Michael Waltrip is last in the Nextel Cup standings with -27 points. He missed both the California and Las Vegas races, and needs to qualify every week to race. Toyota put a lot of money into his team and NAPA is not getting the exposure on Sunday that they have a right to expect.
2007-03-13 08:56:46 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Sports ➔ Auto Racing ➔ NASCAR
If they are smart, they'll turn and run. Why the heck Toyota would sign with Waltrip to enter their cars for the first time in NASCAR is beyond me. Michael is one of the worse drivers (of course we can't see that this year...he never qualifies). We are able to watch from 5 seperate cars and the NAPA car was always one. It gave us a good view of the first 42 cars!! He is the most pathetic thing.
Then with this cheating thing before the Daytona 500 which is the most important race....he should have gone home and not raced (like he said he wanted to). No wonder the car is in Buffy's name. I'd put my sponsorship on her driving the kids to school rather than him racing.
Michael - time to step aside and put a real racer in the drivers seat. You finally won the day Dale Sr. pulled over for you to allow you to win the 500, and that cost him his life.
If it wasn't for commercials NAPA would have no exposure. And I hope the Toyota lawyer are looking for loopholes to get out of these contracts with Michael. Whoever decided to go with Waltrip should be fired.
2007-03-13 12:35:11 · answer #1 · answered by NewGrandma 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Toyota is in a heap of trouble.
Jarrett had to use 3 of his 6 Champions provisional to race
Vickers and Waltrip have only qualified for 1 of the 3 races
Mayfield has yet to qualify for a race (0-3)
Blaney has been there best drive which isn't saying much
Waltrip bit off way more than he could chew. Let's be honest the guy is a good salesman and that's about it. If not for DEI power at restrictor plate races I doubt he would have ever won a race. So to go from mediocre driver to the owner of a 3 car race team, racing new cars without the benefit of having any previous team points. Well I can't say I feel bad. Toyota and Waltrip are getting what they deserve
2007-03-13 09:19:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Toyota's team. Do you imagine that that's Michael Waltrip fault that the motorcar won't be able to qualify? He used to qualify o.k. at Daytona in a DEI automobile. i assume that's Toyota's capture 22 problem. they have the willingness to help their product via Michael Waltrip Racing, and there are 3 drivers there. they have a championship motive force with Dale Jarrett, and ain't neither of them (3) using no warm rods. that's Toyotas problem. They actually have Ty Norris there as somekind of competition director; from DEI. So me thinks Toyota has no longer had any NASCAR racing technologies. What they had to do replaced into race on Sunday and promote on Monday. The Toyota engineers are scratching their heads as you study this. doh.
2016-12-01 22:52:59 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ok, it's called the car of tomorrow, Toyota isn't going to spend the money on the car of yesterday knowing full well that the car of tomorrow is in full effect, all 36 races in 08. I think what people don't realize is that they signed Waltrip and Jarrett for a reason. Being they are both experienced and well known on the circuit, winning isn't everything...i mean, they both do great commericals, they both have great relationships with big named sponsors and are both respected by the old guard. Believe it or not, Toyota doesn't care about Waltrip racing in the standings...the Red Bull Team is the number one Toyota team...and we will see Brian Vickers win, in the car of tomorrow, by the end of this year. the Waltrip team is pure fluff and PR for the 1st forigen born auto maker in NASCAR...nothing more.
also...1st Car of Tomorrow race, 2 weeks in Bristol, want to bet a couple of Toyota's finish in the top 10...you better believe it.
2007-03-13 11:44:59 · answer #4 · answered by Doctor J. 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
How long? As long as it takes Waltrip to say "the NAPA 55 Toyota tried really hard to qualify again today, but just didn't make it" ... 33 more times. Then again, he's known for being able to say a sponsor's name about 20 times a second ...
2007-03-13 09:40:33 · answer #5 · answered by nathanmedic2003 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Michael and Napa and Toyota for the time being are still digging out , the start to the season has been a calamity of errors and yes Toyota and the sponsors are being patient. Do not forget that Michael has been dubbed the sponsors dream in regards to him being a spokesperson for their product. I am not sure that they will win many races but I believe Toyota will turn things around as they did in the truck series.
2007-03-13 09:20:58 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Give Toyota three more races. Jarrett only has 3 more provisionals left. He is the only one who has been in all the races. Then what is Waltrip going to do? He certainly can;t whine his way into a race.
It's fine with me though. If he is not in the race, at least we don't have to hear him whine when he hits the wall.
2007-03-13 11:21:28 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
More then likely they will not be there next year meaning Toyota as none of their teams are doing well and they all are having to qualify on time and very few are making it like David Reutamann and Dave Blaney are the only two that have made the races so far and they arent the best drivers so its veyr unlikely that they will have a chanec to amount to anything this season.
2007-03-13 12:33:47 · answer #8 · answered by coolliz2444 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
at least, 3 to 5 seasons. there is too much money, invested to back off now besides, none of the TOYOTA teams are doing a lot. only a couple, made the VEGAS race(Jarrett, on a provisional)and, they are only 3 races into their 1st season. boy, some people have all the patience.
2007-03-13 13:54:28 · answer #9 · answered by ny21tb 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Toyota has been here before...Their trucks were slow to start too. And NAPA loves Mikey...they will stay with him as long as they have parts to sell. The one thing Mikey is a talker and he can talk up any product or company better than anyone in the garage.
2007-03-14 07:26:39 · answer #10 · answered by tow_tow_truck 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