Hi Everyone –

Last week, I had a really cool week.

It started off with a trip to California for the taping of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader” with host Jeff Foxworthy. The show is going into syndication starting in September and I was there to participate in “NASCAR Week”. I played for the Victory Junction Gang Camp and I hope I raised the most money of all the drivers who played. I’ll keep you posted as to when it will air. I won’t tell you how well I did. It was a lot of fun and I like all the Hollywood projects I’ve been doing. It might be another calling for me.

Then it was off to Milwaukee for SPEED to help broadcast the Truck race with Phil and Rick. I was supposed to do it on Friday night and then fly to San Francisco to support the Cup teams, but it rained so I stayed over. I did the Truck race on Saturday afternoon and then cheered on my No. 99 Nationwide Series team as they raced there that night. Trevor Bayne and the No. 99 team was fast in the end and got a top-15 finish.

I flew home with the Nationwide team and got to enjoy watching the MWR and JTG-Daugherty teams on track at Infineon. I think it is important every now and then to take a different view of things. I was able to step back and watch the Cup race and listen to the scanner stuff. For me, it was an educational experience. I also appreciated all the hard work the guys did. I really liked what I saw. 

As a driver, I have had top-five and top-10 finishes at Infineon. I believe I could have pulled another one off, but our best chance for a win was with Patrick Carpentier. Unfortunately, the NAPA team got a day behind. They had a tough day on Friday and then they got caught up on the second day. Any time at this level you give a day away, it’s very difficult to overcome. I am proud of the 11th-place result we posted especially since Patrick got spun out early and had to come from behind. Overall, I am pleased at what I saw happen last weekend. Everybody did a great job.

Now it’s off to New Hampshire and back in the NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota. I am looking to better last year’s second-place finish so be watching!

Bye for Now,

Michael Waltrip

Hi Everyone –

I had a really good week. It started off by going to Kentucky for a couple of days for my sponsor Aaron’s. I spent time with their folks. It was really enjoyable. Then it was off to Michigan for the race. On Saturday I had the good fortune of doing the Truck race on SPEED. That’s a lot of fun talking Trucks with Phil Parsons and Rick Allen. Those guys make the Truck coverage so much fun for me to be a part of.

Then on Sunday morning, I spent time with my NAPA friends up in their suite. What a view and way to watch the race. We took a bunch of pictures and they really seemed to have fun.

Then it was off to the race for me and as you already know, it was a tough day for us. We survived. I thought we had a decent car after Saturday’s final practice. Then in the race, none of our three cars really ran all that great. I guess from time to time we are going to have days like that because we are a young, relatively new organization. We are still learning and getting better. Our three cars were really loose from lap two on. We were all just sideways. Our finish was certainly not what we were hoping for. We had a faster car than that. It just wouldn’t get any traction in the turns so it made for a challenging day. My arms were really tired. I am just happy to have survived to the finish. It allowed us to move up in the standings. It is my goal to get the No. 55 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota in the top 20 in championship points by the end of the season.

We’re now getting ready to head off to the NAPA Valley – Sonoma and the Infineon Raceway. Patrick Carpentier is going to drive my NAPA Toyota. He is a great road racer and has won races all over the world. I am really fortunate to have had some success on road courses. I have had some top-five and top-10 finishes. I just was never good enough to be in the fight for a win. As an owner, I want to win. Winning at Charlotte with David as my driver and me winning as an owner was as gratifying as anything I have ever done. It would mean a whole lot to me to see my NAPA car in victory lane. We’re going to take our best chance to win and that’s with Patrick Carpentier.

I am looking forward to watching the race this weekend especially when it comes to the double-file restarts. They are really cool. I think it is visually appealing for the fans. The cars are all stacked up and lined up on top of each other. It is just fun to watch. We raced that way on the big old Pocono track and at Michigan. A lot of cars got to race against each other. I think it is fun and it introduces a whole new strategy. It will only get better. Plus, we’ve never had a double-file restart at the road races. We’ve always done single-file restarts. I am really going to get to be a fan at Sonoma and get me a good spot so I can watch those crazy restarts and just enjoy the race.

