponsors the exposure they're looking for. Problem is that it seems like sponsorship dollars are so scarce that even if a company might be interested they might not have the money for it even at a reduced rate.
Putting my concerns aside, I am definitely thrilled that Michael will be racing a lot of Nationwide races this season! He's won in the #99 before and I would love to see him take it to Victory Lane again! Although the #55 team has made a lot of progress since 2007, they still have a ways to go before they're racing up front on a regular basis, but in the past Michael has usually raced competitively when he's been in the #99. So it'll be good for him to race that car and race competitively as the #55 team continues to develop. I'm really excited for Daytona - a great truck race on Friday that Michael will hopefully be in the booth for, and then Michael racing in both the Nationwide and Cup race! Maybe somehow, someway, Michael will end up in Victory Lane that weekend - he certainly knows how to win at Daytona! How awesome would that be?!
Posted by silverdsl at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2008
Red Bull Racing Announces 2009 Lineup; Scott Speed to Race Part-Time in Nationwide for Michael Waltrip Racing
Red Bull Racing announced their lineup for 2009 this morning, and there wasn't many surprises other than what Scott Speed's Nationwide plans are since it involves Michael Waltrip Racing. On the Cup level, Brian Vickers will race the #84 with Ryan Pemberton as his crew chief and Speed will race the #82 with Jimmy Elledge as his crew chief. Jay Frye, RBR's general manager and vice president said,
"Brian and Ryan are each at a point in their respective careers where they can bring home wins and make a run for the championship. Scott earned his Sprint Cup ride by exceeding our expectations in ARCA and trucks. He has a great asset in Jimmy, who has experience working with both rookies and open-wheel drivers."
Pemberton's addition to RBR will make them a stronger organization, no question, so I would expect Vickers to be even better in 2009 than he was next season. I don't expect much from Speed next season as he adjusts to Cup - no matter how well a driver does in Nationwide or Trucks the level of competition in Cup is so great that even the most talented of drivers may struggle some - but he should benefit from continuing to work with Elledge.
There was a bit of a surprise in the announcement that involved MWR - Speed will race part-time for MWR in the #99 car. According to what Slugger Labbe said this morning on Sirius, Speed will be in the car for twelve races. I would assume that RBR will be handing over some money to MWR to make that happen since MWR didn't have sponsorship for the #99 beyond the ten races that Aaron's was going to sponsor Michael Waltrip and David Reutimann for.
In some ways I'm not all that surprised that Scott is going to end up in an MWR car since Michael has spoken highly of him in the past. I like Scott since he's a unique personality just like Michael - maybe even more so since Scott seems to do things his way even if that's not the Nascar-way even more than Michael. However as much as I like Scott I'm not jumping up and down about the news that he's going to race the #99 because I have to wonder what this means for Josh Wise since the plan had originally been for him to race the #99 in the races that David and Michael weren't behind the wheel for. There will still be some races left in the #99 for Josh or another driver but it seems to me if Josh is going to continue to develop he needs to race full-time in the Nationwide Series next season. Unfortunately, a lack of sponsorship may prevent that from happening. If MWR doesn't have a sponsor for him for the #99 or for a second car, I have to think that he might be with another organization next season since MWR wouldn't even be able to use him as their test driver as they did last season.
It would be a pretty big loss for MWR if Josh were to leave. I think he's an extremely talented driver who has shown he's capable of good results even though he's only raced a limited amount of Nationwide races. He could end up being a future star in Nascar and I was hoping that was going to happen at MWR and that he might take over the NAPA sponsorship from Michael in a few years when he was ready to retire from racing Cup full-time. However, if there's no sponsorship for Josh, MWR has no choice but to let him go since the poor economy means that there's almost no way that MWR or any other team is going to be able to field a car or truck out without sponsorship. I was so impressed with Josh when I met him a couple of years ago and I was so happy that he was with MWR, but I'll continue to be a fan of his no matter what team he races for.
Really difficult times for all the teams and all who are involved in the sport right now. RBR and all those who are employed there are very lucky that the owner is also the sponsor and that there still seems to be a pretty steady flow of money from Red Bull for their Nascar operation.
Posted by silverdsl at 10:04 AM | Comments (2)
October 10, 2008
Michael Waltrip Racing Day on "Tradin' Paint" on Sirius (10/7): Josh Wise, Paul Wolfe and Jerry Baxter
Last in my installment of entries about "Tradin' Paint" on Sirius's live broadcast from Michael Waltrip Racing on Tuesday is about MWR's Nationwide program. Chocolate Myers and Steve Post spoke to development driver Josh Wise who races for MWR in the Nationwide Series; Paul Wolfe, Josh's crew chief; and Jerry Baxter, a long-time MWR employee who is David Reutimann's crew chief on the #99.
Josh was up first. He started the year testing for MWR (since there was no sponsorship for a second Nationwide car for him), then got the call from Armando Fitz and he's raced for Fitz Motorsports until now, and most recently he's been in a second MWR Nationwide car. He'll race that car this weekend at Lowe's and then in three more Nationwide races to finish out the season. Growing up he worked on his own cars so he's very impressed with the way things are at MWR where there's an assembly line of people who were on the cars as opposed to just one person doing everything. Because he worked on his own cars he has respect and understanding of how much hard work and money it takes so he tries hard not to tear stuff up. I've always liked Josh's attitude and that's one example of why. Not that other young drivers or those who haven't worked on their own cars also don't try to tear things up but I like that Josh is aware and respectful of the hard work that those in the shop put in on the cars.
Someone at MWR came up to Josh recently and said that it was his worst year of racing he's ever had because Josh is used to winning 8-10 races a season. One year he even won 18 races! But this year he's only raced 13 times. Josh said it's such a team sport and so competitive. The greatest driver could come and go and you might never know if they aren't with the right team. So true - driver talent most definitely plays a role but the competitiveness of the cars that a driver is given to race matters too, particularly in Nascar's three highest levels where the talent level of all the drivers is so high. For Josh he never had a lot of money so it was all about how much he wanted it and how many hours he wanted to spend in the garage. He said that they're making a lot of the right steps at MWR and it's exciting to be a part of it.
As far as next season goes, they have to find a sponsor for him so he can race in the Nationwide Series. Jerry Baxter said in his interview that they planned on racing the #99 for the manufacturer's and owner's championship next season and since Michael and David are only slated to race it for ten races I have to think that Josh will be racing it for the remaining races whether there's sponsorship or not unless they decide not to field a Nationwide car full-time. At least I hope that's what the plan is. Josh said that it puts a big smile on his face to see his car and be a part of it all. He hopes to be a part of everything at MWR as long as they'll have him. Josh is a definite favorite of mine and I want to see him race a lot more next season! I think he has a bright future and I really hope he races for MWR for a long time!
Josh ended the interview by saying that he has a new website which can be found at www.joshwiseracing.com.
Paul Wolfe was interviewed next and he said he's having a lot of fun working with Josh. Even though Josh doesn't have a lot of experience he's really into what he's doing and gives a lot of good feedback - I would have to think that's pretty important that a young driver learns how to give good feedback and communicate well with their crew chief right from the start. Right now they're going to places that Josh has never raced before and it's challenging but he works hard. It's hard to work with a rookie but it makes him feel good when he's able to get Josh racing up front.
He's only been working with Josh for five races. They're able to lean on the #99 and the other Toyota teams st see where they're at. Josh looks to David a lot and David's helped them out a lot. It helps to have a teammate when they get down on themselves. I would think that Josh and David probably work together well because even though Josh hasn't raced all that much this season he's been around the MWR shop and done a lot of testing so he and David have probably spent time together and gotten to know each other.
In 1996 Paul moved down to North Carolina from New York to be a driver and he thinks he didn't really get a fair shake to prove what he could do. But his experience as a driver is something he thinks helps him understand what Josh is going through and also helps him speed up what makes the cars go fast because he's sat in them. There wasn't a whole lot of engineering at the teams he started with but now he uses a whole lot of it. There's so much at MWR and a lot to be gained by it but there's also a need to use old school racing common sense too.
Jerry Baxter said that at first the #99 team were right in the thick of things but the last few months took them out of the Championship hunt. However, they're not laying down. Hopefully David and his team will be able to win one of the last Nationwide races this season! They came close a few times but poor David had so much bad luck to ruin so many races for him! It used to be that things were such a struggle on the Cup side that it was a relief for David to come over to the Nationwide side but now David's always in a good mood when he comes over to the Nationwide side (because things have improved so much on the Cup side).
The Toyota Nationwide COT is a joint effort between MWR and Toyota Racing Development. I thought it was pretty interesting that of all their organizations, TRD is working with MWR to develop Toyota's Nationwide COT. After the first test the car came back to MWR where they've been working on it. There's another test scheduled for this Monday and Tuesday at Lowe's.
Jerry started working for Michael eight years ago at the farm (the shop behind Michael's house). He feels privileged to work there with what it's become. Five or six guys are still at MWR from the farm. MWR is a really great place to work. They went through some tough times but it will be worth it. For a while it was the Nationwide side that kept the shop going - that's very true considering all the struggles last season. David winning the race at Memphis last year was huge not only for David and the #99 team but all of MWR!
There were two others interviewed as part of the broadcast, Peter Sospenzo, the crew chief for the #00, whose interview I missed completely and Dr. Eric Warren, MWR's Director of Engineering whose interview I missed most of. I was really disappointed about not being able to listen to Dr. Warren since I though he had some really interesting things to say the time he was a guest on Michael Waltrip Out Loud. But in the tail end of Dr. Warren's interview that I was able to catch he said that he meets regularly with the technical directors from the other Toyota teams like Tommy Baldwin from Bill Davis Racing. That was interesting because I think most believe that even though the Toyota teams work together and share information to some degree on the Nationwide side, they don't do that on the Cup side but apparently they do get together to discuss things. I doubt there's as much information being shared as in the Nationwide or Truck Series but apparently they do work together at least a little. Dr. Warren said that they're chasing small gains all the time, maybe a 100th of a second. They may spend lots of money on testing and come back with nothing. I think that highlights just how difficult it is for smaller and underfunded teams because they wouldn't have the money to spend on tests where they don't get much out of it. All the teams are using bump stops with the COT and there are many different combinations of bump stops to get to where they're at and it's all different for every team.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:06 PM | Comments (2)
August 19, 2008
In the News: Michael Waltrip Racing (8/19)
According to Jayski, Michael Waltrip Racing has an announcement scheduled for Friday at Bristol that relates to the plan for David Reutimann in 2009, including sponsorship. It's been rumored that Aaron's is going to step up and sponsor David in Cup for a partial season which is great news - they obviously like him a lot so it doesn't surprise me that they want to be associated with him - and MWR - in an even higher-profile way. But that would leave some races unsponsored... unless MWR is also going to be making an announcement about another sponsor for David's car. I admit that someone passed along a piece of information they had come across somewhere that indicates that might be the case - since I can't verify whether this information is correct or not I'm not going to mention specifics but that they're making the announcement at Bristol indicates there may be some truth there. Whatever the case may be I'm just happy that David will be racing for MWR again next season and that they apparently have at least some sponsorship from Aaron's!
