NAPA Racing Team Completes Promising Car of Tomorrow Test at Richmond International Raceway

April 4, 2007

RICHMOND, Va. – The NAPA AUTO PARTS team and driver Michael Waltrip completed a two-day Car of Tomorrow (COT) test at the .75-mile Richmond International Raceway (RIR) on April 4, the second official COT test session organized by the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. A total of 51 drivers participated in the session in preparation for the May 5 Crown Royal Presents the Jim Stewart 400 at RIR.

Waltrip focused on the overall balance of the team’s two NAPA Toyota Camrys (chassis 55X and 55B), trying both conventional and unconventional setups. The two-time Daytona 500 champion believes that information gained from the Richmond test will also be relevant for the upcoming NASCAR Nextel Cup event at Phoenix International Raceway on April 21.

“Everything we did at Richmond can work at Phoenix,” said Waltrip. “We found that out a few years ago when I drove for DEI. I almost won Phoenix with the exact same setup as Richmond. We understand that those two tracks are enough alike that the setups will indeed be real close to one another, so Richmond is a very important test for us.”

The Richmond test session was the third of seven NEXTEL Cup Series tests scheduled for this season. A total of 16 COT events are scheduled for this year, with two events already completed. The NEXTEL Cup Series teams will run the new car at tracks less than 1.5 miles in length, the two road courses, and the October event at Talladega Superspeedway.

The next stop for the NAPA Racing team is the Samsung 500 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 15. Waltrip’s average start is 28th and average finish is 23rd at the 1.5-mile speedway.

Michael Waltrip Testing Quotes

How did the Richmond test go for you?

“We’re hanging in there. On Tuesday, we felt like we had a decent setup, and on Wednesday morning, we went in and changed it completely. We documented what we had, and we thought that was good, but we wanted to try some different things from past experience. We know a lot of things that have worked at this track with the regular car, and we are trying to pass some of that along to the COT and see if any of that will work. We actually gained on it quite a bit in the morning session and actually ran our fastest lap right there before the end of the session when it was the hottest. We were encouraged by that, so now we’re studying what we learned.”

How many differences have you seen with the COT here at Richmond?

“There are a lot of differences, but there’s always more than one way to skin a cat, as they say. You look at the car with the splitter and you say, ‘I’m going to need a big right-front spring to keep that off the ground’. Then the engineers start thinking of ways to use a smaller front spring and still keep it off the ground. That’s why I say that there are a lot of things that we need to try. On Tuesday, I felt like we had pretty much a conventional set-up and we ran it and we were pleased with it. So we decided to try to engineer our way into something that might be a little more ‘outside the box’ and see if we can make that work.”

What are your thoughts on the COT program after the protective foam in Kevin Harvick’s car caught fire during the last race?

“Anytime something is new, there are always concerns and questions. But we’ve only had two races with the COT, and we saw a couple good crashes where we were able to evaluate how the car held up and how it reacted to being hit. Obviously, we’re all concerned about the foam, which helps us in case of an accident. But they had us put that too close to the exhaust, and anything you put too close to the exhaust is going to get hot enough to smoke. We learned to address that and then at the end of both races, they had side-by-side finishes. I would say that if I was NASCAR, I’d be pretty proud right now of where I’m at with my COT program.”

Testing Recap: Michael Waltrip

  • April 3 Afternoon Session: 35th (55X: 22.466 seconds/120.182 mph) and 67th (55B: 22.755 seconds/118.655 mph) out of 68 cars. Quickest Lap in the Session: Greg Biffle (16A: 22.214 seconds/121.545 mph) Fastest Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota: David Reutimann (16th – 22.361 seconds/120.746 mph)

  • April 3 Evening Session: 7th (55X: 22.172 seconds/121.775 mph) and 64th (55B: 22.760 seconds/118.629 mph) out of 68 cars. Quickest Lap in the Session: Kenny Wallace (78A: 22.056 seconds/122.416 mph) Fastest Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota: Michael Waltrip (7th-- 22.172 seconds/121.775 mph)

  • April 4 Morning Session: 53rd (55X: 22.271 seconds/121.234 mph) and 57th (55B: 22.324 seconds/120.946 mph) out of 65 cars. Quickest Lap in the Session: Reed Sorenson (41X: 21.913 seconds/123.215 mph) Fastest Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota: David Reutimann (28th – 22.122 seconds/122.050 mph)

  • April 4 Afternoon Session: 9th (55X: 22.208 seconds/121.578 mph) and 59th (55B: 22.827 seconds/118.281 mph) out of 59 cars. Quickest Lap in the Session: Kurt Busch (2A: 21.926 seconds/123.141 mph) Fastest Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota: Michael Waltrip (9th-- 22.208 seconds/121.578 mph)