I’ll be back in the NAPA Toyota when we go to Loudon – which is a place I finished second last year. It’s a track I really love to race on. I am looking forward to getting up there and getting back on track before we head to Daytona and try and win us a race.

Bye for Now,

Michael Waltrip

Before I talk about Pocono and what happened last week, I want to make sure everyone knows that I am handing over the keys to the No. 55 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota to Patrick Carpentier for the Infineon Raceway event. There are so many great road course racers competing in Sonoma this year, and as the owner and driver of the No. 55 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota, I am in a unique position. If I see where I can improve my car’s performance then that’s exactly what I am going to do. I love being an owner and I want to get another win for NAPA. It will feel just as good if I get the victory for NAPA or watching from the pit box with Patrick driving the car. I appreciate NAPA allowing me to make these kind of personnel moves when I feel it is best for the team.

Now back to last week — what an interesting week for me. First off, I headed off for a day trip on Wednesday to Palm Desert, California where I met the NAPA folks – Dan Askey, Mark Mills and Brad Crawford for a AAA function. It was held at an old mining camp. My new shoes got kind of dirty, but I had a really good time and ended my portion of the event with a joke about ducks. If you ever run into Askey, Mills or Crawford – ask them to tell you my joke. I thought it was really funny.

I got back to Charlotte a little after 6 a.m. on Thursday morning to board the team plane later that afternoon for good old Pocono. What a weird race for the NAPA AUTO PARTS team. On the first lap of the race, I think Scott Speed got into me and messed up my rear fender. Then the caution flew for Denny Hamlin’s problem and we fixed it. Unfortunately at the start of the race, we were in the back of the field. My crew chief Bootie Barker made some great calls in the pits, but fortunately the problems I had in the pits didn’t set us back too much. 

All and all, it was a good weekend for Michael Waltrip Racing and JTG-Daugherty Racing. David Reutimann scored a top-five finish and Marcos Ambrose finished sixth. Both guys jumped up two spots in the points and Reutimann is currently in The Chase. I am really pleased and happy for my teammates. Also, Ryan Truex, our Camping World East development driver won up at Watkins Glen International in the No. 00 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota. He’s Martin Truex’s little brother. Plus, Trevor Bayne sat on the outside pole at Nashville for the NASCAR Nationwide Series race in the No. 99 Toyota Camry. It was only his second start. We got a couple young kids doing good jobs for us at MWR.

I also want to send out congratulations to Tony Stewart for the win at Pocono and the comeback Ryan Newman made in the race. Ryan spent a lot of time on pit road for a spark plug problem. It was impressive that he rallied back to a top-10 finish. Those guys are two of the best drivers in the garage area. Tony’s record is pretty impressive especially with the two NASCAR Sprint Cup championships he has under his belt so far. Ryan came on the NASCAR scene and dominated pole qualifying. They are a part of a team affiliated with Hendrick Motorsports so it’s not really surprising to me to see the kind of success they are having this season.

This weekend, we saw the new double-file-restart rule put into action. NASCAR announced earlier last week that they were making a change. I loved it. I thought it was cool. The fans got to see something that was unique and new. NASCAR was very smart about implementing it at Pocono where they had a lot of time to work their way through the nuances the rule was going to bring. I think it may be a little bit tougher as time moves forward at places like Bristol where we may see some real tough times figuring out how to do things in a hurry. I think everybody is into it and they understand why NASCAR is doing it. Some Sunday’s we will see how the new rule will be a good break for some competitors and tough on others. It’s just racing.

Hi Everyone –

When we came to Dover last fall, we got a top-10 finish. We started in the back, but I had so much confidence in my car. I just knew I was going to drive up through the field. Yesterday, we started 29th. I had the exact same feeling. Practice on Saturday was great, but when the race started, there just wasn’t any grip in my NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota. We totally had no grip. I slipped and I slid. We survived. We thought we had gotten through the start of the race and we’d be OK. Then we had a flat right rear tire and a flat right front tire. We went three laps down. Despite that setback, we stabilized. We got our car running well and then the motor blew up.