The other bit of MWR related news is kind of confusing to me. MWR development driver Josh Wise had been racing the #22 Nationwide car for Fitz Motorsports with support from MWR, who had hired a crew chief to work with Josh, and built some Toyotas for Josh to race. They were also providing a pit crew for the #22 and I had thought that Josh was going to be in the car for the rest of the season. Apparently I thought wrong because it was announced yesterday that Andrew Ranger, who had raced the #22 for Fitz at Montreal and Watkins Glen will race the #22 for seven of the last ten Nationwide races. What's up with that?
Maybe Josh will race the remaining three races that Andrew won't be in the car for and that was the plan all along but if MWR went as far as hiring personnel and spending money on building cars it seems to me that's a big investment for just a few races. There's been a lot of rumors circulating that Fitz is on very shaky ground financially and give that Mike Bliss just sued them for non-payment there could be some truth there. That makes me wonder if money somehow played a role in this in that Andrew brought more money to Fitz than MWR did. I have to say I'm pretty disappointed that Josh won't be racing the #22 much if at all (though I suppose it's possible he could end up in Fitz's second car). I was thrilled when MWR found a ride for Josh since I hated that he spend the first part of the season on the sideline, and I was very happy when he started to have some success in the #22, including the first top five of his career at ORP. So I really wish he was going to be in the #22 for the rest of the races this season.
Sure hope to see Josh in a Nationwide car next season - I'd love for it to be the #99 for MWR but it's possible David will race it again next season. Maybe that'll be something that we'll find out on Friday.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:13 PM | Comments (2)
July 27, 2008
Josh Wise Finishes 5th at ORP!
I just realized I forgot to mention something that I was really excited and happy about from this weekend - Josh Wise finished 5th in the Nationwide Race this weekend at O'Reilly Raceway Park! That's a career best for Josh and comes in just his 11th Nationwide start. When Josh first started racing the #22 this season the results weren't all that great, no surprise considering the financial issues facing Fitz Motorsports due to their sponsorship woes - hard to be competitive when there's no money coming in. However, things have slowly improved and have really seemed to get better the past two weeks when Michael Waltrip Racing stepped up their support for the #22. Fitz is providing the cars but MWR is providing the crew chief and crew and that seems to be making a difference - the past two weeks Josh has seemed to qualify better and has also seemed to be able to race more competitively, finishing 16th at Gateway and 5th this past weekend.
I guess it's because I met Josh last year at Pocono, but I so want him to have a long and successful Nascar career. There's something about him that I like a lot - at least when I saw him he was on the quiet side but that didn't mean he had any less of a desire to race and win than any other driver. He was extremely nice as well. I was extremely disappointed when MWR wasn't able to secure sponsorship to put him in a second Nationwide car this season so I'm really happy that they were able to work something out with Fitz for the #22. Hope this 5th place finish is just the first of many top five's (and better) for Josh!
Posted by silverdsl at 10:44 PM | Comments (0)
July 18, 2008
Random Nascar Thoughts on Random Thoughts (7/18)
With it being an off-week for the Cup teams a lot of people in the Cup garage are on vacation so there's not been too much news of note. It's not an off-week for everyone though since there's Nationwide, Truck and East Series racing this weekend. I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow's truck race in Kentucky since Michael Waltrip will be in the booth! I love the truck series to begin with and having Michael and his enthusiasm in the booth only makes it better! Even though there's not been much going on there's been a few bits of news that have surfaced...
*Jacques Villeneuve has secured a ride for the Nationwide race in Montreal in a few weeks but it's not with Robby Gordon Motorsports as rumored. Instead Villeneuve will race for Braun Racing. All the talk was that it was pretty much a done deal that Villeneuve would race for RGM and that he was bringing sponsorship with him that might translate into a full-time ride with RGM in 2009, but Villeneuve is taking whatever sponsorship he has to Braun. I don't know why Villeneuve ended up at Braun instead of RGM but it's likely he'll get a more competitive car to race from Braun than from RGM so this is probably a good move for him. Villeneuve hasn't given up on his hope of racing Cup but I really doubt that we'll see him full-time in Cup any time soon even if he does really well in this race.
*Josh Wise has a new crew chief at Fitz Motorsports and it's the former crew chief of the #22, Paul Wolfe, who Wise has apparently wanted to work with for a while. However, Wolfe isn't actually an employee of Fitz, no surprise given that Fitz sued him after he left the team earlier this season, but is instead employed by Michael Waltrip Racing, who will also be providing a pit crew to the team. Some have wondered why MWR doesn't just field a car of their own for Wise but given the lack of sponsorship for a second Nationwide car it's probably cheaper to pay Fitz to field one for Wise then to put one together themselves. Given the strength of MWR's Nationwide program Wise would probably get a better car from MWR than he gets from Fitz but it's better to behind the wheel of a car getting seat time than sitting on the sidelines as he was doing earlier in the season. I also think there's some benefits for a young driver when they have to race a less than perfect car because they can learn how to work with their team on making it better, how to give good feedback, how to deal with racing an ill-handling car, how to deal with challenges, etc... I can't help but wonder if Wise's development is being stepped up because of the recent rumors that have been circulating about David Reutimann and Michael McDowell possibly not being at MWR next season.
*A few times recently I've seen some comments attributed to team members in which they complain about or mock fans. I'm the first one to be dismayed at some of the behavior of my fellow fans as it seems like there's an increasingly large percentage of fans who don't know how to behave appropriately when they're around the drivers or team members and think that they're entitled to say and do whatever they want. However, there's also plenty of fans who do know how to behave appropriately and are simply excited fans who are hoping to get an autograph from their favorite driver or just catch a glimpse of them. As annoying as it may be when there's a bunch of fans hanging around I also think there needs to be some understanding for the fact that without the fans the sport wouldn't be as successful as it is. The fans are the people who buy the tickets to races, buy the merchandise, support the sponsors and cheer for the teams. Some of these team members act like they would prefer it if there were no fans at all at the track - be careful what you wish for. Michael Waltrip said on his XM show recently that he treats every fan and every moment like it's his last. There's a reason for that - it can all go away in the blink of an eye. Some teams and drivers may think that being popular, having success and being on top of the world will last forever but things can change very quickly.
Posted by silverdsl at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2008
In the News: Michael Waltrip (5/23)
Toyota and Michael Waltrip Racing are going to partner to offer an apprenticeship for a diversity graduate of Toyota's Technician Training and Education Network (T-TEN) program. The apprenticeship will be at MWR in a technical position and will last a year. Michael said,
"This unique program is another way Toyota has made NASCAR a better place since entering the sport. Diversity is an important initiative for everyone involved in NASCAR and I am honored that Toyota wanted to partner with Michael Waltrip Racing. So many talented technicians want to be involved with a NASCAR team and this is an unprecedented way to open the door. I can't wait to meet the winner and put his or her skills to work on my race cars."
Diversity is something that I feel strongly about, not just in Nascar, but in general. Diversity in people and opinions makes this world a better place. But what bothers me sometimes as I've said in this space before is that sometimes I feel as if some of my fellow fans aren't particularly open to diversity whether it comes to race, religion, nationality, part of the country where someone comes from or even when it comes to differences of opinion. So I applaud Michael for not just saying that he supports diversity, but also directly doing something to support a diversity initiative. If more teams and others in the garage area do things to give opportunities to qualified and deserving people it will make a difference.
As I mentioned in a previous entry, Josh Wise will be in the #22 car for Fitz Motorsports this weekend in the Nationwide race. He was on XM the other day and he said that MWR had sponsorship in place for him to race most of the Nationwide races this season in a second car but at the last minute the sponsorship fell through. With the way the economy is it's definitely not easy to find a replacement sponsor last-minute so that left Josh without a ride. Although MWR has been using him for testing and trying to keep him as involved as possible, I had been worried that without a ride for him MWR might let him go to another organization which would be a real loss since I think Josh has a bright future.
However, Michael made it clear that Josh very much still fits into their plans and that they hope to find sponsorship for him for a Nationwide ride for next season. Michael said,
“We think Josh is a star of the future, and we’ve invested a lot in where we’ve gotten him to now, and we would love for him to race more Nationwide races – it’s just funding. Sponsorships are tight, and we’re focused on getting him a sponsor for 2009, so he can race all the Nationwide races.”
I'm so happy that MWR is going to try to get him in a full-time Nationwide ride next season! I met Josh last year and I was very impressed with his attitude, and based on his results in ARCA he's also very talented. One day I really hope he'll be in a MWR Cup car - just like Michael himself and Michael McDowell, he's a sponsor's dream!
Michael was just on Trackside - he was great as always!
Posted by silverdsl at 06:58 PM | 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)
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 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)
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 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)
September 30, 2007
Dale Jarrett May Not Race Full-Time Next Season
Turns out there was some truth to the rumors - which were denied - that circulated a number of months ago that Dale Jarrett was going to retire at the end of this season instead of waiting until next season as originally planned. DJ said today that he approached his sponsor UPS a few months ago with a number of options for what they wanted him to do next season - race full-time, race part-time or even step out of the car completely. From the sounds of it, DJ will be in the car for at least one race, but it definitely sounds like there's a strong possibility that he may not race the entire season.
DJ said he wasn't being pressured to step out of the car, instead that he wanted to do what was best for Michael Waltrip Racing and for UPS.
"The only thing I can tell you, it can be anywhere from one to 36 races. The biggest factor, obviously we want to make Michael Waltrip Racing better, [but] the biggest thing, mainly, is what's best for UPS. It would be totally unfair to say they're forcing me to do something because that's not the case whatsoever. I want them to be able to do what's best, and they want me to do what's best. I have a tremendous relationship there. I feel fortunate to have the best sponsor in the business at the end of my career, and I want to do and give them what is best for them and what they deserve."
It seems to me that what would be best for Michael Waltrip Racing is for DJ to stay in the car through the end of next season to give Josh Wise or Ken Butler III enough time to gain the necessary experience so they could replace DJ in the #44. Otherwise, it's a scenario where either MWR would have to put one of those drivers in the car before they're ready, sign a driver like David Stremme or Jeremy Mayfield temporarily or if sponsorship can't be nailed down for the #00, put David Reutimann in the #44. I can't see UPS wanting a revolving door of drivers in the car since they've built a major marketing, advertising and promotional campaign around one driver - DJ - for so long. For that reason I can't see them wanting to drop DJ so suddenly either. Perhaps there will be a situation where DJ and Josh or Ken split time in the #44, similar to how Mark Martin will be sharing the #8 with Aric Almirola. I also have to wonder how DJ's Champion's provisional will effect things - if there's no changes to that rule, I can't imagine MWR and UPS not wanting to take advantage of his provisional to ensure that they make the first eight races of next season.
What really gets me is that DJ sounds like it doesn't really matter to him either way whether he races next season or not. He said,
"Obviously having some time because we've missed some races, I've realized that at this point in my life that it wouldn't be devastating if that was the situation, that I had more weekends off. I didn't enjoy not being in the races, but since I was at home, I enjoyed being with my wife and my kids, I enjoyed going to the golf course on Sunday mornings and seeing guys I haven't golfed with in a long time. It wasn't total devastation. It was hard at first. That's why I feel I can accept either role at this point in time."I have a whole different outlook on things now, I think my mindset is if they tell me that running the Daytona 500 and we do something different from that point, I'd be perfectly happy with that. If they say our program is built around you and our people really want you to run all 36 races, I can do that again, too. I'm happy with all of that."
