Well, Michael Waltrip's luck may finally be changing for the better. Last week at Sonoma Mikey had a solid 25th place finish and increased his points lead over the 36th position by a nice margin moving from 34 to 31st. Then this week Mikey has a solid second place finish at New Hampshire. The 170 points he received vaulted him to 28th in points and has moved him from the danger list of the go or go homers.
Now some may say it was because of the rain but let I follow Mikey and listen to him and his crew chief and spotter during the race on "HotPass" When the caution came out on Lap 204 because of the blown engine of the 84 car Mikey pitted and came out 24th on the grid. On the drop of the green flag Mikey dropped like a rock to the last car on the lead lap,30th,. he said his right front tire was bad. He had recovered just a little and moved up to 28th when the caution came out for the 8 car spin. Mikey got a chance to come in put on 4 fresh tires and top off with fuel. Well, this stop put him about 3 laps short but he was going to go for it.
Mikey had moved up to 20th and was closing up on the 2 car when the Junior/McMurrary incident happened. So Mikey moved up to Second and was pulling a Junior under caution. He was shutting his engine off and coasting around the track to save fuel. Well when the green flag came back out Bobby Kennedy told him he had saved enough to go all the way. Then when the last caution came out it was enough to allow Mikey to go a green white checkered if needed.
The rains came and as we know Mikey came in second. Although I am estatic about his finish, I am going to try to lay low this week and not harp on it. I can only hope that Mikey can have a strong, can we say win, run at Daytona. This race may just be what Mikey needed to get his team on track and moving towards that top 20 finish.
David had a good run he finished 19th but he was consistently running between the 15th and 20th position all race long. He stayed in 29th, in points, passed by Mikey, but again moved himself out of danger from the go or go homers and it was a nice rebound after last weeks showing on the road course.
Mike McDowell ran into some bad luck, his engine expired. He went down a lap early but had maintained his position and looked to have a finish around 31st or 32nd. Now he is tied with the 77 for 35th, 25 points ahead of the 36th place car. Hopefully, he can catch onto the back of the 55, or 44 and they can help push Mikey to MWR's first win.