We blew a motor at Darlington and now at Dover. I am a little frustrated about that because with the gear rules we have today that NASCAR puts on the engines, I don’t think we should ever have an engine problem. We are meeting with TRD and will figure out what happened and why it happened. We know the NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry has the best parts in the garage area and I don’t believe it was a parts problem. We know for sure, if you run NAPA AUTO PARTS, you are not going to have a failure.

I am disappointed bitterly because of the result we got. I am sad about what it has done to us in the points because we just don’t deserve it. We should be a lot better than that. We’ll try and be better next week at Pocono.

In general, it was a pretty darn good week for me in Dover. I did the Truck race on Saturday. It was an exciting race on SPEED. I also got to meet a bunch of folks at the NAPA Race Day Experience.

Thanks for everything and I’m sorry about a quiet exit from the race at Dover. We deserve more.

Bye for Now,
Michael Waltrip

Hi Everyone –

The NAPA team finished 30th in the Coca-Cola 600 yesterday. I told the guys on SPEED’s “Victory Lane” that my mind was kind of confused. I didn’t perform the way I would have liked to so I am not happy — BUT — David Reutimann won the Coca-Cola 600. It’s his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win which also gives Michael Waltrip Racing its first NASCAR Sprint Cup race victory in our very short history. In one day, I am a winner and a loser. How about that???

I have to tell you in watching the rain fall yesterday, it reminded me of Daytona in 2003. It was a nice shower. The one we had yesterday was certainly a welcome one as well. David got himself a victory and I don’t think anyone really realizes just how hard it is to get a win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. It didn’t matter that the race was shortened to 227 laps because all the cars in front of David had the exact same option. They chose to turn left instead of going straight. I think people forget that the NAPA team had a race won last year and on the last lap, my motor blew. The win was taken away from us. It wasn’t fair. We only had to run about a mile and you would think the motor would have been able to do that. Sometimes life isn’t fair in one direction and sometimes it’s not fair in another. In this particular case, David’s team did the best job out there. They made the best call and David is the winner of the 50th running of the Coca-Cola 600.

I cannot tell you how special it feels right now. It’s been a real challenge to get to the point where we are now. We barely survived 2007. In 2008, we got our feet under us. Now, less than a third of the way into the 2009 season, we have a couple of cars that are contending for Chase spots. We have been racing against organizations that have done this for over 25 years. We started from scratch. We didn’t go out somewhere else and get someone else’s cars, equipment and motors. We just didn’t have that option. Our only option I had to become an owner was start my own team with Toyota. I always wanted to be an owner. It has been a real tough road to hoe but just sitting on pit road yesterday while it rained – knowing that I had a chance felt pretty good.

Today everyone that worked at MWR met in our theatre for a celebratory team meeting. David rolled the trophy in and it was pretty darn special. I told all of the men and women who work at MWR that we all made history. I joked with them and said, “This is big. We just didn’t win darn Pocono.” Granted, we’ll be proud to win there in a few weeks, but MWR won the 50th running of the Coca-Cola 600. It’s a big race and it’s in our backyard. I couldn’t be prouder of my organization. I am really looking forward to going down the road with these people and winning more races. I think we have a pretty cool place to work and as an owner, it makes me feel proud because I have been with other organizations where it was a three car team, but in reality, it was three – one car teams. Our deal here is certainly a lot different than that. I see it. I feel it and I know it. I am thankful for it.

Another thing I am thankful for is NAPA. Thanks to them, I am able to race cars as an owner and experience a day like I had yesterday and the week I am having now.

Tomorrow night everyone from MWR is getting together for a big party. It is something that I feel is really important to have as my team’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup victory together. It is one to truly relish because you never know when the next one is going to be. We’ll just seize the day and cherish the moment. I’m looking forward to having everyone together and I wish all my fans could be there too. We’ll be away from the shop and we’ll just all hang out.

Here’s to more victories!

Hi Everyone –

The NAPA team finished 14th in the NASCAR Sprint Showdown on Saturday night. Obviously, it wasn’t the finish we were hoping for that evening. The car just did not handle well enough to race up front and be a part of the story. I was disappointed, but despite that, I am looking forward to the Coca-Cola 600. We gathered a lot of information and what we gained and learned from the NASCAR All-Star weekend will apply to the Coca-Cola 600. We can learn a lot from David Reutimann. His car ran well and  finished fourth. Unfortunately, Marcos and his team struggled, but still was able to finish in the top 10. We will look over the notes that we gathered and figure out what we need to do to be better for the big race this weekend.