Talk about a different mindset from Michael and other drivers who have missed races this season! I think it hurts Michael to DNQ at this point in the season just as much as it did to start the season - the shots of him with his head in his hands as he was being driven away on the cart after DNQ'ing a couple of weeks ago, as well as the way he talked about how miserable he was when he woke up race day morning in New Hampshire when he wasn't going to be racing tell the tale on that. Michael continues to talk about his passion about racing and Nascar, and unlike DJ he still seems devastated when he misses races. It seems to me when a driver is perfectly fine with not racing then it's time for him to step out of the car. That's not to say that DJ isn't giving 100% effort when he's behind the wheel or doesn't enjoy racing anymore at all, but that the drive, determination and passion to race wasn't what it once was. And I have to wonder how that effects the results for the #44 team. When I was at Pocono a couple of months ago I sensed that there was something up with DJ's team. Things just seemed strange about his team, as if the attitude and approach was somehow different than the others in the garage area, yet they were there doing all the same things that every other team was. I have to wonder if his team senses that DJ's might not be as fully committed to racing as he once was? It seems to me it makes it hard on his team to perform as well as they might be capable of if they know that their driver isn't heartbroken if he doesn't race on Sunday.
What I don't understand is why DJ wasn't more upfront about some of this when he addressed the rumors that were circulating earlier in the season. He made a point of addressing the media and insisting that the rumors were false. Michael also denied that there was any truth to the rumors. Now they both look silly - and some will think they were lying - because it turns out that all along DJ has been entertaining thoughts of getting out of the car. I suppose DJ might not have been completely sure about what he wanted to do or whether UPS was going to be okay with him not racing full-time next season, and he might not have fully conveyed all of what he was thinking to Michael. And neither of them might have wanted to address what was going on least some jump to conclusions that DJ's reasons were due to his dissatisfaction with MWR. While strong results on the track would probably make DJ more willing to stick around, I suspect that regardless of what organization DJ was racing for he might still be thinking of taking a step back. From the sounds of it, DJ feels differently about racing than he once did and he's ready to move into another chapter in his life, that might include some racing, but he'd be okay if it didn't.
I have to admit that I won't be terribly upset if DJ isn't the driver of the #44 next season. I've never been able to warm up to DJ like one might think I would since he's one of Michael's close friends and races for him. Even after meeting him in person last season I didn't find myself liking him anymore than I had previously - in fact the opposite happened. I found DJ to be nice but kind of standoffish. I thought that maybe it was just a bad day for him, but I've since heard that's just his way, he's simply not one of the more fan-friendly drivers unless he has to be. So I wouldn't mind seeing DJ replaced with another driver - Josh Wise is going to be awesome for MWR some day but I don't think he's ready to get in a Cup car yet, at least not full-time. I'm not crazy about David Stremme - while I think he's very marketable, I'm not sold on him as a Cup driver. However, it seems to me that Jeremy Mayfield would be a good choice for the #44 for a year or two if DJ were to step aside early. He's a veteran driver who is familiar with Toyotas and also with the difficulties in being with a team outside the top 35 in owner's points. He's talked with MWR about a ride before and he knows how to race up front and win. I can't see him being a long-term solution since MWR needs to get some youth in the mix, but I think he'd work out well in the short-term, especially since he's probably going to be in the mindset where he's going to want to prove to the garage area that he's not done yet.
It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Posted by silverdsl at 12:33 AM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2007
Michael Waltrip Finishes 15th at Dover!
Dover ended up being mostly good to Michael Waltrip and his teams other than a very scary incident on lap 80 of yesterday's race when Art Harris, gasman for the #55 was hit in the back of the head by a tire that bounced into the #55's pit box during pit stops. Although it looked pretty bad at first, Harris was alert by the time he was taken to the in-field care center, and later treated and released at an area hospital. Harris will likely be pretty sore for a while, but he's okay, which is a very good thing! What likely saved Harris from serious injury is that pit crew members are required to wear helmets if they go over the wall - a very wise move by Nascar to make those helmets mandatory. A weird twist of fate in this incident was that the errant tire came from another MWR car. A tire rolled away from the #44 and into traffic on pit road, and David Ragan hit it, which bounced the tire into the #55's pit. It was incredible how fast it happened and how much force the tire had - after seeing that it's clear why Nascar penalizes the teams when they let tires get away on pit road.
Otherwise the race weekend started off on a very good note for Michael Waltrip Racing as all three of their cars qualified for the Cup race, for just the third time this season. I was absolutely thrilled that Michael made this race! I had a good feeling he would even though he had missed the previous two races and there were a lot of cars entered since the last time the series was at Dover Michael broke a string of eleven DNQs by qualifying for the Autism Speaks 400. So I had a feeling he and his team were going to rebound again at Dover, a track that's been good to them in the past. I wasn't quite as confident that MWR would end up with all three cars in the show though. I didn't have too many doubts that David Reutimann would make the race, after all he's shown that he's an outstanding qualifier. But Dale Jarrett and his team haven't seemed to make many improvements since the start of the season so the necessary speed to make races often isn't there for DJ. But right from the start of practice DJ and his teammates were fast and backed it up in qualifying. Well done! Kudos to all three MWR teams for beating some solid teams to make the show!
I'm really impressed that Michael was able to finish 15th in this race! Granted one reason for that was the big wreck towards the end of the race that tore up a lot of cars. However, prior to when Michael lost power steering he had been racing in the top 15, at one point racing as high as 11th. So he definitely had a pretty good car yesterday. In addition, Michael finished 15th after starting 43rd, a gain of 28 spots. But what was most impressive is that Michael finished that well in spite of losing his power steering which not only made it difficult for him to race, but also caused his arms to go numb and cramp up. I don't see how anyone can doubt Michael's abilities as a driver and an athlete, or question his desire to race and determination knowing that he drove the car for probably half the race without power steering. By finishing 15th Michael was also the highest finishing Toyota.
David also had a good day. Although he didn't seem to have as good of a car as Michael did, David was able to finish 18th which has to be considered a solid finish since mechanical and set-up issues sometimes make it hard for David to finish in the top 30, let alone the top 20. But his team has really come along since the beginning of the season, and as they continue to gel as a team and the competitiveness of the cars improves, David will likely race up front a lot more often. If he stays with MWR next season that is.
Although Michael has said he has a verbal agreement with David that he will be back in the #00, and David indicated to a fan at New Hampshire that he would likely be back at MWR next season, David still needs to sign a contract to make it definite. Apparently MWR gave David a rather lengthy contract this weekend to look over that would keep him behind the wheel of the #00 for several years to come and all that's left is for David to make up his mind as to whether he's going to sign it or not. Seeing as how the 4th team at Richard Childress Racing is still up in the air, it seems to me that David is likely to stick with #00. The only hang-up is the sponsorship issue - MWR is still waiting to hear back from Burger King and Domino's about whether they'll be back on the #00 next season. However, Michael did indicate there was sponsorship for the #00, and I don't see how they could offer David a multi-year deal to race that car if there's no sponsorship. So there must be a back-up plan if Burger King and Domino's leave.
Unfortunately things didn't go so well for DJ yesterday. Yet another engine issue ended his day early. It has to be frustrating for DJ and his entire team that when they actually do make races there's often mechanical issues that plague them. Some of DJ's fans are angry with MWR, thinking that they're deliberately giving DJ inferior equipment. However, the engine are built by Toyota, not MWR. So if there's some fingers to be pointed, they should be pointed in the direction of Toyota. MWR has no idea when they get the engines from Toyota which ones are stout and which ones won't last an entire race. Overall, Toyota's engine program continues to need work. A.J. Allmendinger lost an engine on Friday morning during practice, then another engine during the first five laps of yesterday's race - Red Bull Racing also receives their engines directly from Toyota. Both of Bill Davis Racing's teams didn't even make the race, something that could be extremely costly for the #22 because it might end any hopes of them getting back into the top 35 in owner's points.
There was some other good news for MWR this weekend besides all three of their cars making the Cup race and two of them finishing well. While everyone has focused on MWR's woes in the Cup series, they've missed how well David has raced the #99 in the Busch Series this season. On Saturday David got his 11th top ten of the season in the Roadloans.com 200, and he's second in championship points. Some fans are convinced that MWR is incapable of success, but it seems to me that if they can field such a strong Busch team eventually they'll be able to do the same in Cup as well. MWR development driver Josh Wise also had a good weekend, getting his second top ten of the season in the #00 truck in Las Vegas. In seven truck races Josh has two top tens and has only finished outside the top 20 once. That's pretty good for a young driver with so little experience in the series. I don't know what their plans are for Josh next season but I'd like to see him race the truck on a more regular basis, or maybe even the Busch car.
I'm happy that I had some good things to discuss in relation to Michael and his teams! I used to do so many more entries about Michael, but this season it seems like often the news wasn't very good and I didn't feel like talking about him missing races over and over. So I'm glad that things went pretty well for Michael at Dover. Next weekend the trucks are off but the Busch and Cup series goes to Kansas. Hopefully there will be no scary incidents on pit road and the results for all the MWR teams will be even better than they were this weekend!
Posted by silverdsl at 08:29 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2007
Race Day at Pocono!
No question the highlight of my weekend at Pocono was the time I spent with Michael Waltrip on Friday as I detailed in a previous entry. However, race day was unbelievably exciting as well!
Before I get into the details of our adventure on the track I have to mention something rather disturbing that we came across on our way to the track. While we were on Route 80 still in New Jersey we came across an extremely gory motorcycle accident that had just happened mere moments before so emergency personnel were just arriving. Needless to say what I saw was extremely upsetting though I'm happy to say that the person who was injured survived though I wasn't sure that was going to be the case based on his injuries. In spite of being pretty upset I had to put this accident out of my mind when we got to the track because it would be bad karma otherwise. But the reason I'm bringing this up is because it put some things in perspective, much of which I won't get into in this space because this is meant to be about the race. But some fans carry on when their favorite driver is wronged on the track or their season isn't going well as if it's the worst thing in the world. Well, what I saw was far worse than Nascar doing Robby Gordon wrong, Steve Park not having a ride, or the MWR teams struggling to make races. I get just as worked up as anyone else about some things but it was a good reminder that there's more important things in life than what happens on the track.
On to much more pleasant things, just as we had every other day we got to the track nice and early in an effort to avoid traffic and also be able to experience as much as we possibly could in the garage area. There was a different feel to the garage area on race day - if the teams were focused on the prior two days, they were even more focused on Sunday. But the two biggest differences was that the garage area was a lot more crowded with people and there were no drivers to be seen anywhere. Some fans think that race day is the best time to spot drivers in the garage area but that's when the drivers are usually the scarcest other than when they're going to the driver's meeting and to driver's introductions. Aside from wanting to avoid all the people who want a piece of them in the garage, most drivers have hospitality visits to make, sponsor guests to greet and merchandise trailer appearances to make. So the drivers do a lot of running around up until the driver's meeting, which is usually about an hour and a half before driver's introductions.
