Michael Waltrip Racing General Manager Ty Norris is moving to quell speculation that the team will shut down its Pastrana Waltrip Racing NASCAR Nationwide Series team and highly successful NASCAR K&N Pro Series East operation due to lack of sponsorship. Former Pastrana Waltrip Racing crewchief Jerry Baxter left the team recently to accept a new position as Cale Gale’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series crew chief at Eddie Sharp Racing. Since then, rumors have circulated that MWR will shutter its Nationwide and K&N Pro Series East operations and lay off a number of employees. Norris denied those reports today, saying, “I know where they came from, and they are absolutely untrue.” Norris revealed that PWR is contractually committed to run seven NASCAR Nationwide Series races in 2012 with Pastrana and sponsor Boost Mobile, saying the team “will absolutely honor that commitment. The plan was to run the full K&N Pro Series East schedule with Travis, then use the personnel from the K&N team to support our Nationwide effort,” said Norris. “But we simply don’t have the funding to do the K&N East Series right now. We’ve been hanging onto those (employees) since September because we don’t want to break up a championship team. The question is, how long do we wait when the funding is not there?” Norris doubles as MWR’s Executive Vice President of Business Development, and said there are three companies talking about expanding Pastrana’s 2012 schedule. As of now, however, seven Nationwide races are all the team has sold.(Sirius Speedway)(12-15-2011)
UPDATE: Veteran crew chief Jerry Baxter will join Eddie Sharp Racing to compete for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series championship with Cale Gale during the 2012 season. With 20 years of experience in the motorsports industry, the San Diego, Calif., native will lead the #33 Rheem Chevrolet Silverado team.(ESR PR)(12-21-2011)
