All News Dale Earnhardt Martin Truex Jr. Michael Waltrip

Mikey and NAPA look to be back with DEI in 2006 UPDATE:

July 4, 2005 at 12:00 AM

Now that Dale Earnhardt, Inc. has signed Martin Truex, Jr. to a three-year contract extension, the next order of business is to renew the deals for driver Michael Waltrip and his sponsor, NAPA, DEI Director of Motorsports Richie Gilmore said Saturday night. “Michael’s been a great driver for us and a great cheerleader for us this year and a great teammate,” Gilmore said. “I think in the next couple of weeks, we’ll have it all worked out. The Martin (Truex, Jr.) deal just took up a lot more time than we thought, but everybody’s happy with how it worked out.” As for Waltrip’s contract extension — something of a surprise to some, as his job was rumored to be in jeopardy — Gilmore said, “We’re still working out the details on it. We think we can get it done in the next couple of weeks. We got a lot done today with NAPA and Michael and we feel like we can definitely get it done.”(Speed Channel), also being told that Waltrip wil NOT be replaced at Speed Channel’s Inside Nextel Cup show.(7-3-2005)
UPDATE: DEI is close to signing sponsor NAPA and driver Michael Waltrip to a one year contract with a perhaps three year extension. That according to DEI Director of Competition Richie Gilmore after a series of contract talks at Daytona with sponsor representatives. Gilmore says the deal to sign Martin Truex Jr. took longer than expected and that now it’s important to make sure DEI has three teams to compete with the Roush and Hendrick operations. Meanwhile, Waltrip says has no deadline and “Whenever they’re ready, I’m pretty much flexible to figure out what’s next whenever they are, so I’m happy. I don’t have any issues. I know how it goes and we’ll work it all out.” As far as a back-up plan, Michael said “I’ve been doing this for 20-years and I’ve realized that over the years that you better have a plan “B” if you don’t you’re libel to be out in left field somewhere so I’m just going right along, happy, just riding a good wave right now. I don’t have any demands. It’d be silly for me to make demands when I haven’t heard what the plan is and when I hear the plan we’ll go from there. Everything’s good as far as I know I don’t know of any reason to be worried.”(PRN’s Garage Pass/Sporting News)(7-4-2005)