We had plenty of time before we had to be at the #55 hauler to meet up with Benito, Michael's motorcoach driver who was going to escort us to the driver's meeting. So Jim parked himself where he had spent most of the weekend - in a seat by the #00 hauler - and I wandered around the garage. Naturally I wandered past the #55 stall a few times. Some fans have voiced concern about the way the MWR teams have prepared for races given all the mechanical failures, but I saw with my own two eyes that they have check lists that they go through just like every other team. Those were attached to the #55 car and presumably every piece and part on that list was checked off before the car went through pre-race inspection and was pushed out onto the grid for the race. At one point someone who I presume was a TRD engine guy was working on the car, presumably testing and tuning the engine to be sure it was right. Unfortunately as it turned out that engine most certainly wasn't right and neither was that of the #44 or #00. But those issues don't appear to have anything to do with these teams slacking as I've seen a few fans speculate - they put in just as much hard work and effort as any other team in the garage.
Eventually I decided to go out on pit road and find out where the the #55 and #00 pits were located. I was very happy to find out they weren't too far from each other on pit road so I'd be able to go back and forth to take photos during the race. I neglected to mention in my entry about Saturday was that I ran into Danny and his brother, and enjoyed chatting with them for a while. Danny is a member of both Michael's forum and NYYFans.com. It was crazy enough to have seen both Ruth and Danny during the weekend out of the thousands of people who were at the track but I knew both of them were going to be there. Well, as I'm walking down pit road to go back to the garage, I run into two other people from NYYFans - Allybear and JP. I had no clue they were going to be there so that made it unbelievable that with so many people at the track I just happened to run into them. It was good to see Ruth, Danny, Allybear and JP in person since normally I just "talk" with them online.
So when I got back to the garage I started getting excited since it wasn't that long until I'd be seeing Michael again. I knew that I wouldn't likely be talking to him much, if at all, since it's so crazy for the drivers on race day that there's not much time for chatting. Plus, every driver, Michael included, is focused on one thing above all else - getting in their car and racing. Oh sure, they do hospitality and pose for photos and fulfill whatever obligations they have, but a piece of them is always elsewhere, with their cars. (This week's Nascar Scene coincidentally has a great article about this.) Still, in spite of knowing that I probably wouldn't get to interact with him much, not only was I excited, but nervous too!
I decided to make yet another trip to the Ladies's Room, and when I got back I made my first driver sighting of the day - Greg Biffle. Greg's hauler was next to David's and although I had seen him a few times the two days prior, I hadn't gotten too many decent photos of him, something I wanted to rectify since I had grown to like Greg a lot over the past year or so. Knowing that Jim had taken some photos of Greg while I was gone which made me happy - that was sweet of him considering he couldn't care less about Greg. Since Greg was still standing there posing for photos and signing autographs, I decided to do something I never do and approach him for an autograph, but by the time I had made my mind up to do it, he had walked off to talk with someone from his team and my opportunity was gone. Oh well, at least I got some good photos of him.
Before it got too late we decided we should have a bite to eat. I'm not sure what they do at other tracks, but at this track there's an area that appears to be sponsored by Weber Grills where breakfast and lunch is provided for the garage area. It's quite an impressive spread of food and good too! Some teams have grills and cook for themselves, but many of the teams seemed to take advantage of the food that was available there, as did Jim and I. We brought our food back to the #00 hauler where David's team was eating as well - this would be the last downtime they had for the rest of the day. While we were sitting there Josh Wise came by - I guess he had stuck around to watch the Cup race. After he was done eating I congratulated him on how good he did in the ARCA race the day before. Josh definitely has exactly the kind of attitude that every teams wants out of their young driver - he seemed to be having a hard time feeling good about finishing second because he was disappointed that he didn't win. Josh will be racing some more truck and ARCA races, and potentially a couple more Busch races. After meeting him there's no doubt in my mind he's going to be a huge success in Nascar one day, hopefully for MWR. First and foremost he's an extremely talented driver - that Tony Stewart personally picked Josh to race for him says a lot. But beyond that Josh is going to appeal to sponsors and fans. While he's somewhat quiet, he's extremely nice and well-spoken. Plus, he's very attractive and these days that does matter to sponsors. So he appears to be the complete package and hopefully he'll continue to develop as expected.
Finally it was time to go over to Michael's hauler to meet up with Benito for the driver's meeting. I knew I would be seeing Michael at some point but I figured that Michael and his PR person, Traci would head over to the meeting themselves and that Jim and I would go with Benito. Well, what I didn't realize was that the plan was for all of us to go together. So you can imagine my surprise when Michael comes out of his hauler! I really didn't expect to see him then except from a distance when I observed the driver's meeting. What really amazed me is that in spite of having to rush to the driver's meeting, Michael still took the time to say hi, ask how we were doing and pat me on the shoulder in greeting. I was so unprepared to see him that I could do little more than grin like an idiot, squeak something that resembled a "hi, I'm good!" and pat him in return on the only part of him that I could reach - his stomach. What the heck was I thinking there? That he was some kind of genie and I might have a wish come true if I rubbed his stomach? There wasn't much time to think about it because we all had to take off after Michael so we didn't get separated and/or knocked over in the crush of people outside where the driver's meeting was taking place.
Allow me to put this story on hold briefly so I can bring up something I've never understood - why the garage area is cold when the driver's meeting is taking place, and why Nascar allows such a large crowd to gather around where the meeting takes place. Sure, there's plenty of security and the meeting itself is roped off, but to get to the meeting the drivers have to navigate through a gauntlet of several hundred people all of whom want autographs, photos and in general are very pushy about it. Most drivers literally run to and from the meetings and some of the drivers like Junior need security to escort them past the crowd of people who gather. Some version of this plays out before and after every single driver's meeting, at every track on every race day, and I think it's ridiculous. While I understand that Nascar wants to let fans get as close as possible to the drivers, it seems to me that so close to the race the drivers shouldn't have to deal with people shoving things at them to sign. I've been inside to one driver's meeting and stood outside of two, including the one this past weekend, and I'm content to stand back and take photos of the drivers coming and going, but that's how I always am. I'll never chase a driver, but there's definitely plenty of fans who will, and even though the drivers must be used to it by now, it's something that makes me cringe when I see it happen - and it seems to happen a lot before and after the driver's meeting, particularly with the most popular drivers. I guess some people lose their heads when all the drivers are in one place.
Anyway, I had been told a few years ago that Michael's preference is to sit in the back at the driver's meetings and he must have expected that's where he's be sitting this time too because of where he initially entered the space where the meeting was taking place. I wonder what he thought when he discovered that Bobby Kennedy had taken a seat in the front row? For those that aren't familiar with what goes on at the driver's meeting, it's really not that exciting. Basically Nascar goes over the schedule, reviews important information that the drivers and crew chiefs need to know about the race and the track, they introduce any special guests and then there's a brief prayer. It's interesting to observe the drivers, all of whom are still in their street clothes as they interact with each other and then as they listen... or at least pretend to listen since a lot of what's said they've heard many times before.
Before the meeting started Michael went over to chat with some of the people from Directv Hotpass who were standing at the front. It looked like he was talking to Rick Allen and Phil Parsons (are those two ever seen separately?) but my view was partially blocked so it was hard to say for sure. Those who have seen my photos will have seen that I took a couple of photos at the driver's meeting but I don't feel that it's really an appropriate time to take photos once the drivers are seated for the meeting so I just took a couple of quick shots of Michael and then a shot of the entire room before the meeting really got underway.
Like I said above the driver's meetings are pretty tame, but something really caught my eye during this particular driver's meeting. I had debated whether I was even going to share this because it'll probably make sound a little strange, but it happened and it's my blog so here goes. As everyone knows Kurt Busch won on Sunday in most dominating fashion and it didn't surprise me at all. At one point during the driver's meeting I looked at Kurt and somehow I just knew he was going to win. Before I explain, let me just back up a little and say that Kurt had caught my eye at other times during the weekend too. Whenever I saw him he seemed incredibly focused and determined. That's true of a lot of the drivers, but there was something about Kurt that made me think he was "in the zone" as they sometimes say about athletes in other sports where they're locked in and everything falls into place for them to perform to the best of their abilities and have a really good game. Still, until the driver's meeting I wasn't thinking about him as the possible winner of this race.
As most probably know immediately following the driver's meeting there's chapel for those drivers and crew chiefs who wish to attend. But towards the end of the driver's meeting there's a brief silent prayer that everyone takes part in. Throughout much of the meeting for some reason other than Michael I had been very drawn towards looking over at the Busch brothers who were sitting next to each other fairly close to where I was standing. So during the silent prayer I looked over at them again and I saw them both extremely deep in prayer, and to me, even though I'm not religious, that image of the two bothers standing there prayer was very moving to me. It was something that went beyond racing because in that moment they weren't two race car drivers that a lot of people don't like but simply two people lost in prayer and their own thoughts. I wondered to myself in light of them standing next to each other whether they were praying not just for themselves but for a safe race for each other as well. And In that moment as I observed Kurt and Kyle, I had an overwhelming feeling that Kurt was going to win that day. Of all the drivers in the room, I just felt that it was Kurt's day - and it was.
Now some are probably wondering whether I took a photo of Kurt and Kyle since I was so intrigued by watching them, and the answer is that no, I didn't. I'll take photos of pretty much anything but there's a few instances when I put my camera down. I'll never take photos of the drivers in prayer as Kyle and Kurt were because I think when the driver's are praying it's a personal moment and to photograph them would be intrusive. I also won't take pictures inside their motorcoaches because I feel that's their home at the track and it's not appropriate. And I also avoid taking photos of children who aren't the drivers own kids who have been photographed many times before. I'm also not big on taking photos of the driver's significant others. If a wife or girlfriend happens to be with a driver I'll take a picture, but I don't seek out the significant others to take photos as some do because I feel they deserve a little privacy. Besides that, as I've said before while I enjoy a good piece of gossip as much as the next person, I also believe that what happens in the driver's personal lives is really their business and not mine.
Anyway, after the meeting ended Michael went his way (presumably back to his motorcoach - no, he didn't stay for the Chapel service) and we went ours. After a while I decided that I wanted to head to pit road to where the drivers introductions were going to take place to stake out a good spot for taking photos. Well, after spending quite a bit of time in that spot, it turned out that I wasn't going to have to worry about having a good spot. After having dropped Michael off for the start of driver introductions Benito found us. Knowing of my love of photography he took me and Jim over the pit wall onto pit road, which at this point was restricted to media or those with teams, and led me over to where the "real" photographers were positioned to take photos of the drivers as they made their way off the stage. All I can say about that is - wow! I definitely owe Benito for that one! Technically I wasn't supposed to be there since it's really only supposed to be there as a mere fan, and security gave some other fans who were there a hard time, but I acted like I belonged and no one tried to chase me away - having a decent camera probably helped make it look like I was supposed to be there too.
So needless to say I had a great time taking photos of every driver in the field, Michael included. It was kind of amusing to watch the process of getting the drivers onto the humvees for the ride around the track since there was a lot of confusion. Usually at most tracks the drivers ride around two to a vehicle but for some reason at Pocono they decided it would be three drivers to a humvee which threw a lot of drivers off. In addition, they only had a handful of humvees so at times drivers had to wait for a humvees to discharge other drivers who had just gotten done with their trip around the track before they could get on. But that the drivers often had to pause to wait to get into their respective humvees or for their humvee to leave made for some great photo ops! When Michael got into his humvee, he sat facing me so I was able to get some great shots of him and best of all, when he spotted me taking photos, he smiled right at me - he's so good like that. Michael's very aware of what's going on around him. Sometimes it might seem like he's not but I don't think he misses much - he always seemed to be aware of when I was around even when I thought I had gone unnoticed.
