Jan. 31, 2008
 LAS VEGAS –Michael Waltrip and the No. 55 NAPA AUTO PARTS team completed the final day of Preseason Thunder testing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Tuesday with two practice sessions focusing on car set-up and qualifying runs.
During the morning session, Waltrip ran both chassis 55A (40th quickest – 29.793 seconds/181.251 mph) and 55B (56th quickest – 29.901 seconds/180.596 mph). David Reutimann was the fastest of the Michael Waltrip Racing teams, ranking second (29.350 seconds/183.986 mph) and 11th (29.489 seconds/183.119 mph) in chassis 00B and 00A, respectively. MWR teammate Dale Jarrett was 29th (29.684 seconds/181.916 mph) on the speed chart in chassis 44A.
During the lunch break, Waltrip spoke to the media about the progress his team was making at the test session.
“David (Reutimann) is doing some qualifying runs, and that's going well,” said Waltrip. “We’re still working on trying to get our car good enough to feel like we can make one, and we haven't yet. We’re gaining on it. It's real good to see David have speed and understand that we can bolt whatever he has on his car on to ours and hopefully duplicate that speed. So far it's been a process of elimination. That's why testing is frustrating -- you do 100 things and 99 don't work, so at least you know they don't work. That means you don't have to try them next time.”
 The afternoon practice saw Waltrip focus on race and qualifying runs. Chassis 55A was in qualifying trim and was the fastest of the NAPA Camrys with a time of 29.372 seconds/183.849 mph. It was good for 18th quickest on the speed chart. Chassis 55B was in race trim and was 55th fastest (29.774 seconds/181.366 mph). With 20 minutes to go in the session, Waltrip’s 55B experienced a problem entering Turn 1 and sustained significant damage to the right side of the car. Waltrip was able to drive the car back into the garage area, but was unable to make another run in his 55A chassis due to oil on the track after Jeff Gordon lost an engine.
Reutimann ended his day in 11th (00B - 29.265 seconds/184.521 mph) and 59th (00A – 29.849 seconds/180.911 mph). Jarrett recorded the 19th-fastest lap (44A – 29.391 seconds/183.730 mph).
Preseason Thunder testing continues on Thursday and Friday at California Speedway. The NAPA team plans to run all three sessions on Thursday and the morning session on Friday.
Day 2 Testing Results:
http://www.nascar.com/news/headlines/cup/test.speeds.3/index.html |
