[Waltrip] said he has sponsorship for one of his two Busch Series teams. He said he would like David Reutimann, the driver for Darrell Waltrip Motorsports in the trucks, drive one of those Busch cars. He also said that Reutimann’s teammate, Joey Miller, is a possibility for the other Busch car.(NASCAR Scene)(4-29-2006)
UPDATE: From the Nextel Wake-Up Call Transcript: Waltrip: My plan is to have two NEXTEL Cup Series teams and two Busch teams. I havent hired a second driver yet for the Cup car. I would like to think that (David) Reutimann could drive one of my Busch cars. We do have sponsorship in place for the two Cup cars and one of the Busch cars. And we are working towards announcing who the second sponsor is and who that driver will be. We think we have put the right people in the right places so far. We just have to continue to build. If you can appreciate that it costs a lot of money to hire people, the Burger King program allowed us to ramp up a little bit sooner than we would probably have been able to afford to before because we have some sponsorship dollars coming in that will help pay those people as we race through 2006. It costs a whole lot of money to build a race team and not go race, because there is not a whole lot coming in. So were real thankful for the Burger King piece of it because it will help offset the tremendous costs that were faced with this year. Q.So you have hired David Reutimann to drive your Busch car? Waltrip: Yes.(MichaelWaltrip.com)(5-4-2006)
UPDATE 2: From Waltrip’s Nextel Cup sponsorship announcement Sunday morning: “We have Aarons Sales & Lease Ownership set to run with David Reutimann in 2007 and run for the Busch Championship”.(Michael Waltrip Racing PR)(6-18-2006)
UPDATE 3: Ty Norris, vice president and general manager of Michael Waltrip Racing, said the team is under contract with Toyota to field four teams. The original plan had been to field two Cup and two Busch teams, but Waltrip decided three Cup teams and one Busch entry makes more strategic sense.(NASCAR Scene)(6-22-2006)