Eventually the humvee with MIchael, DJ, Ward Burton and Ward's son left, so I concentrated on taking photos of the rest of the drivers. Most of the drivers ignored all the photographers who were assembled which was a common theme the majority of the weekend - the drivers often don't blink an eye or acknowledge the many cameras that sometimes surround them. There were a couple of drivers at driver introductions like Jeff Burton and David who were good about pausing and looking in the right direction to make sure that the photographers got the photos they needed. What was humorous to me is that on Friday David had joked with us just before he did an interview about making sure the bottle of water he was drinking was facing out, and how maybe Coke should sign him. So during driver introductions I look over at David and sure enough he's making sure that bottle of water is facing label side out - well done David!
After Michael got done riding around the track I figured he was just going to go by the car, but as it turned out he had an interview to do with Jimmy Spencer for Speed. When Michael had got on the humvee he was all smiles, but when he got off he looked dead-serious. I don't know if that was because he was starting to get his game face on and he was ready to race or because he wasn't really all that thrilled about doing an interview at that time. But it was pretty interesting to watch Michael stand there completely serious, and then once the camera went on, how he switched into his TV persona that we all know so well. I think most of his fans know that TV persona is just one side of him but some fans seem to think that's all he's about which is very far from the truth. One thing about Michael that I noticed then and at other times during the weekend is that he's an incredible presence. He has a way about him that draws attention. He's got a tremendous amount of personality and charisma. When he's focused and serious he can seem extremely intimidating and when he's in good spirits that big smile of his is infectious. That way of his is a big asset to him in a sport where image and the ability to promote and gain exposure for sponsors and one's self is so important.
While Michael was still doing the interview we made our way over to the car and Michael soon joined us as did Ty Norris and his family. By this time I sensed that Michael was getting anxious to race - most of the drivers become a bundle of emotions and nerves (at least inwardly) just before the race starts but I imagine it's even more so for Michael since he's missed so many races this season and he had just sat out the week before at Indy. At one point he started to wander away, maybe to go down to where the #00 was but he quickly came back, probably remembering he had to take photos with us and a few other MWR guests by the car. When it came time to take the photo we went over to him and much to my embarrassment my husband decides while we're posing with Mcihael for the photo to bust out with "Gee Michael it looks like you could use a haircut!" To which Michael responded "I did it myself!" Not knowing what to say, I said "I like it long!" while internally I was cringing thinking that Michael wasn't going to be too happy to have his hair commented on and that the photo might not come out too good as a result. Well, as it turned out Michael apparently didn't mind because he had what appears to be a genuine smile on his face so maybe my husband made him laugh.
Afterwards we all came around to the other side of the car to wait for the National Anthem and the rest of the pre-race ceremonies to take place. On TV it probably seems like all of this happens very fast but it seemed like we were standing there forever! During this time Michael talked a little with Ty and his wife, but mostly with Ty's kids. I hung back and didn't try to talk to Michael because I felt just before he was getting into the car was a time for him to chat with those he was most comfortable with as opposed to fans who are pretty much strangers to him. At one point DJ came over to talk with Ty and his kids - if you see the photo in this week's Nascar Scene of Ty and DJ, the two people standing behind them that are partially blocked are Jim and I. Just before the pre-race ceremonies started some folks who were presumably from MRO come over to pray with Michael.
Eventually the pre-race ceremonies started and this too seemed to take forever - and if it felt like forever to me, I can only imagine how impossibly long it felt to the drivers. What was funny was that when they did the flyover, all of us turned around literally for less than five seconds to see it and when we turned back Michael had vanished! In those few second he had gotten into the car which was a sign to me of just how anxious he was to race! Once Michael got in the car Ty and his family vanished rather quickly as well - I saw Ty a number of times during the weekend but other than a brief exchange of smiles I never talked to him. He was pretty focused much of the time I saw him as well and that's to be expected considering he had three teams plus a development driver to be concerned with.
I took a photo or two of the crew members helping Michael get set in the car, and noticing what I doing once again Benito got me in the perfect spot for photo taking - where he was standing there was a clear view right into the car, so I was able to see and take photos of Michael getting ready to race. I have to say that watching that was one of the coolest things I saw all weekend. When a driver is strapped into their car that's where they go to work, their private sanctuary away from everyone and everything, and it's the center of all that happens in a race. To the drivers and teams the process of putting on the helmet and everything else they do at that time is probably very mundane but I felt very privileged to see something that not everyone gets to see from up close. It's hard to fully describe but I had been really interested all weekend whenever I was able to get a good look at the drivers inside their cars. As a mere fan I couldn't approach the cars as closely as the credentialed photographers could but I tried my best to get some shots when I could of the drivers sitting in their cars. Someday I'd love to do a whole series of photographs specifically of the drivers in their cars - getting ready to race or just for practice and qualifying. I'll likely never have the necessary access but seeing the drivers at that time is fascinating to me.
If there's one thing I could do over it would be at this moment - I couldn't see completely clearly into the car when I was taking photos because it was so sunny outside and so comparatively dark inside the car. Well, when I looked at my photos afterwards I saw that in the last photo I had taken of Michael inside the car, after he put his helmet on, his visor is up and he appears to be looking over at us - I wish that I had noticed that then and given him a smile or a thumb's up or something, particularly since there was no one else by the car other than his employees to wish him well before the race.
Then came the next incredible moment - being on pit road when the command to "start your engines" rang out. Most people had already walked off of pit road but we had to wait for Traci who was going to led us to the #55 pit. So we were standing there when 43 cars started their engines - wow! That was amazing! The sound! The feeling! I had been close to a number of individual cars during the practices that were running but there's nothing like the sound of 43 cars going all at once!
After that we quickly made our way to the #55 pit. Some might think that watching a race from the pits is the coolest thing ever - and it's definitely awesome to watch the teams perform pit stops. However, it's impossible to see much of what's happening on the track except when the cars pass right in front of the pits. Luckily there was a big Nextel Vision screen (or whatever they call it) nearby that I could watch, and of course I was also listening to the #55 teams's radio communications over the scanner but the vast majority of time I had no clue what was going on in the race unless something was said over the scanner. The other problem, at least at Pocono, is that the area behind the pits, at least on the section where Michael's pit was located was extremely narrow, which is probably one reason all three MWR teams ended up in that section because qualifying towards the back gave them poor pit selection. It was hard to find a place to stand where I would be out of the way so I tried to be very conscious of what was going on at all times so I didn't get in anyone's way.
There's another section of pit road that's wider where many of the better teams were located and when we took a walk down into that area I can see why they picked to pit in that area since there was much more room to spread out. What's unfortunate is that some teams have had to resort to chaining off their pit areas so that fans don't wander in and get in the way during pit stops. I saw that happen a few years ago at Dover to Junior's team - during a couple of his pit stops fans were literally leaning over the shoulders of Junior's crew to take pictures as the crew were going over the wall to service the car. Security and Junior's PR person had to chase them away, and it's pretty clear from those chains that Junior's team isn't the only one to have experienced that problem. It really boogles my mind that there are some fans who don't understand that they need to stay out of the way and let the crew have room to work.
Anyway, I won't bother to recap the entire race because everyone knows what happened by now with the flat tires and all. It was pretty interesting to watch what happened when Michael got those flats. As soon as the tire came off the car there were multiple people clustered around gathering data and trying to figure out what had happened, not just from the team but also from TRD, Goodyear and Nascar. Even members of other teams, MWR and otherwise, came by to take a look. Some fans seem to think that a crew chief pulls decisions about changes to make to the car or strategy out of thin air or only based on the driver's input but that's definitely not the case. Not only are there over-the-wall members of the team in the pit but there's also a variety of others such as tire specialists, car chiefs, etc... who are gathering data and consulting with the crew chief. One thing's for sure - from the biggest team with the most resources to the smallest team that struggles to make races, they all work extremely hard to try to ensure the best result possible.
Once it became clear that it wasn't going to be a good race for the MWR teams Jim and I decided that we would leave with about 40 laps to go. I know that some people think that makes me a bad fan that I left the race early but I had to be considerate of my husband who at this point had been at the track for a significantly longer period of time than any non-Nascar fan would want to be. He wanted to leave early enough to avoid the worst of the traffic and I had agreed that unless there was a MWR team in line for a top finish that's what we would do. In retrospect I'm glad we left then because I would have been upset had I been there when Michael's engine expired with just a few laps to go. As we made our way out, we walked through the garage area which was now almost completely empty of people. All the teams had their haulers prepared to load the cars up after the race, and I felt kind of sad that my weekend at the track was now over.
Being at the track and experiencing all I did really reaffirmed my love of Nascar and for being a fan of Michael. I'm not going to pretend - there were issues last time we were at the track for our Waltrip Challenge experience but things went much better this time for sure! I'm very grateful to Michael for taking the time just after he had woken up when he would probably have rather just be left alone to meet with us on Friday. In some ways he was obligated to meet with us, particularly in light of what had happened last time and afterward, but as I had been told more than once - Michael does what he wants. So I had been concerned about what his demeanor with us might be or that somehow we wouldn't end up seeing him. But we did and he was terrific! We very much enjoyed talking to Michael and he was just as nice as he's always been to us in the past. In addition, Michael made an effort to acknowledge me every time he saw me the rest of the weekend, something other drivers probably wouldn't have bothered with. That made me very happy that he took the time to do that. Both Jim and I agree that Michael is a good person and it's a shame that things have been so difficult for him this season - I hope that he gets the right people and pieces in place to make Michael Waltrip Racing successful in Cup and overall as soon as possible.
Posted by silverdsl at 11:51 AM | Comments (3)
August 09, 2007
Saturday at Pocono
All that was on the schedule as far as the Cup Series went at Pocono was the two morning practices before the ARCA race but we made the trip to the track anyway. Although I had been in the garage area for qualifying before, Friday was the first time I had been in the garage for practice and I found it really interesting to watch the drivers and teams at work. So I wanted to experience it again on Saturday. As soon as we walked into the garage area I saw a few different drivers such as Jeremy Mayfield, David Regan and Bobby Labonte.
One hint for anyone who has garage passes is to get to the track as early as possible each day. The less crowded the garage area is the more visible the drivers are because they aren't as afraid they're going to get swarmed by people wanting autographs and photos. So there were a lot of drivers standing around prior to the first practice because there apparently weren't all that many fans who were willing to get up to be there for a 9 a.m practice on Saturday. As more and more people turned up as the day went along the drivers got less and less visible and reverted back to some of their stealth techniques for moving around without being noticed.
One driver who had been completely invisible on Friday was Dale Jarrett. I've never been a big fan of DJ's and even after he joined MWR I haven't really warmed to him, even after meeting him last year. But I still wanted to get a few photos of him if I could just so I had some of each of the MWR drivers. So I was happy when I spotted him walking from his hauler to his pit stall and I was able to get a few decent photos. After I saw DJ I wanted to find out where Michael's pit stall was located because it has been moved from where it was Friday due to additional space having opened up because of the teams that went home. Much to my dismay I discovered that the #55 was now on the other side of the garage which meant I wasn't going to be able to stand there and watch them at work and take photos once the practice started. The reason being that on that side the cars come in and out a lot quicker than they do on the other side because there's far fewer people, and Michael's stall was in a particularly bad spot so if I found a place to stand, I'd probably be stuck there all practice and I would rather have the freedom to wander around. Plus I didn't want to feel like a stalker standing there watching just them the whole time!
