Michael Waltrip and his
team, Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR), endured several trying times in 2007. These were trying on Waltrip and the entire race
team itself. It all started with qualifying for the 2007 Daytona 500.
I'm sure most know the
story. A suspicious substance that to this day has not been mentioned was found in Waltrip's No. 55 Toyota prior to qualifying
for the 49th annual Daytona 500. Waltrip's crew chief, David Hyder, as well as MWR's competition director Bobby Kennedy, also
a good friend of Waltrip's, were escorted from the track and initially were told to not come back for all of Speedweeks. Waltrip
was extraordinarily upset by the situation, and actually brought to tears when his daughter asked him what his team did wrong.
Shortly thereafter, the
two MWR team members were suspended indefinitely by the sanctioning body.
Waltrip, a two-time Daytona
500 champion, was able to race his way into the 500 via the Gatorade Duel. However, he had a poor showing and was relegated
to a 30th-place finish. The next race the blue No. 55 NAPA Toyota would compete in would be on a sunny Monday afternoon at
Dover -- in June, he finished 28th.
This was a couple months
after Waltrip was involved in a car accident with his street car. On April 7, he reportedly fell asleep at the wheel of his
Toyota Land Cruiser which overturned near his home in North Carolina. While uninjured, the four-time Sprint Cup Series winner was
still embarrassed by the incident.
In May, the indefinite
suspensions were lifted on Kennedy and Hyder, and Hyder left MWR to go to Bill Davis Racing.
After missing the following
week's race at Pocono Raceway, Waltrip qualified himself into the race at Michigan,
and put together a strong showing with a 10th place finish.
Through the rest of the
'07 season, all three MWR teams struggled to make races. Rookie David Reutimann fought hard to make races on speed, and seemed
to be the best qualifier of the three MWR Cars. 1999 series champ Dale Jarrett used his six champion's provisionals early
in the year, and failed to make most of the season's second half events.
In October it was announced
that MWR had acquired an equal ownership partner in Robert Kauffman, and that Dale Jarrett would run the 2008 Cup Series season's
first five races to ensure that the #44 UPS Toyota is locked into each race, before handing the reigns to second-year driver
David Reutimann.
The year of 2007 couldn't end
soon enough for Waltrip and his organization, who in their first year went through a lot together.
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But after "overhauling"
their personnel lineup for 2008, as well as Toyota's addition of Joe Gibbs Racing, both MWR and Toyota
had reserved optimism for '08.
That optimism reached
its peak Sunday at Daytona, when Michael Waltrip put his No. 55 NAPA Toyota on the outside front row for the golden anniversary
of the “Great American Race,” alongside of the dominant Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson, the series'
two-time and defending champion.
The 2nd-place qualifying
effort was good enough to lock Waltrip into Sunday's show. Also fast enough to lock himself in was David Reutimann in his
#00 Aaron's Toyota.
Jarrett's efforts in
Thursday's Gatorade Duel will have to be good, even with a champion's provisional. Even with Jarrett being the 1999 champion,
Kurt Busch, the 2004 champion, will get the nod should the champion's provisional be needed.
But even still, Michael
Waltrip has come a long way as a driver and a team owner. And maybe this Sunday he can etch himself as a team owner into
the NASCAR history books.
2006 StockCar Review.
