CUP: Tuesday Media Tour Notebook

Sprint Cup

CUP: Tuesday Media Tour Notebook

Michael Waltrip will honor the memory of his late boss, Dale Earnhardt Sr., in the Daytona 500...

Mike Hembree | Posted January 25, 2011 Charlotte, NC

Michael Waltrip (Pictured) won the 2001 Daytona 500 in a car owned by Dale Earnhardt Sr. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Paint Scheme Honors Earnhardt – Michael Waltrip is back, and he’s back in black.

Waltrip is scheduled to drive a No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota in the Daytona 500 next month, and the car will carry a paint scheme designed to honor the memory of Dale Earnhardt Sr., who died in a final-lap crash in the 500 10 years ago. Waltrip won that race in a car owned by Earnhardt.

The car has black accents down the sides and from that perspective will resemble Earnhardt’s iconic No. 3 racers.

“Ten years ago I won the 500 in my first race with NAPA, and we know February 18, 2001, is a day that NASCAR fans will never forget,” Waltrip said. “What looked to be a storybook ending turned to tragedy seconds later. To mark the 10th anniversary of that race and my 25th consecutive 500 will be quite emotional for me and fans alike.”

RCR Picks Up Jimmy John’s – Richard Childress Racing has bolstered its sponsorship program for Kevin Harvick’s No. 29 Chevrolet this season with the addition of Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches.

The restaurants will be the primary sponsor of Harvick’s car for six races and an associate sponsor for the rest of the season. Budweiser is Harvick’s major sponsor.

Jimmy John’s, based in Champaign, Ill., has been a primary sponsor of Harvick’s Nationwide Series program the past two seasons and was an associate sponsor of RCR's No. 29 Sprint Cup Series team in 2010.

Nationwide Series Changes Qualifying – The Nationwide Series will move to multi-car qualifying this season and will base the qualifying order on practice speeds.

The format will be similar to that used in the Camping World Truck Series, and the idea also is being discussed for Sprint Cup, although its implementation this year has not been announced.

During Nationwide qualifying, as many as five cars will be on the track at one time. That number will differ from track to track, said series director Joe Balash. At shorter tracks like Bristol Motor Speedway, there probably will be only one car on the track at a time.

Cars will be placed in qualifying groups based on practice speeds, with the faster cars going on track last.

“The idea is to shorten qualifying sessions some and build some drama for the fans at the end,” Balash said.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 28 years. He has written several books on NASCAR, including "NASCAR: The Definitive History of America's Sport" and "Then Tony Said To Junior: The Best NASCAR Stories Ever Told". He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

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Mike Hembree

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