When I made my way back around to the side of the garage where all the haulers were I noticed a very rare sight - Junior standing out in the open in the middle of the garage with Tony Eury, Jr. talking to Mike Helton. Junior is almost never spotted in the garage unless it's (literally) running from place to place. The reason being that he's almost instantly swarmed by people who want a piece of him and sometimes they get so excited at seeing him that they forget how to behave appropriately. Yes, even in the garage. But I guess because it was so early in the morning he felt more comfortable standing in the open, though it didn't take long for a crowd of photographers and fans to gather. I quickly took a few photos and then backed off because I didn't want to be part of that crowd.
By now those of you who are still reading might have noticed I haven't mentioned my husband much. That's because he's not a Nascar fan. Although he enjoys being in the garage area and seeing the sights, there's really only one thing that Jim likes about Nascar, and that's Michael who he thinks is a good guy. Otherwise he was pretty much just along for the ride. Since it was so hot out Jim spent the majority of the weekend when we didn't have to be somewhere in the shade by the #00 hauler. It should be mentioned that the #00 team was very nice to us - they're definitely a friendly bunch of guys. I'm very appreciative not only of how nice they were to us, but also that they let us take as much water and powerade as we wanted from their stash which was a very good thing otherwise I would probably have passed out due to the heat.
First practice was pretty uneventful. At one point Josh Wise went up on the #00 hauler to watch some of practice, probably in the hopes it would help him in the ARCA race later on. After that practice ended David Reutimann headed out to catch a flight to Montreal. I had figured they were going to just not have the #00 take part in the second practice since the driver who often steps in for MWR when they need an extra set of helping hands, Mark Green was already up in Montreal. But as it turned out Kenny Wallace, who had failed to qualify for the Cup race in the #78, was going to practice the #00. That came about because some of those around Kenny being aware of what a hard time he's been having recently due to missing so many races having encouraged him to approach Michael about practicing the #00 so Kenny could feel useful and involved, as opposed to just sitting around while Cup practice was going on thinking about how much he wished he was a part of it. Once Michael agreed there was apparently a bit of a scramble to get Kenny's firesuit since the #78 hauler had already left the track - from what I understand Kenny's motorcoach driver drove down to meet the hauler somewhere and get Kenny's firesuit.
On Friday I had seen Kenny heading to qualifying and he looked very serious and worried, with good reason as it turned out. From where I had been standing it had seemed like his team had trouble making it through pre-qualifying inspection, then from what I understand they also had some issues out on the grid, and Kenny ended up DNQ'ing. Kenny's only raced in nine Cup races this season, the last being a month ago at Daytona. Just like with Michael, some think that due to Kenny's fun-loving TV persona that he's not all that serious about racing, but that couldn't be further from the truth for both Kenny and Michael. I've seen both of their serious sides, and both men are just as passionate, competitive and focused when it comes to racing as any other driver. So I feel very bad for Kenny that his team has been struggling so much. The big problem for that team is that they don't have as much resources as the larger teams have so it's harder for them to make the necessary improvements to keep up with some of the other go-or-go-home teams that seem to have stepped things up lately.
Something that I think is important to mention is in relation to Michael and his team that relates to the way people perceive him as I mentioned above. Michael's been criticized a lot because some feel that he has too many outside distractions and that it takes away from time he should be spending with his team trying to improve. Granted there wasn't a truck race this weekend that Michael had to be in the booth for, but I spent a lot of time observing Michael and his team and I can say that he puts as much time in as any other driver does when it comes to working with his team. Michael spent time before and after practices talking things over with them, and he was 100% serious and focused whenever I saw him during all three practices. Some seem to think that the way Michael is on TV - goofy, carefree, constantly plugging his sponsors, etc... is the way he is at all times, but that's not the case. And for those who would say, well, it's great that Michael was working with his other teams, but he's also an owner so he should have been working with his other teams as well - Ty Norris was there all weekend. As general manager it's his responsibility to take care of things with all three teams.
A the end of the second practice it was another good opportunity to get some shots of some of the drivers walking around the garage area though most of them were pretty hasty in making their way to their haulers or to the motorcoach lot since the garage area was a lot more crowded than it had been earlier. Jim and I went to get some food and when we got back I spotted Michael as did a number of other people. Because I had just seen him the day before and I knew I'd be seeing him the following day, I kind of hung back and just took some photos instead of trying to talk to him or anything, partially because of my reluctance to be a part of the swarm for Michael or any driver. Michael was really good about signing autographs for everyone who wanted one as he walked through the garage area - where his hauler was he could have opted to get back to the motorcoach lot via the alternate route and avoid all the fans, but instead he walked from one end to the other signing as he went, in spite of how clearly overheated he was from having just been in the car. Maybe it's because he's not raced as many full races as many of the other drivers or because he's a lot bigger than the majority of drivers but it seemed like the heat was effecting Michael a lot more than some others - he looked like he was sweating buckets and had a cool towel around his neck, whereas a lot of other other driver seemed unaffected by the heat.
Speaking of the size of the drivers, one thing I had noticed when we were at Pocono in June that I noticed again this weekend is that the drivers seem to be getting smaller and smaller. Of course there were always a lot of short and thin drivers so the bigger drivers like Michael, DJ and Elliott Sadler really stick out like sore thumbs. But it seems like even the drivers who are average sized are losing weight and getting tinier. So many of the drivers looked like a stiff gust of wind would blow them over. Yeah, I know, I'm one to talk since I'm so tiny myself, but it just seems abnormal for men to be that small. A lot of female fans seem to find those tiny drivers very attractive, but I find it kind of gross how small some of them are. Michael talked in a recent interview about how he's gained 25 pounds since 2005, the last time he ran a marathon, and how he wanted to get himself into shape again to run another marathon. Part of me wonders if Michael who I thought looked terrific, would be so conscious of that weight gain if he wasn't surrounded by so many others who are so dramatically smaller than he is. It's not just the drivers who are small either - there really aren't many who are over-weight, even by a little bit in the garage area.
Anyway, back to Saturday, I would have loved to watch the ARCA race to see Josh Wise race but I was having so much trouble with the heat that there was no way that I was going to be able to spend any more time in the hot sun. So we ended up watching some of Busch qualifying from Montreal somewhere air conditioned with David's motorcoach driver, who is extremely nice and quite a character (in a good way), and his cousin. Which wrapped up another fun day at the track. As we left I was getting excited already for the following day - race day!
Posted by silverdsl at 08:45 AM | Comments (0)
August 07, 2007
Pocono Day One
I don't really even know where to start!! So how about at the beginning? For those that don't know how this came about this was all in relation to winning an auction for The Waltrip Challenge. Some might remember I was at Pocono in June, that was when the original experience was supposed to take place, but when Michael DNQ'd that threw things into disarray, so this was a do-over. And I'm happy to say that it was a major success - we had an awesome time at the track this weekend! :) Michael was great to us, as was David, Josh Wise and others from MWR - we spent quite a bit of time with the #00 team and they were terrific! :)
Friday was practice and qualifying, but we got to the track well before any on-track activities started to avoid any potential traffic issues. Even though it was early, that didn't mean that there was nothing going on in the garage area - in spite of it being several hours before the first practice, the teams were already hard at work on the cars getting ready for inspection, and there were a number of drivers out and about. So we wandered around taking in the sights - of course it didn't take me long to find where the #55's stall was located!
Of course as it got closer and closer to when we were to meet with Michael, the more nervous I got. Benito, Michael's awesome motorcoach driver, took us back to the motorcoach lot, and between the heat and my nerves it was a wonder that Michael didn't find me collapsed on the ground when he finally came out to greet us! The last time I saw Michael was two years ago, and I figured he wouldn't remember me but apparently he did because he told me how good it was to see me again and gave me a hug. I had all these things prepared to say to him, but that made me completely speechless!!
So when I was able to talk, I gave him the messages and he said that yes, he looks forward to getting them each week. I asked him whether he got "101 Reasons the Wal-Nutz Love their Head Nut" and he said that he did, and that he liked it because it reminded him that "this" can be fun. I then gave him two things for good luck - a coin with an angel on it, and a rutilated quartz crystal. I figured he would like the coin better, but he seemed really fascinated by the crystal and asked me a number of questions about it.
Michael ended up putting both the coin and crystal in his pocket in the hopes it would bring him luck that day and that made me feel good that he seemed to like getting them. We got to talk to Michael for about 10 minutes or so about a variety of things, half of which I can't remember because I was so in awe, but I do remember asking him about how he designed the MWR logo, which led to some discussion about drawing and photography. (He used to draw a lot and doesn't do photography because he's too "anal" about making the photos be perfect.) there was some discussion about him being an owner, and I told him that I liked that he was doing something that would keep him involved in the sport for years to come, and he said that yes, he can't drive until he's 100, but he can own until then. I tried to avoid talking much about the teams and racing, but he brought up a couple of things on his own. I tried to be positive and complimentary which he seemed to appreciate, but it was clear that he's still feeling stress and pressure over the way things have been going for his teams. Overall Michael was in good spirits, but since it was a race weekend he wasn't fully relaxed because he had so many obligations ahead of him. Before I knew it, Michael had to go to tape something for Coke, but before he left he gave me another hug. :)
We went back to the garage area and walked around some more but before practice started Jim wanted to go find the merchandise hauler. When we walked towards the tunnel, we ended up running into Michael again just by sheer coincidence, as he was just finishing up the taping. There was quite a swarm of people who decended on Michael and he signed some autographs before Benito whisked him away on the cart. I ran into Ruth over there as well, and it was nice to finally meet her in person. :) Unfortunately we never ended up finding Michael's merchandise hauler because it wasn't there. Phyllis and Homer took the weekend off and apparently they couldn't find anyone to fill in. That probably cost Michael a lot of money in merchandise sales - I know Jim and I had planned on buying some stuff and surely others were as well.
Next up was practice, and I had fun taking photos of the drivers headed to their cars and then once they got in their cars, them waiting to go out to practice. Then it was time for us to meet Josh Wise. We walked over to the ARCA garage with Jennifer, David's PR woman, and discovered that Josh was a bit preoccupied because there was a brake problem on his car that needed to be addressed before their qualifying. I spoke with Josh briefly then, and than longer later in the weekend - he's much quieter than Michael or David, but he's also extremely nice. He also had a great attitude towards racing and he's extremely competitive - I have no doubt he's going to be very successful for MWR in the future.
After that we went back to the Cup garage to watch the rest of practice, and as you can tell from my photos, I wandered around some, but I mostly I staked out a spot near the #55 stall to watch them at work which was pretty interesting. Whenever Michael got out of his car he looked very intense and not all that happy so I was kind of concerned, but towards the end of practice I asked one of his crew members how things were going, and he said that they were second fastest of the go-or-go-homers so I felt better. When practice ended Michael walked back to his hauler and as he passed me by he had a big smile and a wave for me - he's really great when it comes to his fans, whenever he saw me all weekend he acknowledged me in some way. :)
What was interesting to observe in the garage area during the weekend was the drivers and how they moved around. Obviously there's fans who want their autograph, and the amount of fans increases as the weekend goes on. However, the drivers are there to work with their teams and sometimes if they stop to sign one autograph, they might get mobbed, yes, even in the garage area. So every driver seemed to have a strategy for being as stealth as possible when they didn't want to be bothered which usually involved trying to walk through areas where fans weren't.
