Michael Waltrip remembers a time when his company, Michael Waltrip Racing, was only brought in conversation because of how awful things were going.
Back when qualifying for races were few and far between. When a cheating scandal at Daytona nearly ended the company before he really even began. Years before two of his three drivers would be talked about as championship favorites with one week remaining before the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup begins.
“Pretty good times for MWR and when I think of good times it reminds me of the bad,” said Waltrip on Friday at Richmond International Raceway. “I remember coming here in 2007 and we didn’t even have a garage stall. Our cars were out on pit road because the garage was full and I don’t even know if any of us qualified. Now we’re here and we’re talking championship, so that’s really fun.”
Clint Bowyer enters Saturday night’s Federated Auto Parts 400 as the defending winner of the event. In April he finished second. He might have won last weekend at Atlanta had it not been for a blown engine while he was leading. Bowyer is second in the championship standings, 28 points behind Jimmie Johnson, however he’s winless when it comes to seeding for the Chase.
He’s locked in though, unlike teammate Martin Truex Jr. who fights for a wild card position. Truex has a win and sits 13th in points, which would give him one of those two spots. He and his broken wrist however, need to survive 400 laps on Saturday night. Last Sunday he finished third.
For Waltrip, it’s a perfect scenario. MWR is relevant, they’re contenders and not just one hit wonders as some may have believed after they came out of nowhere last season. Bowyer finished second in points to champion Brad Keselowski in his just his first year with MWR. Now, here the company is again, riding a wave of consistency and momentum toward the Chase. But it’s still not enough for even Waltrip to say that they’re going to be yearly Chase contenders.
“We’ve done it this year for sure and that’s great, but we have to do it every year. The cool thing about this year are the challenges that we’re been faced with. The new car was huge to get your arms around to get it to the nth degree of tuned up and ready to race these boys,” said Waltrip.
“While we’ve done a nice job the first part of the season, we were consistent, but we didn’t have the speed that we needed in order to contend for wins and then as the mid-season came along I think we kept closing that gap and just got better and better and better. I think we’re peaking as an organization as this Chase approaches so we’re very confident about our chances to race for a championship and we’re even more confident about 2014, 2015 and beyond.”
It would be hard to blame Waltrip for the confidence and eagerness about what the future holds for MWR. Even while building new cars this season when NASCAR introduced the new Gen6 model, MWR never blinked and have been on par with the likes of Hendrick, Gibbs and Roush.
Truex has a win, as does 2014 full-time driver Brian Vickers. Only running a partial schedule this season, Vickers stunned the garage with a victory at New Hampshire in July. He’ll join Bowyer and Truex in competing for the Chase next season. A championship is expected to follow in the near future.
And whether it comes this year, or next or perhaps after that, Waltrip knows it won’t be easy. Lessons learned from the past will continue to lay the path for future success. Waltrip noted the teams will continue to work hard on capitalizing at tracks they’re most successful. Then go into survival mode at others when it’s necessary. That will be the plan as the Chase begins next weekend, as well.
“I know that Clint loves Loudon and Martin loves the mile-and-a-halfs so you just play to your strengths and you hope that you can take advantage of those tracks and opportunities and I think we’re going into the Chase as an organization at a very opportune time,” he said.
“Last week, I think Clint showed a tremendous amount of speed and Martin showed a tremendous amount of heart. Brian showed a tremendous amount of perseverance and all those things will be key in the Chase and I look forward to seeing our guys in that Chase because we learned so much and grew so much last year as an organization, hopefully we can take advantage of that this year.”
