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Prep Roundup
Columnists Brian Meadows Brad NormanMembersLocal Connection› Iredell County Young Athletes Association› South Iredell Athletics Association › SHS athletics › WIHS athletics › NIHS athletics › SIHS athletics › LNHS athletics Syndicate RSSAP NASCAR NASCAR Features A look at this year's schedule A look at this year's drivers Differences between stock car and open-wheel racing NASCAR Research & Development Petty Enterprises splitter testing Aerodynamic testing in Concord's wind tunnel Top 10 moments in Daytona history Site StatisticsThis page has been viewed 801654 timesPage rendered in 0.2021 seconds Total Stories: 2136 Total Comments: 34 Most Recent Entry: 08/15/2008 01:53 pm Most Recent Comment on: 04/17/2008 11:54 pm Most Recent Visitor on: 05/23/2012 04:15 pm |
• Racing
2007 Oct-09
Waltrip getting it togetherBy Mike Mulhern TALLADEGA, Ala. - After a truly dismal “regular’‘ season, Michael Waltrip finally appears to be getting things under some control during NASCAR’s Chase for the Championship. Over the past six weeks, he and teammates Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann have been making the race lineups, which has been a major accomplishment in itself for the first-year operation. And now Waltrip and team manager Ty Norris have added Dr. Eric Warren as their new technical director. Warren was a key figure at Ray Evernham’s Dodge operation for several years until a falling out over the summer. Norris and Waltrip think that Warren could be a key piece to the puzzle. “We worked really hard to get into a position where, when somebody like Dr. Warren showed up, we were ready to take that help and run with it,” Waltrip said. “Our guys have done a tremendous amount of work, and Toyota as well, to get us to the point now where we feel good about where we are.” Norris, who helped build Dale Earnhardt Inc. and the man now helping build Waltrip’s operation, has been through the wringer this season. “The cool thing about it has been our resiliency,” Norris said. “People left us for dead. But we didn’t quit. And now even Jeff Gordon came up to and said ‘Man, you guys are making it work.’ “People are recognizing that it’s going to work, that we’re going to survive. “We all realized it would be tough. But when we were putting all this together toward the end of the ‘05 season … well, a lot of things changed in ‘06, like the car of tomorrow. So we went from zero cars to 56 cars.” “Plus we’re dealing with a new manufacturer. And the guys in the shop may know something about Fords and Chevrolets and Dodges, but nothing about Toyotas. So we’re brought in guys from other branches of motorsports, brilliant guys, but it’s taken them time to understand these cars, too. “Over the summer we went from not being able to make races to making races but running horribly. Now we’re making races and running consistently in the top 15 or top 20. Engines have been a weak point for all Toyota teams, which makes Sunday’s performance — in particular Dave Blaney’s last-lap shot at the win for car owner Bill Davis — something to study. “Toyota has brought in some great design people, and they kept saying ‘Keep the faith.’ And we’ve kept the faith,” Norris said. “We were all behind the first part of the season. We were down on horsepower, yet just to make the fields you had to be able to run six-tenths of a second a lap quicker. “Even people who have been in this sport for 20 years don’t understand what it has taken Michael to build this team, the countless hours, how much money, and how much work to keep it together. “You have to really applaud the employees who stuck it out. There were a lot of Mondays I dreaded because I didn’t think people were going to show up.” Waltrip and Norris had to rush to expand to a three-car operation. Last October, they had maybe 30 men on the roster; now they have 240. “We were way behind, but we got caught up,” Norris said of the season. “Guys on those big teams have the comfort of being competitive, and knowing they’ll be competitive. When you go to a track and the first thing you have to sweat is just making the race ... “If we can start the first five races next year like we’re running this year, there’s no reason we won’t be in the top-35. And then you can just worry about racing.” Will Reutimann sign a new contract with Waltrip and Norris? “We feel we’re in a good place, and when we’re ready to formally announcement something we will — and probably this week,” Norris said. “To this point there are no surprises.” And what will Dale Jarrett do? Jarrett plans an announcement this week. Will Waltrip have three teams again next year? Norris wouldn’t say. “We originally planned to have two Cup teams and two Busch teams,” Norris said. “But when UPS decided to follow Dale here, we decided we would program ourselves for four teams. And we took the chance. “The biggest mistake we made was in the summer of ‘06, when we designed our structure, one of our lead people would be a ‘technical director.’ But we didn’t want to plug somebody in who didn’t have those qualifications. And then we had two people turn us down, two non-believers who bailed on us at the last minute, because they said ‘Man, you guys aren’t even under one roof yet, and you don’t have enough cars built.’ “So when they bailed, we went into the season without that key position solidified. So we went through the first part of the season on gut feelings, throwing stuff at it, rather than basing things on science. Now with Dr. Eric Warren coming on, all those things we were looking for in the summer of ‘06 are starting to come around.” There has been little evidence of teamwork among the Toyota operations this season. Norris says the answer is obvious: all are struggling to make the fields and are thus competing against each other. “We’re all in survival mode,” Norris said. “Still, we have worked together more than it might appear on the surface. But it’s certainly not what it would be if we weren’t fighting each other just to survive.” “Horsepower-wise, we’ll find out with this new Joe Gibbs relationship,” Norris said. “We were nervous over the summer that the Gibbs thing wouldn’t happen. We wanted it to happen, very badly, because it gives us a whole new level to shoot for. When you can compare yourself to people running for championships, it shows what you have to shoot for.” Bookmarkz |
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