The Sprint All-Star Race was a great race. The drama that was playing up to the last 10 laps was unbelievable. I couldn’t wait to watch the end. If you tell drivers they have 10 laps, they will flip the switch and go and that’s what we witnessed on Saturday night. Those first five laps of the 10 lapper were as good as you will ever see.

I am happy for Tony Stewart. I remember the first time I won a race as a NASCAR team owner. I started my NASCAR Nationwide Series team from behind my house in Sherrills Ford. We would load up our cars and take them to the track and race against DEI (Dale Earnhardt Inc.) and Hendrick Motorsports. When I won, I thought, ‘Man, what a great feeling.’ It inspired me to start a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team. So, I can only imagine what Tony Stewart feels like this week. It is truly an accomplishment for him because not only did he get a win in the All-Star event, he put on his owner hat on Monday morning and had to deal with the fact that he had a $1 million pay day. That will certainly help his bottom line!

Before I go, I want to thank all of you who voted for me in the Sprint Fan Vote. You put me in close contention for the win. As a matter of fact, both Reutimann and I were among the top-five vote getters. I had a strong feeling that Joey Logano was going to win the vote. He pretty much had it wrapped up from the very beginning with all those people lined up behind him in that Home Depot commercial. I think that commercial was the key to Logano’s victory. It’s my plan to win a race before the season is out so we won’t have to worry about the Sprint Fan Vote next year. Regardless, I’m glad I was up there in the running thanks to you. It makes me feel special and I really appreciate the fact that a lot of people took the time to vote for me.

Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!

Hi Everyone –

Darlington wasn’t very kind to Michael Waltrip Racing or JTG-Daugherty Racing for that matter. My night could have been a scene from one of my favorite movies, “Talladega Nights”. My NAPA Adaptive One Brake Pads Toyota was on fire. My engine blew up in a major way. We broke a rod and there was a fire. We got quite a bit of coverage on it. In all my interviews after getting out of the car, I credited the NAPA Adaptive One Brake Pads for helping me stop my car quickly and safely. NASCAR driver Greg Biffle asked me if the fire scared me and it did a little bit because of all the unknowns. When all the flames went up, I didn’t get burned, but the flames also didn’t go out as quickly as I thought they would. The flames started burning things in my car. The main thing I was thinking was to get somewhere on the track where I could get out. The cool thing was I got out of my car quickly and with no problems. Back in 2007 at the Auto Club Speedway, I caught on fire and had a hard time getting out of my car. I was stuck in there because the old car was so much smaller inside. I want to thank NASCAR for the new car. Tall guys like me can race on with little worries. I even called my buddy Ron Capps and told him he didn’t have anything on me after Darlington.

I watched the end of the race from my motor home and I have to say, I loved the end of the Southern 500. It was an intense finish. I enjoyed watching Mark Martin make his move. He ran low. Jimmie Johnson was running second and he chose to run high. They mixed it up a little bit. I found out as I sat on my couch that I really like racing. I was so into watching those last 30 laps because I knew the personalities out there on the track. I knew what Mark had and what he was all about. I also knew Jimmie. Mark looked like he was going to tie himself to the bottom and play all his chips from down there. Jimmie was all over the place trying to figure out what he needed to do to get by Mark. I love racing and I wished I would have been out there mixing it up with them.

This weekend should be exciting too with the 25th running of the Sprint All-Star Race. The format is a little different this year. There are four segments. The first segment is 50 laps and it includes a green-flag pit stop on lap 25 that everyone must complete. Then there are two 20-lap segments with a final 10-lap shoot out. I started on the outside of Row 2 for the 10-lap shoot out in 1996 and I won. I was able to win the race from the fourth spot. I don’t know if you are going to be able to win it from much further back in the field.

