NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Waltrip Racing Looking For Big Turnaround
With new drivers and new technical personnel, MWR hopes to realize its promise…
Mike Hembree  |  Posted January 30, 2012   Charlotte, NC
(L-R) Mark Martin, Michael Waltrip, owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer, pose for a photo during the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Media Tour in Cornelius, North Carolina. (Photo: Getty Images)
There’s a measurable batch of enthusiasm at Michael Waltrip Racing in this preseason, and that’s not just because team co-owner and occasional driver Michael Waltrip is a natural fount of cheer and jocularity.

There are new drivers in the house – Clint Bowyer for the full season and ageless veteran Mark Martin for a partial schedule. There’s a new competition director in Scott Miller, late of Richard Childress Racing. There’s an alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing, and there is evidence left over from late last season that the MWR cars are improving.

“Science has shown us where we stand on the cars and that we’re better,” said MWR general manager Ty Norris. “We believe our driver lineup is the best it’s ever been. There’s no reason to think that we can’t go and win races and earn a spot in the Chase.”

The climb has been uphill for MWR since Waltrip signed on with Toyota in 2007, the manufacturer’s first year in Sprint Cup. David Reutimann (no longer with the team) scored a couple of wins, but the team has had an obvious lack of consistent strength.

The new season could change much of that. MWR officials now see themselves on the same tier as JGR in their relationship with Toyota, and that can only be a good thing, particularly since both teams are under the same engine program.

“What has happened now is that Gibbs and TRD (Toyota Racing Development) merged their intellectual properties and their resources to now provide six engine sets – three for each team, so the question about our engines is out,” Norris said. “Now we know we’re on the same tier as JGR. I would say that scientific numbers prove that we’ve made significant improvement to our vehicles and engines.

“When we say we’re better for 2012, it’s not just that we feel like we’re better. The numbers prove it. We’ve gained over 10 percent in the last nine months on the aero side.”

MWR’s Martin Truex Jr. posted fifth-place and second-place finishes in the final races of last season, boosting him to 18th in the seasonal point standings.

Continued improvement is expected early in this season, but Miller stresses that quantum leaps shouldn’t be anticipated.

“If somebody expects that in six months we’re going to be the rival of Hendrick Motorsports, then that’s an unrealistic expectation,” Miller said. “We have to take small steps to improve the organization, to improve the systems, and that will hopefully in turn start to allow us to have a more consistent product every week and build on it.

“I don’t expect it to be an overnight sensation, but as long as we can put reliable race cars on the track and keep the drivers pumped up, it’s a realistic goal for us to put a car in the Chase.

“In terms of trying to improve some of the internal systems and streamline things and get a little more efficient about stuff, we’ve come a good little way, but we definitely have more to do. To be competitive in this arena, these teams have turned into almost a manufacturing facility. We get tubing in the door, and, at the end of the day, a race car rolls out the other end. You have to be efficient in that process to make things happen quickly. That’s what I’ve been trying to work on.”

Miller said Martin can help the team – both on-track and off.

“With his level of experience and all the things he’s seen and done, there are going to be things he helps us with that I haven’t even thought of yet,” he said. “He’s going to be one of those guys where if I’m having a problem with something or a problem with the cars, I won’t hesitate to pull him aside and try to get his take on it and what he thinks needs to be done to make it all better.”

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.
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