May 16, 2010
By Kim Roberson
Kim Roberson
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Starting a team in NASCAR is no easy task, especially in this day and age. Starting a successful team is even harder. Just
look at the number of "go or go homers" at the track each weekend, and the number of teams who have given the sport a try
only to have to fold up shop and give up when they couldn't find a way to make races or pay the bills.
This could have been the fate of Michael Waltrip Racing four years ago. When the driver of the No. 15 Dale Earnhardt
Incorporated Chevrolet decided he wanted to strike out on his own, many didn't give him much of a chance. Michael Waltrip
had only won four NASCAR points-paying races in his 20-year career, all of them with DEI, and if he couldn't win races, how
could he create a winning race team?
"I think I was a little naive when I started to think we could have had success so soon," explained Waltrip this weekend in
Dover. "I thought we’d have success much quicker. Our relationship with Toyota and what they had done in the trucks and
their history in racing made me believe we could win right away and it would be a great story."
In fact, after spending a year teaming with Bill Davis Racing as he waited for Toyota to enter the Sprint Cup Series,
Waltrip went to the Daytona 500 in 2007 expecting to come right out of the box strong with cars driven by himself, and
teammates Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann. Instead, NASCAR inspectors found something questionable in their fuel, and
confiscated all three primary cars.
"You know, quite frankly, the first year could have been our last'" admits Waltrip. Many people expected that it would be.
But Waltrip persevered, and thanks to his relationships with some key sponsors, he was able to make it through that first
year and build on the lessons learned.
"The team is slowly coming together. I think in a way, it has happened in a more realistic storyline (than his original
plan). We have gotten a little bit better every year. We didn’t make races in '07. We made them all in '08 but didn’t
contend. We contended and won in '09 -- and now in '10 we are stepping the performance up further."
That step up includes becoming a familiar team at the top of the qualifying list in Dover. Last year, David Reutimann took
the pole at the spring race at the Monster Mile. This year, it was his new teammate, Martin Truex Jr.
Truex left the former DEI at the end of last season after taking on the role of lead driver when Dale Earnhardt Jr.
left the team for Hendrick Motorsports two years ago. When Truex announced he was looking to leave DEI, several teams came
knocking on his door, but it was MWR where he ended up. Waltrip was pleased that MWR is now not only a contender in races,
but at the top of the list for drivers looking for new rides. "That was a lot of progress from our original year."
Truex is pleased with his role at MWR, and how he has been slowly making his mark as part of the team. "We've come a long
way in a short amount of time as a new team coming together."
Reutimann has MWR's lone Sprint Cup Series win, coming a year ago at the Coca Cola 600 in Charlotte in a rain-shortened race. Many thought
that might have been a fluke, a lucky break, but Reutimann has been running strong since then, even if his standing in this
year's points doesn't indicate that fact.
Reutimann was known that first season with MWR for being a nervous wreck before qualifying. "Being outside the top 35,
you're sick to your stomach every time qualifying time rolls around. You know you have to go out there and you basically
have one lap to try to get into the race. And it's going to make or break your weekend. And that's the mentality you
have. You unload and you're just a nervous wreck from the time the practice starts until the time you get into the race."
He says now that they are known for being a competitive team, the pressure on he and the No. 00 team has changed. "The
pressure to go out and run good in the race, as opposed to the pressure to just get into the race. And it's pressure in
the same being, but it's a different kind of pressure. Because even if you go out there and you screw up and you lap,
you're going to go home. There's no worse feeling at all than having that pressure on you. And sometimes when it does
happen, you end up having to go home, which I've had to do in the past, it's just miserable. And I'm a miserable person to
be around.
"Now (I have) different kinds of pressures, different situations, but (I'm) having a lot more fun doing it this way."
One of the things Waltrip is best known for is his ability to promote his sponsors. Waltrip teamed with sponsor NAPA in
February 2001 when he drove, and won, his first race for friend and boss Dale Earnhardt. It has been a partnership that has
been filled with highs and lows, but the loyalty the driver and sponsor have forged with each other has paid off in more
ways than Waltrip ever expected. "When I started with NAPA, that first race, the whole world changed in 100 different ways.
If I had of had a master plan, it would have changed with that race. But I have always appreciated and loved people who
have wanted to sponsor me. If you wanted to be on my car, that is an honor. If you wanted to spend money on me for me to
represent you and me to race my car for you, then I try to go way beyond the call of duty to make sure you get value out of
the money that you spend."
The businessman in Waltrip understands that building strong relationships and loyalty with sponsors means they will be
there for you through thick and thin, success and failure.
"If it wasn’t for the relationships I had built over the years with my sponsors, new people wouldn’t have hung around (as
the team faltered that first season). Fortunately for me, NAPA and Aarons and Best Western and Toyota did believe in what
we were doing and did believe in where we were going. I just owe so much to a few key people in those companies that said
we are going to be there with you -- we’re real fortunate that those partners, through the tough times, especially NAPA and
Aarons, they said 'we’re with you, you are making it hard, but we’re with you.'"
So, what is next for MWR? They may be a young team, but they have the lofty goals needed to succeed in NASCAR's top series.
"If you look at the top 12 in points, I think the average age of those teams is 25-26 years, and I added it up the other
day, and we are just outside the Chase in 13th and we have three (full) years of history. I think people see us as a young,
upcoming team. Martin has certainly made our cars more relevant than they have been, particularly the NAPA car, in the
past. David's performance has been solid the last couple of years. I believe people see us as an organization that can get
up there and contend and challenge (for the Chase)."
For a team that was almost run out of the sport four years ago, being a contender for the Chase doesn't actually seem all
that long of a reach.
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