CUP: Michael Waltrip Racing Attempts To Buy Red Bull Teams

Sprint Cup

CUP: Michael Waltrip Racing Attempts To Buy Red Bull Teams

Effort was to acquire points, but deal falls through...

Bob Pockrass | http://www.scenedaily.com | Posted January 11, 2012 Daytona Beach, FL

Michael Waltrip announces the 2012 program to field the No. 15 5 Hour Energy Toyota Camry for Clint Bowyer at Michael Waltrip Racing. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Michael Waltrip Racing tried to purchase Red Bull Racing to acquire more equipment and secure owner points to guarantee that all three of his Sprint Cup teams have guaranteed spots in the Daytona 500, but was not able complete the deal.

The negotiations with Red Bull was part of a busy start to 2012 for team co-owner Michael Waltrip, who also is competing in the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the Budweiser Shootout, and – if he can find the ride – the Daytona 500.

That means there’s more work to do for Waltrip before the season-opening race. Among his priorities is finding points so that all three MWR cars automatically qualify for the Daytona 500.

MWR expanded from two teams to three this year and will field full-time teams for Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. and a part-time team for Michael Waltrip. Only two of the teams will have guaranteed starting spots for the first five races of the season after finishing in the top 35 in owner points last year. The other team would need to acquire owner points to ensure that it makes the Daytona 500.

NASCAR does not allow teams to sell points but does allow the transfer of points if the original owner still has a minority stake in the team.

A purchase of Red Bull possibly could have included a points transfer from one of the two Red Bull teams as well as additional cars and equipment for MWR, which is co-owned by Waltrip and investor Rob Kauffman.

“We tried to buy them,” Waltrip said of Red Bull Wednesday at Daytona International Speedway. “We felt it would be a way to make our team stronger. We always look at accomplishing just that.

“With Rob as my co-owner, it gives us the ability to investigate whether if indeed buying Red Bull could make us stronger, and if it did, then we have the financial foothold in order to make those moves. We made a run at it and it didn’t work out.”

MWR will look to get points through another partnership. The catch is that no owner can have a stake in more than four teams, so with three teams already, it limits the organization’s options.

There has been no decision on which car would be left without points if MWR can’t get a deal done. All three have major sponsors.

“We have three teams and two sets of points,” Waltrip said. “We are looking at how to secure another set of points. … Us getting points is basically an insurance policy for a major sponsor. This is a business decision move to ensure that a sponsor that is spending millions of dollars in this sport is able to be on the track like they plan on being.

“It’s not a group of people trying to figure out how to get some points so they can make some money. It’s people that’s invested in the sport and we’re trying to protect our sponsors against something as simple as rain or something as complex as not being able to figure out a way to race your way into the 500.”

Waltrip, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, also would like to race in the Daytona 500 but with his organization already having three cars, he doesn’t know if he can field a fourth car out of his shop or would have to drive for another team. He would have to run for his own team or a single-car team as the four-team cap includes all teams owned by a owner/driver, plus all teams if the driver competes for another organization.

Clint Bowyer (Right) is on the move, joining Michael Waltrip (Left) for the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

“The rules [say] you can only have four teams – and whether I’m driving for myself or somebody else, I count because I own the team,” Waltrip said. “It would just be a matter of figuring out what the best opportunity would be. Obviously it would be in a Toyota and we’ll see if we can work it out.”

Waltrip will compete in the other restrictor-plate events in 2012 plus three others in the No. 15 car, which Martin will drive in the Daytona 500 and 25 events throughout the season.

“I’ve run 26 of them [Daytona 500s] in a row and I’d like to run the 27th while I feel like I can still win,” said Waltrip, who will be a commentator for the Fox races during the early part of the season. “We were fortunate enough to win the truck race here a year ago and my last race at Talladega, we got a top-10 [finish]. So I feel like if I can get something put together to race the 500, it would mean a lot to me personally.

“Maybe I can help somebody out and one of my teammates to win if I couldn’t.”

Already driving in the Budweiser Shootout in the No. 15 car, Waltrip doesn’t anticipate testing in the car this weekend at Daytona. He took some laps around DIS in a pace car on Wednesday as part of a promotion for Toyota.

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