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Crash Ends Top-10 Bid as Waltrip Remains 28th in Owner Standing
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Saturday night's Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway did not go as planned for NAPA Racing's Michael Waltrip. Regardless, the final 30 laps saw the driver go into overdrive to move from 30th to eighth place on the leader board before becoming an innocent victim of a crash on the final lap. NASCAR reviewed the on-track action on video replay and electronic scoring loops to determine that Kyle Busch took the victory over Carl Edwards. Unfortunately for Waltrip, he got shuffled from 12th at the time of the accident to be scored in a disappointing 27th place. The NAPA team went to the NASCAR trailer after the race to fight for its position, but NASCAR upheld its decision.
"Two cars got together on the outside and one of them came across and hit me," said Waltrip, who was running in eighth position at the green-white-checkered flag restart. "We really did not have a very good car. We did a really good job making the most of what we had. We were running eighth. We had a good chance to get up there. We got hit like everybody then that big crash happened. I just got in it. We did nothing wrong. We just got collected with the rest of them."
Waltrip's weekend started with only one practice session on Thursday after the final session was canceled due to rain. The team focused on race runs to get the car to handle the way Waltrip needed to make a bid for his fourth victory at the famed "World Center of Racing". On Friday, the Sprint Cup teams participated in Coors Light qualifying. Waltrip had a late draw and recorded a time of 48.921 seconds (183.970 mph). The result was good for the 29th-starting position.
"I felt like we would be 27th," said Waltrip after he made his attempt. "Just judging from what I saw in practice and the way we qualified at Talladega, that's sort of where I thought like we would end up. We probably won't be too far off that. I'm a little bit disappointed, but not totally because we can win from there. As a race car driver that is all you care about. When we were here in February, we had that thing tuned out to go fast, and man it did. When I say that, it didn't matter how it handled then. Here you have to handle well with it being an impound race. We have to be perfectly content with our handling, and I was. When practice started yesterday, I did not like it. But, the changes we went with, and what I felt in qualifying, we should be okay for the race."
When the green flag waved shortly after 8 p.m. on Saturday night, Waltrip realized he did not have the same kind of car he had at Talladega a few months back. In order to contend, the driver told his crew chief Bobby Kennedy that the NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota was mainly backing in on entry and pushing off the corners. More forward grip would also be needed. The chance to make changes happened under caution on lap 21 after AJ Allmendinger had a problem on the frontstretch. The pit crew went to work to make air pressure and track bar adjustments. Four fresh tires and fuel were also completed. The race resumed on lap 25 with Waltrip in 28th place and Kyle Busch the leader.
Changes made after the first pit stop helped Waltrip, but he still felt his NAPA Toyota was a hand full when needing to move up through the field of cars. The caution was back out on lap 44 as the reigning Daytona 500 champion, Ryan Newman, found out he had a hand full of his own when his No. 12 car went spinning along the backstretch. The caution allowed the NAPA team another chance to work on the car. In just 13.6 seconds, the crew made an air pressure change, bolted on four fresh Goodyear tires and added fuel. Waltrip told his team that if he had to make a run to the front, his car was handling well enough to do so.
Unfortunately, the NAPA Toyota's handling went away for Waltrip over the course of the next 100 laps. Caution periods on laps 71, 109 and 124 allowed the crew to continue to work on the car, but unfortunately the car just would not respond the way the driver needed. Waltrip remained out on track during the yellow on lap 126 to collect five valuable bonus points for leading the race before making his pit stop. But ultimately, the late stages of the event saw Waltrip battling a very loose car. He did everything he could to stay within striking distance by maintaining a top-25 position.
When the race went back to green on lap 129, Waltrip notified his team that he was making his move to the front to get all he could get despite the car's challenging handling. Three quick cautions were thrown on laps 131, 136 and 140 for incidents involving Jamie McMurray, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Newman, Casey Mears and Jeff Burton. Waltrip voiced his frustration that his car just did not want to go. Despite the disadvantage, the driver managed to move up 10 positions to 19th when the race resumed on lap 143 with Jeff Gordon as the leader. Six short laps later, Waltrip was in impressive form, putting his NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota in 10th place before the yellow was back out on lap 150 for an incident involving go-or-go-home drivers Joe Nemechek and Boris Said.
With just four laps remaining, a seven-car incident happened in Turn 3. The car sustaining the most damage was the defending points champion Jimmie Johnson. Waltrip managed to dodge the incident to settle into eighth place for the green-white-checkered-flag finish. The green flag waved on lap 160 with Kyle Busch in the lead and Waltrip a contender in eighth position. Unfortunately as the frontrunners were coming out of Turn 1, rookie Sam Hornish Jr. got tangled up with another car. The contact sent Hornish into Waltrip bringing an end to the race and the end to the NAPA team's well-deserved top-10 finish.
"We did nothing wrong," said Waltrip. "We worked our butts off to get in that position. It was not our fault. We did all we could.
"In our minds, we have had four good weekends in a row. We ran excellent at Michigan. Gas mileage got us at Infineon Raceway. We took advantage of gas mileage at Loudon, and then tonight we got ourselves some track position to go for it at the end. I am real proud of my NAPA team."
The top-10 finishers in the Coke Zero 400 behind Busch were Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch, David Ragan, Robby Gordon, Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer and Mark Martin
As for Waltrip's teammates, David Reutimann came from a five-lap deficit due to a loose spark plug wire to finish on the lead lap and in 21st place. Michael McDowell completed his first event at Daytona in 25th place.
The next stop on the Sprint Cup Series schedule is Chicagoland Speedway on Saturday night for the LifeLock.com 400. Broadcast coverage of the 19th event of the season starts at 6:30 p.m. ET on TNT cable network and the Motor Racing Network on the radio.
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