Mikey’s World
What’s next? I tuned in to NASCAR Now on ESPN earlier this week and heard a breaking story…once again the subject was Michael Waltrip. Mikey. The king of publicity, media and sponsor hound…and ring-leader of the gang that can’t shoot straight.
Seriously what is going to happen next? Will we tune in for this week’s race at Texas Motor Speedway to find that Michael Waltrip Racing is closing it’s doors immediately due to “circumstances beyond their control”? Nothing would surprise me at this point. You have to wonder what’s around the next corner with MWR and specifically, Mikey himself.
Waltrip basically threw away his season as a driver last year while trying to get his brand new mega-operation on its feet for 2007. He may have been occupying the seat of Bill Davis’ #55 Dodges in ‘06, but his heart definitely wasn’t in it. All the focus was on this new team and being the flagship for Toyota’s entry into Nextel Cup (and Busch Series) Racing. It doesn’t seem to have helped the initial effort here in ‘07.
As has been well documented, Waltrip’s #55 team was busted for an illegal fuel additive found in the intake of the Toyota and the team was forced to rip the decals off of teammate David Reutimann’s backup car for Michael to use in his 150 mile qualifying race. Waltrip ran into former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr’s Chevy during the race but was somehow able to recover well enough to make the Daytona 500.
He has failed to make a race since.
Not good for the sponsors who pour millions and millions of dollars into organizations like MWR so that they can have those sleek rolling billboards present each sunday at the track and, more importantly, in front of national television cameras. You have to wonder how much patience Waltrip’s sponsors will have for this situation if the team continues to miss races week after week. Not to mention Toyota, the manufacturer that has been looking forward to their debut in the Cup Series for several years.
Now, as if Michael Waltrip needed more bad pub…he crashes his Toyota SUV about a mile from his home this week. Having seen the pictures of the wreck, it’s amazing that the guy was not killed…or at the very least severely injured. Thank God he wasn’t.
A witness reports that Waltrip got out of the vehicle with cuts on his arms and blood on his forehead, and started walking in the direction of his Sherrills Ford, N.C. home. Reportedly Waltrip hadn’t been drinking, but fell asleep and ran off the road early last Sunday morning around 1:30.
Look, I think Michael Waltrip has been an asset to the sport over the years. I think most people were glad to see him get his first win in 2001’s Daytona 500 after so many years of futility. The win was overshadowed, of course, by the death of Dale Earnhardt and though he has been able to win two other Cup races on restrictor plate tracks, including another Daytona 500, he never been able to break through and become a consistent threat to win each week on the circuit. It’s hard to see how this inconsistency in performance coupled with a brand new three-car operation and a new manufacturer is the recipe for success.
It’s not like his two other drivers are faring much better this season. Former champ Dale Jarrett has struggled to make races and has already used 4 of his 6 allotted past- champion’s provisionals. DJ sits 34th in points headed into Texas. David Reutimann is a Cup rookie and is 43rd in the standings. It should be pointed out that the other Toyota teams have been struggling mightily as well.
OK, how does Michael pull out of all this? He’s dead last in points (27 points in the red after his penalty at Daytona). His hopes for even mediocre success this season are gone. I suggest he get out of the driver’s seat of the #55 and focus 100% on being a car owner and fixing what is wrong at MWR. Drivers at this level certainly don’t like being forced out of the seat, but at this point, I think Micheal should swallow his pride and take the proverbial bullet for his team in hopes of getting things on track for 2008.
Otherwise, history might lump Michael Waltrip Racing in with other owner-drivers who have had to close the doors of their race shops because they struggled handling both roles while attempting to compete at a high level in modern Cup Series racing. Those would include Brett Bodine Racing, Rudd Performance Motorsports and DarWal, Inc…run by another guy named Waltrip.