Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 - Michael Waltrip Notes

Michael Waltrip (Pre-Atlanta)

“We tested at Atlanta and we ran 28.96 which is the fastest I’ve ever gone around the track and I believe it was about what the pole was in the spring. We were really confident with our qualifying at the end of our test and we learned a terrible amount -- a lot when we turned our attention to race mode and in doing so, worked our set-up out and were real happy with what we learned. We never did put it all together into a package where we thought we might go back to race like that, but we learned so much. That’s the cool thing about when I test with DEI, you know we engineer everything out. You’ve got everything computer enhanced and telemetry on all of it, all parts of the cars and so we are able to go back and piece it all together and figure out what we’re going to do for our race set-up. Points have been a challenge lately, I think six out of the last eight races, we’ve finished 26th or worst so it’s hard to figure you’d be right in the middle of the battle for 10th, but we certainly are and we’ve got great tracks coming up for us. The way we ran at Loudon, jazzes me up for Phoenix. Of course, I always run well at Rockingham, and then the new set-up at Homestead will be different for everyone. I’m just real confident that the car will run well in Atlanta and remaining four races and we can finish hopefully with another win and definitely in the top-ten in points. Those are our goals and that’s the plan.”

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