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Oct. 22, 2007
 MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Michael Waltrip and the NAPA Racing team overcame adversity to earn a respectable 18th-place finish in the Subway 500 at Martinsville Speedway, battling back from an early race spin and a tight-handling Toyota Camry. Jimmie Johnson claimed his third-consecutive victory at Martinsville.
“All we really did today was survive and persevere,” said Waltrip, who was the second-highest Toyota finisher of the event behind teammate David Reutimann. “Our car wasn’t all that good -- our COT (Car of Tomorrow) stuff has not performed at all like we need it to. But we’re re-grouping and trying to build some new cars for 2008. Dr. (Eric) Warren and all of our friends at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) have come up with a plan -- it’s a better plan then we have right now. I think that will bring some of the changes we need in that program.
 “I’m real proud of David (Reutimann). He kept fighting and got a good finish. Dale (Jarrett) ran well, too, and he probably had a better car than me or David, but he got spun out early in the race and that cost him positions. Everybody just survived, and I’m proud of everybody.”
The race weekend began with Waltrip recording a best lap of 20.184 seconds (93.817 mph), the 29th-fastest lap in qualifying. The effort was impressive considering Waltrip completed just one complete lap in practice after sustaining damage to the NAPA Camry coming out of Turn 3.
 “It was a great day because the way it started -- Dale Jarrett, David Reutimann and myself all saw it raining and thought it could just do that all day and we knew we would be in the race,” said Waltrip after qualifying. “But, God doesn’t give you anymore than you can handle, and he didn’t want it to rain out, so now I couldn’t be any happier with the plan. We had to fix a wrecked car after only one lap of practice, but now we are sitting in the race with a car that I really think will be good on Sunday.
“If you think about the fact that a year ago we didn’t even have a copy machine, but we were ordering cars, telephones and computers. We weren’t up to speed, and we weren’t where we needed to be when the season started -- quite frankly, Toyota wasn’t where they needed to be at that point, either. They’ve improved, and we’ve improved. They see us now as a group that is ready for some help, where before they may have looked at us thinking, ‘I don’t know if we can help them -- they might just be chasing their tails’. Now we really have our stuff lined up in a good way, and it makes me proud that teams like Team Red Bull will ask us our thoughts and look to us to see what we’re doing -- that’s just a great feeling.”
 Jeff Gordon won the Bud Pole with a lap of 19.938 seconds (94.974 mph). Rounding out the top-10 qualifiers were Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., J.J. Yeley, Jamie McMurray and Tony Raines. A total of five Toyotas qualified for the Subway 500, including all three Michael Waltrip Racing entries. Besides Waltrip, David Reutimann qualified 19th and Dale Jarrett lined up 33rd. Dave Blaney and AJ Allmendinger qualified 17th and 25th, respectively.
The majority of the Subway 500 saw Waltrip battle a bad push on acceleration with his NAPA Camry. A series of adjustments were made under caution during Laps 46, 69 and 93. However, Waltrip’s car seemed to respond when spring rubbers were added to the mix on Laps 116, 168 and 188. During this portion of the race, the driver battled back from one lap down and a spin on lap 187 to race in the top 35.
 During the second half of the Subway 500, Waltrip rose through the field after shock adjustments were made on Laps 218 and 249. With 100 laps to go, the NAPA driver was running just outside the top 25, in position to regain the lap he lost on Lap 339. Bobby Kennedy instructed his driver to stay on pace with the frontrunners since the odds of earning the Lucky Dog were in the team’s favor due to the high number of caution flags – a total of 13 -- already thrown in the race. As luck would have it, Waltrip returned to the lead lap when the caution flag was thrown on Lap 465 after Kyle Petty spun in Turn 3. Kennedy took this opportunity to call his driver in for the final time one circuit later for an air-pressure change and four fresh tires.
The closing laps of the Subway 500 saw three accidents that culminated in a green-white-checkered-flag finish.
Following Johnson to the checkered flag and rounding out the top-10 finishers were Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Juan Pablo Montoya, Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick.
In the Toyota contingent, David Reutimann finished 17th followed by Waltrip, Jarrett, AJ Allmendinger and Dave Blaney in 18th, 30th, 35th and 36th, respectively.
In the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup Championship, Gordon remains in the points lead, 53 points ahead of teammate Jimmie Johnson.
Next week, Waltrip and the NAPA AUTO PARTS team travel to NAPA’s home track, Atlanta Motor Speedway. The Atlanta 500 is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 28 at 1 p.m. Eastern on ABC and PRN radio.
Subway 500 Results:
http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/32/data/results_unofficial.html
Chase for the Championship:
http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2007/data/standings_unofficial.html
Lap-by-Lap:
http://www.nascar.com/2007/races/lapbylap/10/21/mville/index.html |
