An Optimist: Waltrip says he thinks he can turn things around in Nextel Cup season's second half
Daytona International Speedway has some very good memories for Michael Waltrip and some bittersweet memories, too.
After his struggles this season - beginning at Daytona in February with that still unexplained gasoline-additive controversy - Waltrip would like to get off on a better foot as the Nextel Cup season starts the second half.
“It is one of those tracks that make me smile,” said Waltrip, a two-time winner of stock-racing’s biggest race, the Daytona 500. “We had a pretty competitive car in February. And David Reutimann (his rookie teammate) had a very competitive car at Talladega (although Waltrip himself failed to qualify). So we are very optimistic.”
But then Waltrip has always been long on optimism, even in the face of extreme adversity.
“This year has been a real struggle obviously,” Waltrip admitted. “But we have learned so much, and I feel good about where we are as an organization. I am really looking forward to going back to some of these tracks and get something accomplished.”
If Toyota is finally turning a corner, maybe Waltrip can dig himself out of this deep hole.
So far, however, it has been a Chevy season, and Sunday at New Hampshire International Speedway, Chevy swept the top eight spots. Kevin Harvick won the Daytona 500 in Richard Childress’ Monte Carlo, Jeff Gordon won Talladega for Rick Hendrick, and Tony Stewart will be going for his third straight win in the Pepsi 400 Saturday night at Daytona.
Jimmie Johnson, another Chevy contender, will warm up by running in tonight’s Grand-Am 250 road race here, to polish his road-course skills for next month’s Cup race at Watkins Glen. He might also earn a few points with the France family, not a bad idea after the Sonoma controversy.
Meanwhile, Dale Earnhardt Jr., another potential Chevy winner, continues to struggle with his JR Motorsports Busch operation. Earlier this week, he unplugged driver Shane Huffman after a year and put himself back in the seat for Friday’s Winn-Dixie 250. Earnhardt said he’s looking for a new driver.
Earnhardt might also be trying to regain his Daytona touch. “We weren’t a very strong team in the 500,” he said. “We were OK, but OK isn’t what we expect at restrictor-plate tracks.
“Some of that, though, is almost by design. We used to put so much focus on plate events we struggled at the intermediate tracks. So we made a decision to step up our effort at the 1½-mile and two-mile tracks. We improved a lot the last year on the intermediates, but we weren’t as dominant at superspeedways. It was like selling your soul to win all those restrictor-plate races and then trading some of it back to be better everywhere else.”
At least Earnhardt will have crew chief Tony Eury Jr. back on his pit box, after Eury served his suspension for an illegal wing at Darlington in early May.
“We’ve done really well without him,” Earnhardt said. “Tony Gibson did a great job the last six races.
“But it’s Tony Jr.’s team, and I’m looking forward to having him back in the pits and on the radio.”
Finding someone to challenge all those Chevy guys might be tough. Even longtime Ford star Mark Martin, who lost the 500 in a heartbreaker in his best race ever at Daytona, is in Chevy gear.
So pick among Roush drivers, such as Matt Kenseth and Jamie McMurray, and Roger Penske’s Kurt Busch.
Busch has amends to make here, after he got so carried away battling Stewart for the lead midway through the 500 that they crashed.
But Busch has been a very strong contender here since joining Penske last year. He ran third in last summer’s 400 at Daytona (and was third at Talladega this year). But after the February disappointment, he said, “we’ve had Saturday’s 400 targeted for a long time.
“We’ve been so strong in these plate races, come so close to that breakthrough. If you’re knocking on the door hard enough and long enough, sooner or later you’re going to break on through.
“The big deal is you’ve got to get to the end. Tony and I were definitely the class of the 500 field, but….
“We were running behind Tony, and I got him aero-loose (taking air off his rear spoiler), and he checked up, and I bumped into him. It looked awful, but I did all I could to stay off of him.”
However, it was just one of several incidents between the two that appears to have been more than just an accident. At Dover a few weeks back, they crashed again, and then traded barbs. Whether NASCAR officials have managed to cool them off is uncertain. Busch said he’s now trying: “Tony has been a good ally on plate tracks.”
Sometimes, though, things are just downright tough at Daytona.
“Plate racing,” Busch said, is “a high-speed chess match on wheels. I realize it can also turn into 190-mile-per-hour Russian Roulette.”
And Busch has more at stake now than in February, because it’s getting close to the cutoff for the championship playoff. He’s 15th - 236 points behind that 12th-place cut with nine races to go.
Matt Kenseth, on the other hand, conceded that “Daytona has been very frustrating over the past couple of years.”
“We’ve had a car good enough to win two or three,” he said, “but something always happens to take us out.
“We thought we were in good shape with about 15 to go in the 500, but things got shuffled and we ended up restarting eighth or ninth for the green-white-checkered finish … then it looked like we were going to finish third, maybe even second - and we get taken out coming out of Turn 4 the final lap.”
That was when Kyle Busch, another Chevy contender, made a daring, ill-fated bid for the lead.
“Restrictor-plate racing for me is maddening,” Matt Kenseth said. “You have to make the right decisions, but a lot of it is luck.”
Teammate McMurray, who drove the race of his career at Sonoma two weeks ago only to be foiled by gas mileage at the end, is another strong runner here. And his career finally seems to be picking up speed again this season since Larry Carter was hired as crew chief.
“It’s hard to believe we’re already at the midpoint, and I’m really pleased how far this team has come,” Carter said. “It didn’t take the team long to start clicking.”
In fact, McMurray and Carter could well make the championship chase.
Of course, the story so far in the title chase has been Jeff Gordon, who is starting to appear unstoppable. “But we weren’t happy with how we ran in the Daytona 500,” Jeff Gordon, a six-time Daytona winner, said.
“And the track is usually very hot and slick during the July race, even though it’s at night. That puts a premium on downforce and handling.”
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