Michael Waltrip Racing
announced today that Mark Martin will fill in for injured Joe Gibbs Racing
driver Denny Hamlin only in next weekend's race at Martinsville Speedway,
and not for the duration of Hamlin’s injury, as had previously been announced.
Yesterday, a media
release from Joe Gibbs Racing indicated that Martin would make his “first start”
for MWR at Martinsville, with team president J.D.
Gibbs saying, “we are really pleased to have someone of the character and
caliber of Mark Martin to fill in while Denny is out. Obviously, we’re not
exactly sure how long that is going to take, but Mark’s career speaks for
itself and our team knows it will have the opportunity to compete for a win
every week.”
Today, however, Michael
Waltrip Racing made it clear that Martin will compete for MWR in just one race.
"Martin will return
to the No. 55 Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota Camry at Texas Motor Speedway on
April 13 and resume his previously scheduled run of events with MWR for the
remainder of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup season," said the release from the
team.
"I think it is
great that a driver of Mark’s caliber is available to support our fellow Toyota
team during this difficult time for them,” said MWR founder and co-owner
Michael Waltrip. “Mark is a big part of our organization and is committed to
our sponsors, especially Aaron’s and Toyota. We have a lot of goals yet to
reach this year and we are very focused on accomplishing them."
As previously announced,
Brian Vickers will race MWR’s No. 55 Jet Edge Toyota Camry for MWR at
Martinsville.
I believe I'm confused. Why wouldn't JGR put either Elliot Sadler or Brian Vickers in the 11 car for Hamlin? Both drivers, former cup series drivers, are already under the JGR banner. Seems to me all they'd need to do is replace the seats and some other small changes. Confused, I am.
ReplyDeleteThink the godfather meant that MM would be making only one start for JGR instead of MWR where he normally races?????
ReplyDelete"Today, however, Michael Waltrip Racing made it clear that Martin will compete for MWR in just one race." Oops...typo Dave :)
ReplyDelete"Today, however, Michael Waltrip Racing made it clear that Martin will compete for MWR in just one race"
ReplyDeleteooops.
Yep.
ReplyDeleteIn no universe did it make sense to me for MWR to hurt their split-time effort in order to help someone else in what would become a split-time effort. When Martin's name was first dropped I said it made no sense to that. That JGR couldn't give MWR enough money to make that happen, and if TRD tried to encourage it, MWR should start talking to Dodge about 2014. People were suggesting sponsor conflicts, but that made no sense to me. When Vickers was announced for the following four races, that did make sense to me.
If you refer to the driver schedule that had been announced, The 55 was set to be piloted by
Vickers at Martinsville (so Martin would be available). Martin is scheduled to drive it at Texas through Richmond (making Vickers available. While Waltrip being in the car for 'Dega means Martin would be available, Martin prefers not to drive at Talledega for one. And while I'm sure he'd step up and do it if asked, at that point you have two things making Vickers a better choice. He will already be working with the JGR restrictor program through his Nationwide effort and he will then have three races under his belt with Darien Grubb.
In that light, this is how it makes sense. It gets JGR the best driver they can get without upsetting anyone else's effort. Though, I would have gone for Regan Smith or A.J. Allmendinger for all five races if that could've been worked out.
This is getting to be an Abbott and Costello who's on first deal!!!!
ReplyDelete-BillP
"Today, however, Michael Waltrip Racing made it clear that Martin will compete for MWR in just one race"
ReplyDeleteDave, I think this is wrong, isn't it?
Fish