August 25, 2007

BRISTOL, Tenn. – Michael Waltrip and the NAPA AUTO PARTS race team finished 23rd in Saturday night’s Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. A very loose-handling Camry proved to be the culprit during the first half of the race, but a perfectly-timed caution enabled Waltrip to win back a lap and gain valuable track position to score the top-25 result. Winning his second event of the season was Carl Edwards.

“We fought all night and the highest we got was 23rd,” stated Waltrip after the Sharpie 500. “That’s when the checkers fell. We had a good restart there with 30 laps to go. I got up on the outside and was able to get past about three guys. Then I was good enough to hold them off.”

Meanwhile on Friday, Waltrip busted off a solid top-20 qualifying lap. His time of 16.225 seconds (118.262 miles per hour, 16th position) was a vast improvement from earlier in the day when the NAPA AUTO PARTS team was 40th on the speed chart in practice. Winning the Bud Pole was Kasey Kahne (16.016 seconds/119.805 mph).

“This was a hard day for us,” said Waltrip after climbing out of his NAPA Camry. “Qualifying is always difficult, but when you think about getting it done in 16 seconds, it causes you to make a lot of decisions real fast. I watched a lot of cars before I went out and made the decision that when I got to the turn; I was just going to let the car wander wherever it wanted to. The car felt like it wanted to run in the middle of the track and it stuck well. The thing I am most proud of is that we were pretty far off earlier today and we were able to get it right and get in the show. I am really looking forward to tomorrow night. They’ll be plenty of side-by-side racing. We’ve got options now and it’s going to be great!”

After qualifying, the team had to quickly turn around and prepare for Happy Hour. Waltrip ended up 37th quickest (16.623 seconds/115.430 mph), but liked the feel of his race car. Fastest in the session was eventual race winner Carl Edwards (16.286 seconds/117.819 mph).

When the Sharpie 500 got underway shortly after 8 p.m., it looked as if pole sitter Kasey Kahne was going to run away with the victory. He led the first 330 laps. As for Waltrip, he lost track position due to a very loose Camry through the corners. The pit crew worked vigorously to tighten up the car on laps 129 and 215. Air pressure, track bar and wedge were the biggest adjustments called for by competition director Bobby Kennedy. During this time, Waltrip ran mainly in 34th place, three laps down.

The turning point for the NAPA team came when Waltrip stayed out on the track longer than intended. That delay in service helped Waltrip win one of his laps back when the caution flag flew on lap 370 for a David Ragan spin. The NAPA team went from 34th to 30th, racing for positions 25th through 30th with drivers Paul Menard, Jeff Green, Bill Elliott, Jamie McMurray, and Tony Raines. During the caution, the pit crew busted off a 12.90-second stop for air pressure and track bar changes. When the race resumed on lap 378, Carl Edwards was the leader, and Waltrip was in 30th place.

Ragan was once again the reason for the caution flags on laps 396 and 421. Waltrip felt his car was improving, so Kennedy called for more air pressure, wedge and track bar changes on lap 425. Then, 20 laps later, the caution was back out for a multi-car crash involving drivers Ricky Rudd, Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth. Waltrip came over the radio to say his car was finally on the tight side, but opted to stay out since the NAPA Camry was better on the longer runs.

When the green flag waved on lap 463, Waltrip was in 25th and Edwards remained the leader. The decision to stay out worked, as the NAPA AUTO PARTS Camry picked up two spots on the track before the checkered flag waved to finish 23rd.

“We learned a lot today,” continued Waltrip, who started the race in 16th place. “We really needed to race our COT (Car of Tomorrow) in order to get some data. We really haven’t been able to race those (COTs) very often because of our woes early in the year. Tonight was a good night. We wish we could have finished better. We started off slow, but Bobby Kennedy and the boys just kept adjusting on it. We were able to get it better and better. That feels good when you’re running your best at the end.”

Following Edwards to the finish line and rounding out the top-10 were Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle.

A total of five Toyota teams participated in Saturday’s race with Waltrip earning the manufacturer its best finish of the race. Waltrip was followed by Dave Blaney in 31st, Michael Waltrip Racing’s Dale Jarrett in 34th, AJ Allmendinger in 35th and Jeremy Mayfield in 37th. Unfortunately MWR’s David Reutimann did not qualify for the Sharpie 500.

Next week Waltrip and the NAPA AUTO PARTS team head out West for the Sharp AQUOS at California Speedway.

Sharpie 500 Results:
http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/24/data/results_unofficial.html

Next Up:
Sharp AQUOS 500 at California Speedway on Sept. 2 at 7 p.m.
2006 Winner: Kasey Kahne
2006 Pole: Kurt Busch
Television: ESPN at 7 p.m. EDT
Radio: MRN