That said, at one time or another I saw just about every single driver signing for fans, either in the garage area, in autograph alley or in the case of Junior on pit road during qualifying. Even the most popular drivers like Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson spent quite a bit of time signing for fans in autograph alley, and then Jeff signed many additional autographs as he walked back through the garage after qualifying. So if anyone complains that some driver or another doesn't sign autographs, odds are that person just didn't see them when they were signing because the drivers sign a lot, it's just a matter of catching them at the right time. The only exception might be Tony Stewart who I've never seen signing anything except items for charity.
Juan Pablo Montoya believe it or not, was actually one of the few drivers who didn't seem to bother trying to hide at all at any time, and he was also the only driver other than the MWR drivers that I interacted with. I guess because he saw a lot of me standing by the #00 hauler which was next to his, every time he saw me he said hi or smiled which was cool. The other thing about JPM is that there was media who wanted to interview him constantly, probably as much as Junior or Jeff Gordon. So unlike some other drivers that would agree to interviews whenever a reporter walked up to them, JPM would tell them to talk to his PR person first because there was no way he could agree to every interview because that's all he would end up doing all day.
Next up was qualifying. Early in the day I had every intention of bouncing back and forth between pit road and the garage area to take photos, but by that time the heat had really gotten to me and I wasn't feeling all that well in spite of downing a lot of water and powerade. So I knew I couldn't stand out in the sun on pit road so I stood in the shade in the garage and watched the teams and drivers go out for qualifying. It actually ended up being a good spot as I got some good photos of some of the drivers.
Eventually though as everyone knows the clouds started coming in so I went back in the garage area. Now I wasn't using my scanner so I had no idea what was going on with Michael or David. So when Benito walked by I asked him how Michael did and you can imagine my horror when he told me that Michael had brushed the wall. However, Benito must have been walking around away from a scanner or coverage of qualifying for a while because by the time I found Jim again he told me that in spite of the brush with the wall, Michael was now locked in... except that the rain was coming. We decided to sit by the #00 hauler until qualifying ended which ended up working out really well because we encountered David who had some interviews to do. Between interviews he chatted with us since he remembered us from last time. David is really awesome! He's so friendly and easy to talk to. I gave David the messages and he said that he really enjoys Cathy's cover sheets because they're always so funny. He was in a very good mood and joked around with us about living in New Jersey.
Once the rain came I really started freaking out because I was so worried that qualifying would get rained out. Even though it was just a brief rain shower, it seemed to take them a really long time to dry the track and there was more rain on the way. So I was really afraid that Michael would get bit by Mother Nature once again. I later found out that if I was freaking out, as you can imagine everyone with the team was ready to pull their hair out that they were so close to making it in but once again rain was an issue. Much to Jim's dismay I made him stay until qualifying got restarted and then finished just to be sure that Michael was in. I was thrilled for Michael when qualifying was over and he was in, but also excited for myself because I knew that they had some plans for me for race day if Michael made it in.
ETA: Just wanted to add a couple of things I've been thinking about...
When we were talking with Michael he made a comment about how he "thinks differently than other people and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing." I immediately said that I though it was a very good thing, and I do - I think one of the reasons why I like Michael so much, and it's likely true for Jim too is that we recognize that Michael is very creative, full of ideas and most of all, Michael marches to the beat of his own drummer. Jim and I also tend to think differently and see the world from a different point-of-view than many others around us. So we often like others who are unique and quirky and think differently as well. To us those things are very positive qualities. However, the garage area tends to be conservative. There's a lot of rules - some written and some just understood. There's accepted ways of doing things and those who buck the system, like Robby Gordon, sometimes stick out like a sore thumb. So thinking differently likely is a major asset to Michael because it allows him to be forward-thinking, take risks, be creative and be an innovator in the sport (Raceworld is a good example of this), it might also create problems for him as well. Not everyone in the garage area might be able to understand or relate to why he's doing certain things. But I admire Michael's courage for doing things his own way.
As I mentioned above we talked a little about drawing and photography - I bet a lot of people would never think that a Nascar driver would talk about stuff like that. But I've always been intrigued that Michael used to do a lot of drawing, and still sometimes does, as well as that he designed the MWR logo. That's so cool to me. And I've been wanting to ask him about whether he's ever done any photography for a long time because I think he's be very good at it - people who have an eye for design often take very good photos. But he said he get frustrated with taking photos because he wants them to come out perfect. Somehow I suspect his imperfect photos are far better than a lot of people's supposedly perfect photos! He also indicated that he would have trouble using a digital camera and remembering what he needed to do to take a good photo. That made me laugh inside because I have a great deal of trouble, likely because of my learning disability, remembering the rules of good photography. So a long time ago I decided I was just going to take photos the way I wanted, the way that felt right and forget most of the rules. It's worked out pretty good for me so far. A big problem I think Michael would have with photography is the size of the cameras. The trend is towards shrinking the cameras, and even the larger cameras like I use have tiny little buttons. With his big hands that's something that he might have difficulty with. Well, maybe someday MWR will have a camera sponsor like Canon or Olympus and they'll get him to use a camera for a promotion - it would be really interesting to see what kind of photos he would take.
Posted by silverdsl at 09:59 PM | Comments (2)
December 19, 2006
Josh Wise Topped the Speed Charts at ARCA Testing
Josh Wise tested an ARCA car for Toyota this past weekend in Daytona and he was fast. So fast that he topped the speed charts in testing on Friday and Saturday. Which is an accomplishement for a driver who doesn't to my knowledge have a huge amount of experience in stock cars. Wise is a Michael Waltrip Racing development driver and the ARCA team he'll be driving with next season has an alliance with MWR. That Wise was so fast is encouraging news about MWR's overall operations because
The ARCA Re/Max Series and NASCAR Nextel Cup Series run virtually identical equipment. The data numbers recorded here will be taken back to Waltrip Racing and crunched by a slew of engineers.
Which hopefully means that the MWR Cup cars will also be fast when they show up at Daytona for testing in January. I'm also happy to hear that there's a slew of engineers at MWR!
I've seen some mild criticism of Wise topping the speed charts because he's affilated with a Cup team. What gets me is that a lot of fans have been riding the young driver=bad driver bandwagon and complaining about how drivers are being handed rides before they have any experience, without accomplishing anything in lower series. So here we have an organization developing a young driver, taking it slow by starting him out in ARCA and the truck series, yet there's still criticism, because his team is affiliated with a Cup team. The car isn't fielded completely by MWR, the team is presumably just getting some help technically and otherwise from MWR. What's MWR supposed to do, have their development driver fend for himself in ARCA? I think MWR is doing things exactly right with Wise because they're going to help him develop as a driver, help him get experience and get a sense of what results he might be capable of before advancing him full-time to a higher level.
I've not seen any discussion of this anywhere else, but I can't help but notice that another driver affiliated with a Cup team was also testing an ARCA car - Erin Crocker. Some have speculated that she's done as a driver since things didn't work out for her in the Truck Series thus far, but apparently not. I think it's unfortunate that she might have to take a step back to a lower level next season if sponsorship for a truck can't be found, but it also might benefit her to race where they'll be less attention on what she's doing - or in her case not doing on the track. I'd really like to see her succeed but I think she needs to develop more confidence and learn more about racing in Nascar's higher levels.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)
November 13, 2006
In the News: Michael Waltrip (11/13)
I was interested to hear what Michael Waltrip might have to say on tonight's Inside Nextel Cup about the events of this weekend. But he wasn't there due to having "business" to take care of. Had he been there, I'm sure he'd love to go off on a major tirade about how upset he was that his car was even worse garbage than usual the past two races, to the point where engine problems caused him to DNF in both races. But with his "teammate," Dave Blaney, as part of the panel on tonight's show, it probably would have been tough for Michael to say what he thinks, not that I'd expect him to rip Bill Davis Racing anyway since he'll be working with them to some degree next season and beyond, given that they'll be a fellow Toyota team to Michael Waltrip Racing. But I think all of Michael's fans have been doing a pretty good job of getting angry on Michael's behalf this season - the cars that BDR have given Michael have been unacceptably bad for a team with a $15-20 million sponsor in NAPA, even with the lack of manufacturer support. I'm definitely not looking forward to the end of the season because it means no more racing, but for Michael's sake I'm going to be very happy when his arrangement with BDR where they provide cars for him ends at the conclusion of this season, and MWR is fully responsible for the #55. There are sure to be some struggles, but I'm hopeful that with everything under his control, Michael will have much more success in 2007!
But before the focus turns completely to 2007, there's one more race weekend left this season. All three series - Trucks, Busch and Cup will race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. I'm especially looking forward to the truck race because Michael will be racing the #12 truck! Michael said,
“I’ve never won a Craftsman Truck race and that’s something I’d really like to accomplish. It’s a great Series and I know why David and so many people are fond of it. We’re hoping to put on a good show for Jani-King and Toyota this weekend.”
I have no doubt that it not only will be a good show, but a great show!! I would love to see Michael in Victory Lane in a truck, joining the elite drivers who have won on all three of Nascar's highest levels. But I'll also be very happy to just see Michael in a competitive truck, able to race up front and maybe most importantly considering how lousy this season's been for him - have some fun!
As I mentioned in a previous entry, David Reutimann will be making his last start in the Truck Series as a full-time driver and he's definitely going to miss the Truck Series. He said,
“It’s my final race with my crew chief (Jason Overstreet) and the guys. That encompasses everyone from in the fab shop, my race day guys and my pit crew. Each one of them contributed a lot of time and energy and all of them have been in my corner even when things weren’t going good. I owe those guys a lot and it’s tough for me to get up and leave. I’m not going to have the opportunity to race with them any more and that’s the bummer part of the deal. That’s what bothers me the most.”
I had heard that David's current team in the Truck Series was going to move up to the Busch Series with him, but I assume that isn't correct if David is talking about no longer working with his team. Anytime a driver bonds with his crew chief and team, it's probably difficult when the time comes to leave, but maybe even more so when everyone is still on good terms. But if the plan is still for MWR to absorb the truck team, then David will still surely see his former team sometimes, and especially if he's in the truck for a few races.
Another driver who will be behind the wheel of an MWR truck in 2007 for a few races is Josh Wise, who was formerly introduced as a MWR driver. Wise was crowned the 2006 USAC National Sprint Car Series champion this past weekend, which also featured a win in the Western World Championships feature at Manzanita Speedway on Saturday night. Wise drove for Tony Stewart's USAC team, which surely means that Wise has a tremendous amount of driving ability, because Stewart isn't going to put just anyone behind the wheel of one of his cars. Next season Wise will race some ARCA and Truck races for MWR, and they've already tested him in a truck a few times. I'm pretty excited about Wise racing for MWR - I think it's very important for teams to develop young drivers for the future. It sounds like MWR is doing things the right way too. Instead of throwing Wise into a car or truck that he might not have enough experience for, they're going to take it slow with him and have him start out in ARCA and trucks both. I would assume that if he progresses well, he might race the truck, or even the Busch car full-time in 2008.
