Michael Waltrip to Reach Major Milestone This Weekend
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Say what you want about Michael Waltrip, that he’s won only four Sprint Cup races in his career, spins out a lot and seems to be a magnet for other drivers to run into.
But there’s one thing you can’t deny about Waltrip: he has staying power Š and then some.
As we prepare to kick off the Chase for the Sprint Cup this Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Waltrip will reach a milestone of his own, making the 750th Cup start of his career.
Add to that 277 Nationwide Series starts and a mere eight Camping World Truck Series starts and Waltrip has taken the green flag in 1,035 NASCAR events in his lengthy career.
Ever since his first start in the Coca-Cola World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on May 26, 1985, Waltrip has carved out a very nice, comfortable and wealthy career for himself proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that you don’t always have to win lots of races to still make lots of money in NASCAR.
To put that into quantitative terms, Waltrip has earned nearly $50 million in his racing career. Sure, he’s only visited victory lane four times in Cup
and 11 times in Nationwide racing, but you can’t tell me he hasn’t been a success of some measure.
In addition to his 750th career Cup start, Sunday’s race also marks another milestone of sorts for Darrell’s kid brother: Mikey now has just 10 races remaining in his final year as a full-time driver on the Cup circuit.
Next season, the driver of the No. 55 will still be around, but only in a part-time capacity, leaving David Reutimann and Martin Truex Jr. to carry on the legacy of Michael Waltrip Racing on a full-time basis.
Waltrip may act like a country bumpkin with his shtick and goofy outbursts on SpeedTV or his entertaining commercials for NAPA and other sponsors, but it’s all an act. Frankly, behind that “aw shucks” exterior is one of the savviest and smartest businessmen in the NASCAR world.
And while his performance as a driver doesn’t come anywhere to matching that of his brother, or Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon or even former teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., Waltrip has been a big success in his racing career.
As he prepares to embark upon the next phase of his racing career, one that he’s already been pursuing the last three years as a fledgling multi-car team owner, I predict Waltrip is eventually going to get the last laugh on those who have cruelly laughed at him over the years.
Mark my word: in the next five years, MWR is going to become a major force to reckon with. I can easily see Truex winning a Cup championship while under the MWR banner, and Reutimann is only going to get better. His win at Charlotte earlier this year is the first of many to come.
Once Waltrip is able to turn much more of his attention to running his team, as opposed to worrying about racing full-time and being an owner only part of the time, he has the brains, infrastructure and personnel in place to make some serious noise.
That’s in the future. For now, though, lift your glass this Sunday and toast the driver of the No. 55. He may not be the best Cup driver there ever was, but he’s done a lot of things that many of his peers will never be able to accomplish, particularly from a longevity standpoint.
And for that, he deserves a cheer from us. Congrats, Michael!
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