Last year, we saw Kasey Kahne win the Fan Vote to transfer into the Sprint All-Star Race. He went on to win the whole deal. That just shows you how good everyone is. When that green flag falls for the first 50 lapper on Saturday night, any one of those cars in the field can win the race. As a fan, I want to see that – but I hope to see it from inside my NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry. Wish me luck and enjoy the race!
Sincerely,
Michael Waltrip 

Hi Everyone –

I want to thank everybody who sent me Happy Birthday messages. I appreciated it. I had a really nice day on my birthday. I played golf and then my NAPA team had a little get together and dinner for me outside my bus at the track. My brother Darrell was there and even Kenny Wallace stopped by to say hello. Kenny gave me a crisp 10-dollar bill for my birthday. We had a lot of good food to eat thanks to my coach driver Benito. My team even surprised me with my favorite chocolate cake with chocolate icing. We ended the evening watching my debut on “My Name is Earl”. We had a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it.

With this being my 25th season in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, I always got up in the morning and thought I was going to get to race my car because I was a great driver. Watching Reutimann haul the mail in the No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine and seeing what Marcos Ambrose is doing by being up front almost every week has been a little bit hard on me as a driver. As an owner, I am very happy. But as a driver, I think I have lost a little bit of my confidence. I know it’s going to get better and the finishes I am expecting are just around the corner. At Talladega, we could have put that car up front. It didn’t work out. We got messed up in a wreck with just eight laps to go. Ty Norris, Cal Wells and Steve Hallam are all doing a great job running our organization, but I’m not happy with the job I am doing behind the wheel. It’s time I have a talk with the driver.

At Richmond, I was really happy about the performance and progression of the NAPA Adaptive One Brake Pads Toyota. We started in the back in 30th position. We got a lap down, but we were able to make it up. The way the car drove and the kind of speed it had, I felt like we could run with them. We improved our car all night long, but at the end when it came time to get with it, I was too loose. We finished 24th.

We had our competition meeting on Monday and we discussed what Marcos’ car did. He did a great job finishing 11th place after getting crashed. He was able to persevere. David Reutimann had a top-10 run going until he was crashed. His car was really damaged after his crash to the point that he lost a lap there at the end. We all talked about our cars and I have to say, I like where we are right now as a team. Our meetings are productive. We learn from each other and it’s great to see how we are continuing to move forward in the right direction.

Looking back, I have seen a lot of people come and go in NASCAR. But I don’t think I have ever seen the enthusiasm or the desire to run every lap like Kyle Busch does. It was no surprise that he completed the Richmond sweep by winning both the NASCAR Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series races. He runs every lap like it is the last lap. He will not settle for following someone no matter what. He is genuinely special. So, when you are watching a NASCAR race — whether you like him or not — enjoy what you are watching. Watching him makes me want to try even harder.

My NAPA car will once again have NAPA Adaptive One Brake Pads on it. My NAPA car rarely changes so putting the Adaptive One paint scheme on it for two weeks in a row tells you how special this product is.

Before I go, I would like to tell every Mom out there – Happy Mother’s Day!

Hi Everyone –

I want to start out by saying how proud I am of my teammates — David Reutimann and Marcos Ambrose. I’m proud of Reutimann because he’s thankful and he’s happy. He’s one of the guys. When we started Michael Waltrip Racing, we wanted to be part of the story and be up there racing with the big teams. I think maybe the story of the year is Marcos Ambrose. He came from Australia and hasn’t even seen these cars until a couple years ago and very rarely do people come from other disciplines of motorsports, other countries, and get in these cars and be able to do it. Marcos has done it and he’s competitive. At Bristol, he had a top-five run all day long. Every week he steps up. I am just real proud of his team and the benefits of our alliance with JTG-Daugherty Racing. I am just proud of the cars we’re building and what we’re doing.

Heading into the Talladega weekend, I was just a little disappointed in my year so far. I think my car has been good and we’ve been fast. But, I have made some mistakes. I love my NAPA car and I love being the driver for NAPA, but I want to bring NAPA a championship. If we can figure out an option of getting a championship with that team and winning more races with that team then that will be something we will have to look at really hard. I still want to race. I didn’t sign up to be a race car driver so I could wear this cool suit. I signed up because I want to win. I think I can win, but week in and week out, we need to step it up with the 55 a little bit. NAPA has been my sponsor for nine years and we’ve won the Daytona 500 and had some success. They market me better than anyone in the garage area. They are the best sponsor in my opinion with the way they go about marketing my team and me. I feel like I owe them. I owe them results. I owe them wins and I owe them a championship. That’s what Michael Waltrip Racing is working hard on.

