Michael Waltrip Racing - History

History

Michael Waltrip Racing began racing in the Winston Cup series in 2002, making its debut at the 2002 Aaron's 499. The car was the #98 Aaron's Chevrolet Monte Carlo driven by Kenny Wallace. Wallace qualified 27th and finished 21st. Following that first race, Waltrip sold the #98 and its owner points to Innovative Motorsports.

After that, MWR fielded one Winston or Nextel Cup series car, the #00, on an intermittant basis through 2005. In 2006, MWR, in partnership with Bill Davis Racing, added a second car, Waltrip's #55, but neither car had manufacturer support.

In 2006, MWR signed an agreement with Toyota to field multiple Toyota Camrys in the Nextel Cup series for 2007. Waltrip was then able to add a third car driven by Dale Jarrett to his team for 2007, along with new sponsors. However, the MWR cars experienced a disastrous 2007 season, with the three teams failing to qualify for 39 races between them while winning only one pole with no top-5 finishes. Waltrip was forced to add Rob Kauffmann as a 50% partner in MWR to get the financing to improve the operation. After the season, major sponsors Burger King and Domino's Pizza pulled out. Also after the season, an ugly controversy emerged with Jack Roush of Roush Fenway Racing, who accused MWR of stealing one of his team's sway bars after a September 2007 race. While Waltrip and some other drivers, such as Jeff Gordon, argued that parts are often inadvertently swapped during post-race inspection, Roush held a lengthy news conference in March 2008 to accuse "the non-descript Toyota team" (MWR) of deliberately stealing the bar and threatened legal action. However, Roush, who had previously accused Toyota teams of being "ankle-biting Chihuahuas" and brought up Pearl Harbor in his effort to keep Toyota out of NASCAR, did not pursue such a lawsuit.

For 2008, MWR once again added Aaron's as a sponsor and ran competitively, but again managed only one pole and just one top-5 finish, and UPS withdrew as a sponsor after Jarrett retired and transferred its sponsorship to MWR's archrivals Roush Fenway. In 2009, MWR was forced to form a technical alliance with JTG Daugherty Racing to have sponsorship for its third car. However, during this season, MWR finally achieved success as a Sprint Cup team, including winning a race and placing two cars in the top six two weeks later. Both of those cars ended up in the top 20 for the year. For 2010, MWR added Martin Truex Jr. as a full-time Sprint Cup driver. Michael Waltrip continued as a part-time driver, while also adding on talent such as former RCR crew chief Scott Miller, and hiring drivers Mark Martin, Clint Bowyer, and Brian Vickers