Michael Waltrip Racing announced that Elliott Sadler will drive the team’s #55 Toyota in five Sprint Cup races in 2012 beginning at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 18. Sadler will also drive the #55 in the August Bristol event, both Martinsville races and the July 15 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Waltrip explained how Sadler came to drive the No. 55. ‘Elliott has the experience and attitude we were looking for,’ said the two-time Daytona 500 champion. ‘We ‘ll pair him with Crew Chief Rodney Childers who builds really fast cars. We believe Elliott will do a great job.’ Waltrip drove the #55 in the Budweiser Shootout and will run in four more races in 2012. Mark Martin will drive the #55 in 24 races plus the All Star Race in Charlotte. MWR will name a driver for two road course events at a later date.(MWR)(3-3-2012)
UPDATE: no driver has yet been named for the race at New Hampshire in September, that driver will be named later.(3-4-2012)
UPDATE 2: Elliott Sadler’s plans to substitute for Mark Martin behind the wheel of the #55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series may have been a bit premature. Sadler, who won the Nationwide Series race Saturday for Richard Childress Racing, was hoping to pilot the Aaron’s Toyota for five races that Martin has elected to skip, starting with the race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 18. But multiple sources told FOXSports.com the deal blew up Saturday night, shortly after it was announced via a press release. While talks had been in the works for a couple of months, the manufacturer conflict for Sadler, who drives Chevys full time for RCR in the Nationwide Series, appears to have squashed the arrangement. With most rosters set for 2012, don ‘t be surprised to see former Toyota driver Brian Vickers run the five races in place of Martin.(Fox Sports)(3-4-2012)
UPDATE 3: On Saturday, Michael Waltrip Racing announced that Elliott Sadler would drive the #55 MWR NASCAR Sprint Cup car for five races this season. But Monday afternoon, Sadler told SPEED.com that the deal was off. Richard Childress, Sadler’s car owner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and a longtime Chevy loyalist, told Sadler after his victory in the Bashas’s Supermarkets 200 at Phoenix International Raceway that he didn ‘t want Sadler in Waltrip’s Toyota. ‘I was going to drive the 55 car for five races for MWR, but actually, after the race on Saturday, after Victory Lane, Richard and I went to his bus,’ Sadler told SPEED.com. ‘And I think Richard, along with some of the executives that he has, have just decided that it’s probably not in our best interest to do that right now.’(SPEED)(3-5-2012)
UPDATE 4: Sadler said nothing in the meeting was discussed about RCR being a Chevy team and MWR being a Toyota team. ‘It was more about focus on what we are doing (in Nationwide),’ said Sadler, who has a 10-point lead in the series after two races.(ESPN)(3-6-2012)