This weekend I pulled double duty at Talladega. I drove the No. 99 Aaron’s Dream Machine in the Nationwide race. I just want to say what a great job Jerry Baxter (crew chief) and the guys on the Aaron’s Camry did. Last week at Phoenix we had a fast car. We had a fast one on Saturday too. We have nothing to show for it because we got wrecked. If the team keeps giving me cars like that then it’s going to be a good year for us. 

When it came to the Aaron’s 499 race, the good news about our day was all three of our cars were ultra competitive. We all had issues that we had to deal with. Marcos was able to overcome them to get a top-five. We had a real shot at a solid top-five finish or a top-10 finish for sure if we could have made it through that last wreck. Unfortunately, we didn’t. We’ll just hang our hats on the fact that all of our cars continue to be competitive and head to Richmond.

Richmond is a great track for me. I love it. It is one of my favorites. David Reutimann led the most laps there in the fall race. I think one of the things I enjoy most about 2009 is watching Marcos. What is he going to do next? He’s done really well at some of the toughest tracks we’ve been to. As a driver of the NAPA Toyota and as Michael the race car driver, I love that track and am looking forward to it. As the owner of the team, I cannot wait to see how all three cars will perform. It has been truly enjoyable to show up at the track every week and know that our cars are capable of winning the race.

This week don’t miss out on seeing my acting debut on My Name is Earl. It will air Thursday night at 8 p.m. on NBC. It will also be available to watch on the show’s Web site. Then on Saturday, I will be on NASCAR Race Day. It airs at 5 p.m. on SPEED. I’ll be talking about NAPA’s new paint scheme on my car for Richmond and Darlington. I’ll give you a hint … it’s NAPA Adaptive One Brake Pads!
Sincerely,

Michael Waltrip
 
 

Hi Everyone –

This owner/driver thing is maybe a little more difficult than I thought it would be because Michael Waltrip Racing had a great night with David Reutimann who was contending for the win or a top-five finish. My other teammate Marcos Ambrose was right up in the top-10 mix for awhile. My night was just bad. I had a good car. We ran well. We got to lead a lap and you never know how important those five bonus points are going to be one day. But our night turned bad just before the half-way mark. I made a mistake and got loose underneath Robby Gordon. I wrecked us both. I saw Robby after the race. I know he made some comments on TV about me that weren’t very nice. Robby didn’t deserve to get wrecked. That was my fault. He is teetering right on the top 35 and I know what that world is like. I am glad that he stayed on the right side of that fence. I am sorry that it happened. My mistake ruined our night. The race went back to green with my car all tore up and we ran about 120 laps without a caution. It was ugly.

On Friday night, I was leading the Nationwide Series race in my No. 99 Best Western Toyota and Carl Edwards just wiped me out. I thought, ‘That’s the dumbest thing I have ever experienced in my life. Why would he do that?’ The Best Western car was fast. I was really looking forward to racing it. During the first caution, Jerry Baxter made the call to stay out. The rest of the frontrunners pitted for fresh tires. I thought Jerry’s call was fine. I just didn’t anticipate someone being that impatient. Looking back, what happened on Saturday night with Robby changed my attitude towards Carl quite a bit. I can’t be upset with Carl after what I did to Robby. I made a mistake and I believe Carl made a mistake. It is so hard. It’s a tough job and sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to.

Mark Martin scored Hendrick Motorsports its fifth-consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Phoenix International Raceway. That’s amazing. It’s cool to see a win from one of the old guys. For awhile, everybody made a big deal out of age in the sport. I never really saw it. Good guys come along that are young and get a lot of attention despite the fact that there are guys in their 30s and 40s that still get the job done. Mark took it to the next level on Saturday night. He’s been winning races since he was 12 years old. Now, he’s 50 and won at a tough, little track. It’s impressive. He is a special talent. He is dedicated. He works hard. He can drive. He deserves the win. It’s really cool to erase that line between young and old. Let’s just race our cars!

Sincerely,

Michael Waltrip