It’s not a huge secret that 2007 didn’t exactly provide the Michael Waltrip Racing team with the debut season in Cup racing that they had hoped for, but 2008 could and should be much brighter for the organization as a whole.  This year the relief they’ve been searching for so badly will come in the form of Joe Gibbs Racing. With Toyota entering the Cup Series as a “rookie” in their own rights, teaming up with the young teams of MWR and Team Red Bull and attempting to even that out with the lackluster team of Bill Davis Racing, let’s just say that it was a formula destined to go sour coming out of the gates. Adding Gibbs to the mixture should help level things out for the Toyota organization, and right now, Michael Waltrip and his associates in the garage are down on their knees praying that’s the case. In 2007, the organization fielded three teams – the same as it will this year. If you do the math, you’ll quickly learn that with three teams, that’s a potential of 108 total race starts … yet, MWR managed to qualify their cars only 64 times,  which means that they successfully qualified their rides in only 59% of their opportunities. Oh, and when they did manage to qualify for the races, they didn’t do much with it, as the team didn’t even crack the top 5 one time throughout the entire season. In fact, the highlight of the season for MWR was the 2 top ten finishes, courtesy of Waltrip himself.

Basically, if this team doesn’t get it together in 2008, the next few years could find MWR having a very tough time finding any sponsorship help out there, leaving the organization with a ton of financial woes. In addition to Gibbs joining the Toyota roster, though, MWR could have a couple more bright spots to look at. For starters, Dale Jarrett will be gone after the first five races. I know there’s still a lot of DJ fans out there, but on a realistic level, the former champ doesn’t appear to have enough gas left in the tank anymore to really contribute anything to this race team. With him out of the way, it’ll give the young Michael McDowell the opportunity to step up and provide some more fresh talent to the team when he takes over the 00 ride. Meanwhile, the 44 crew should be left with a bit more potential gain for their efforts as the reigns of the no. 44 UPS Toyota Camri will fall in the lap of David Reutimann.  MWR is definitely a question mark heading into 2008, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up just yet for a breakout season from any of their drivers, but I think you should definitely look for some improvement from all three of their teams this year.

Cup Series Roster

No. 00: Michael McDowell – The rookie is sure to get off to a very slow start his first couple of races since he won’t have the opportunity to compete until Dale Jarrett moves out of the way of the no. 44 when he retires following Bristol.  That gives every other rookie on the tack 5 races to get some seat time under their belts, but even worse … it gives every veteran driver on the track 5 races to get back into their groove and figure a few more things out with the COT. It’s going to take some time, so I wouldn’t make any plans of adding him to your fantasy rosters just yet, but by the last quarter of the season you may be able to pick him up at quite a bargain.

No. 44: David Reutimann – He’s coming off of a very poor and lackluster rookie season, but with the way the other Toyota’s ran in 2007, he actually has every excuse he needs to put last year behind him and block it from his memory. Moving into the no. 44 ride after DJ retires should be a huge boost for him because UPS is a huge sponsor for NASCAR, which means that team probably has the funding they need to overcome the obstacles that the combination of debuting both Toyota and the COT last year threw at them. He may have only qualified for 26 races last year in the 00, but that’s actually more than any other driver at MWR. He also finished the year 39th in points, which is a far cry from anything considered successful, but again – he was the highest ranked driver at MWR. His biggest challenge is going to be getting his car qualified for the first five events since he won’t have any provisionals to work with during that period, but at the same time he’s going to need DJ to qualify for those races as well. Otherwise a very odd scenario could present itself … if Reutimann runs well during those five races but DJ doesn’t, he could find himself well within the top 35 in driver points, yet well outside the top 35 in owner points … meaning he would still have the daunting task of qualifying for the following races on time alone.

No. 55: Michael Waltrip – He’s got to step up this year, no question about it. As the owner of these race teams and a guy that’s actually at times been able to compete for a seat at the awards banquet in New York, he has got to step up and prove himself as the leader. He managed to qualify for only 14 races last season, producing 2 top ten finishes. That’s following a season in which he had NO top ten’s. He has got to get himself back to the basics and prove that he can still win races – or at least compete for a win – without the assistance of a Dale Earnhardt Jr. draft. Maybe it’d help if he spent less time in front of a camera and more time behind the wheel.

Driver Roster: D+
Off-Season: C+
2008 Outlook: C

Post from: EveryJoe

Season Preview: Michael Waltrip Racing