Posted by silverdsl at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2006
In the News: Michael Waltrip (10/5)
Things continue to move along for Michael Waltrip and Michael Waltrip Racing as this season nears it's end and 2007 looms ever closer. There's been some question about the fate of the #17 truck, currently fielded by Darrell Waltrip Motorsports. In a recent interview Michael confirmed that the #17 truck was going to become a part of MWR, and last week in the print edition of Nascar Scene it was revealed that there won't be just one driver behind the wheel, even though the plan is to field the truck full-time. Apparently as it stands now, Michael will be one of the drivers who takes a turn in the #17, along with D.W. and possibly some of the other Toyota Cup drivers. I'm really excited about Michael possibly racing some truck races! I think he'd have a great time racing the truck, and it sure would be fun to see! The Truck Series features some really awesome racing, and I'd love to see Michael be a part of that! The #17 truck has been without sponsorship for the majority of this season so it makes sense that MWR might go to this type of model with the truck, where they put a variety of mostly Cup drivers behind the wheel. I think they probably won't have too many problems finding sponsors for the races that the Cup drivers race because naturally they're going to attract a lot of attention during the TV broadcast and otherwise.
MWR is also expanding their driver development program. Ken Butler III was already racing some Hooters Pro Cup races for MWR, but he's going to be racing in the ARCA and Truck Series for MWR as well next season, along with newly signed Josh Wise, who previously raced USAC Sprint and Midget cars for Tony Stewart. I can't say I know much about Butler or Wise, other than that Butler is the son of Aaron's president Ken Butler, and as already noted, Wise has been racing cars owned by Stewart. So it's really hard to know how good they might or might not be next season or beyond. But Wise must be fairly good if Stewart has been fielding cars for him. I'm pretty excited about MWR developing young drivers. I love seeing young drivers learn the ropes, progress and eventually, if everything goes well, have success. It's also another positive sign about MWR, that not only are they focused on the near future in terms of what they're going to do next season, but also years beyond. They're trying to prepare for the day when Michael, Dale Jarrett and maybe even David Reutimann, are retired and they're going to need drivers to take their place. Michael has always seemed very forward thinking and I'm glad that his company seems to be as well. I hope that he's able to develop some good young talent who will be part of the organization for many years to come.
Michael did a pretty interesting, and at times revealing, "Ten Questions With..." on Nascar.com a few days ago. One question Michael was asked about was his most embarassing moment in or out of racing. He declined to discuss what came to mind first, so I'm thinking that it was pretty embarassing! He then mentioned the incident with Lake Speed back in 1995 when he got angry at Speed, blocked him in on pit road, then jumped out of his car, went over to Speed and punched him. Michael said,
"This might be a passionate sport that wipes out all reason, but there was still no excuse for it. There are a hundred times when something can set you off, and that just set me off."
When I read that, I was trying to remember if other drivers who have temporarily lost their minds in a similar way have admitted to embarassing themselves. My feeling has always been that as much as I understand that this is an emotional sport and that the drivers are going to get angry and lose control of their emotions at times, that there's no excuse for physically going after each other or otherwise throwing temper tantrums. But it seems that while sometimes the drivers offer up weak apologies for their behavior (that are probably written for them by their PR reps) I'm not sure that the drivers truly understand how poorly their behavior reflects on them sometimes. I'm glad that Michael is aware enough about the way he's perceived to understand that.
Michael was also asked about what athlete outside of racing he admires the most. He said Arnold Palmer and then said,
"I always try to put people that I know a little bit, but that are better than me -- or that do a better job at living life than I do -- at the top of my lists, so that I can hopefully aspire to straighten up and live more like they do, one day."
That's pretty interesting to me to think about. Myself and countless other fans look up to and admire Michael and the rest of his fellow drivers. But I don't think anyone gives much thought that these drivers also have people they in turn admire as well, and wish they could be more like. There are very definitely some qualities that Michael has that I wish I had - he's very forward thinking, he's very good at making his ideas become reality, he's extraordinarily persausive and has the ability to draw people in, to name a few things, but he's also very committed to charitable causes and has been known to reach out to those in need when he can. I try to do those things as well, but I wish I was able to do even more.
(Since one of my few rules for this blog is that I won't discuss politics, I'm not touching his political comments with a ten foot pole.)
As his biggest vice, Michael said that it's his tendency to run off and hide at times. He said,
" I always seem to want to go somewhere where no one else is and spend some time with me. That means you hide sometimes, and that's not good, so if I could change anything about myself, I would not internalize so much. So I guess that's sort of complex, but I like to run off and hide sometimes."
Given the demands on Michael's time and how much time he has to spend not only in the company of a lot of other people, but also making them happy and maybe even doing what they want him to do as opposed to doing or saying what he wants to do, I'd say that going off by himself and being with just himself and his thoughts isn't a bad thing in the least. I would say that internalizing things isn't good though, and he mentioned previously that he's not always good at communicating about problems he has with others. That's not so good because keeping things inside can eat you up and cause even more problems - I know all about how that goes.
Michael also talked about how he'd like to go back and live in the time when Jesus did. He joked,
"Plus, you got to wear sandals and a leather skirt -- without feeling like there's something wrong with you -- and that sounds pretty cool. I might just get me some sandals and a leather skirt someday and go to the drivers' meeting that way -- just walk out across the garage area and say "Hey, I'm Mike and I'm comfortable with who I am."
I don't know about wearing a skirt and sandals - that might be scary on a guy who's 6'5"! But I'd like Michael to be able to be comfortable with exactly who he is, without having to worry about molding himself based on others expectations or worrying about what others think. All the drivers have to worry about things like that. They need to be concerned with saying and doing the right things, even if they might have different opinions or want to do something differently, in case they offend their team, sponsor or the fans. It can't be easy. And particularly for someone like Michael who is not only very intelligent, but is such a unique personality in comparision to those around him.
Michael finished with this,
"I've tried to say that I'm a dad and I'm a husband -- that's who I am, and my job is that I'm a racecar driver. And I've always tried to say that I'm not going to let that job mess up my life or make me have a bad day. But after many bad days recently, I've come to understand that I need to continue to work on defining who I am and what makes me happy."
I think it's hard for a driver, particularly one who has been racing for as long as Michael has been to say that it's simply a job. Like it or not, racing is very much his life, past, present and future, as much as his family is and I think it's hard to separate it completely from the rest of his life. It's a huge part of who he is, his lifestyle and he'd be a very different person, with a very different life if he wasn't involved in racing. I hope that Michael is able to define for himself more clearly who he is and what makes him happy in the way that he wants.
This weekend the Cup Series heads to Talladega, a track where Michael has won at before. Michael ending up in Victory Lane would be a real surprise as much as I'd like to see that happen, considering how poor the #55 has been most of the season. But I'll be happy if Michael successfully qualifies for the race and finishes in the top 20. I'll be thrilled with a finish that's even better of course too!
Posted by silverdsl at 09:10 PM | Comments (0)
September 19, 2006
In the News: Michael Waltrip (9/19)
Unfortunately for fans of Michael Waltrip who have grown used to being able to listen in to the #55 team's radio communications each week via Trackpass, Michael was taken off of Trackpass this past weekend in New Hampshire. Most people freaked out, and I was just as disappointed, but unlike everyone else I wasn't surprised. At some point in the past, I saw it said that drivers outside the top 35 in points aren't eligible to be included on Trackpass. So once Michael dropped to 36th in points, I knew that he could be removed any race. In addition, I knew that heading into the Chase for the Championship that those who run Trackpass were going to want to include as many Chase drivers as possible. Many fans emailed and called to complain, and some were told that Michael would be added back this weekend (and definitely in 2007), and I hope that's true, but I'm not getting my hopes up. It's a shame though because it adds to my enjoyment and understanding of the race when I can listen to Michael's radio. Not to mention it's often the only way of knowing exactly what's going on with the team and what problems they might be facing.
Since only those who subscribe to the in-car on cable TV were able to hear the radio communications of the #55 team it wasn't until the post-race report that most of us knew that Michael had to battle a lot of handling problems during the race to fight his way to a 23rd place finish. The car was tight, the car was loose, but somehow Tommy Baldwin, Jr. and the team got the car to be good enough for Michael to finish in the top 25 with it. He was even able to pass Dale Jarrett on the last restart for 23rd. Michael said,
“I’m real proud of how our team bounced back after last week. It shows just how much character we have. We didn’t have the best car out there today, but this NAPA Auto Parts team gave it their best shot and we finished 12 spots higher than where we started. Tommy and the guys in the pit did a great job.”
Finishing that many spots higher than where they started is an accomplishment to be proud of, especially considering how many races they've struggled to finish even a couple of spots better than where they started. 23rd isn't exactly amazing of course, but it's better than a lot of finishes they've had this season.
Bob Margolis, writing for Yahoo Sports, is just one of several media members and a number of fans, who took issue with Michael racing Kevin Harvick hard on lap 184 to stay on the lead lap. What's Michael supposed to do, pull over and let Kevin go by without a fight? Michael has raced for very little that counts this season, I don't think it's ridiculous for him to race hard to stay on the lead lap, when so many races this season he's finished multiple laps down. At New Hampshire he had a car that wasn't the most competitive on the track, but it seemed like it was good enough to be a lead lap car, though he ultimately finished as the first car a lap down. "Happy" wasn't exactly happy with Michael for racing him so hard either. He said,
"Maybe he should have been racing that hard earlier in the race so that he wasn't where he was [at the tail end of the field]."
Well, maybe if Michael had been given a better car by Bill Davis Racing, and didn't have so many handling problems, he wouldn't have to start the race at the back of the field and then he wouldn't have had to race Kevin so hard to stay on the lead lap. I find it kind of irritating when drivers and other complain that some driver or another shouldn't have been racing them hard. Yes, if a driver is 50 laps down, and has no hope of getting back on the lead lap, or if they're a much slower car or it's the last lap and they're in the way of the leader, I think a driver should ease up and let the faster, lead lap or leading cars go by. However, otherwise, the drivers are out there to race and that's exactly what they should be doing, even Michael who is out of the Chase.
Michael had a guest in his pit during the race, and it was A.J. Allmendinger, who finished 13th in his first Truck start for BDR on Saturday. The Tampa Tribune notes that Michael and DW will have a vacancy in the truck they will be fielding in 2007 and Allmendinger doesn't have a contract with a team yet. Michael already denied that Allmendinger is in the mix for the #00 Cup car, but that would be a nice pick-up to have a driver like Allmendinger in his truck. However, I think it's more likely that Allmendinger is being considered for the second Red Bull Racing Cup car, though it might be a good idea for him to get some experience, even on a part-time basis, before throwing him into a Cup car full-time.
In other Michael Waltrip Racing related news, I didn't see 7 Days on Speed last night, but apparently Jeff Dickerson, who is an agent and spotter for Kyle Busch was one. If I'm understanding correctly, one of his clients is Josh Wise, who is a USAC Sprint Car racer and apparently also now a MWR development driver. Apparently he will race some ARCA and Truck races for MWR next season. Like I said I didn't see this myself, so I don't know exactly how accurate all of this is, but I do hope that MWR has signed him to their driver development program. I'd like to see MWR add another young driver or two who might end up being the future of MWR. Too bad Joey Miller isn't still in the mix though.
Posted by silverdsl at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)