Notebook: Waltrip sets sights on another Daytona 500

Notebook: Waltrip sets sights on another Daytona 500


By Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
(January 25, 2011)

Michael Waltrip intends to drive a No. 15 car in this year’s Daytona 500 as a tribute to former car owner and mentor Dale Earnhardt, Waltrip announced Tuesday.
Waltrip, 47, piloted the Dale Earnhardt Inc. No. 15 Chevy to his first career Sprint Cup win, capturing the 2001 Daytona 500 on the same day Earnhardt was killed.
Waltrip, who has started 24 consecutive Daytona 500s, must qualify for the 500 on speed because the No. 15 does not have any owners points.
“Going back to Daytona in 2011 is just another chance for me to celebrate Dale’s life and the fact that he believed in me like he did; NAPA Auto Parts believed in me to give me the opportunity to race a championship-caliber car like I did for Dale,” Waltrip said.
Waltrip, now the owner of Michael Waltrip Racing, ended a 462-race winless streak with the Daytona victory. All four of his career Cup wins came with DEI.
The black and blue paint scheme on this year’s car, “honors Dale, who obviously made 2001 possible,” Waltrip said.
Hornish to run partial Nationwide schedule
Sam Hornish Jr. will compete in at least 11 Nationwide Series races and possibly more in a move he hopes will resurrect his NASCAR career.
Team owner Roger Penske said the move is like Hornish being held back a grade in school, but Hornish—who has spent the past three years in the Sprint Cup Series—will have to make strides by racing part time.
Hornish, a three-time IndyCar Series champion, will compete in the season-opening Nationwide race at Daytona.
“Eleven or 12 (races) is just the start,” Penske said Monday. “Our goal is to fill out the season with him. You’ve got to not try to bite off more than you can chew here.
“He’s going to have a chance to start at Daytona, we’ve got a good car, he’s got a good teammate, we’ve got a good crew chief (in Chad Walter). We want him to run more races. We’ve got to get the ball rolling.”
Penske’s Brad Keselowski won last year’s Nationwide Series championship and plans to run the full Nationwide schedule again this season.
Hornish finished 35th in the Cup standings in his rookie year and improved to 28th in 2009. He had hoped to show more improvement in 2010 but ended up 29th with one top-10 finish.
“I want to prove something to everybody, but the only person that needs to be happy at the end of the day is me because that’s the only way you can live with yourself,” Hornish said. “I know there were days that I could have won Cup races if the right things happened, but we never got to the point where we could do it consistently enough to be able to be there all the time.”
Title quest won’t stop Almirola from helping Danica
Being one of the favorites to win the Nationwide Series title won’t prevent Aric Almirola from helping get JR Motorsports teammate Danica Patrick up to speed.
Almirola runs full time in JRM’s No. 88 Chevrolet. Patrick is a part-timer, juggling a partial Nationwide schedule with full-time competition in the IndyCar Series. Patrick ran 13 Nationwide races in her debut season last year, posting a top finish of 19th at Homestead in her final start.
“Even as new to it as I am, I have more experience than she does,” Almirola told Sporting News. “So I feel like I play a little bit of a role as a helper. I try to help her as much as I possibly can. I tell her anything that I know. I tell her every characteristic that I know about the racetrack.”Almirola, 26, has started 148 races in NASCAR’s top three series, including 39 Nationwide starts. He was credited with a Nationwide win at Milwaukee in 2007 but did not drive the car to victory. Almirola led the first 43 laps but—at sponsor Rockwell’s request—was replaced by Denny Hamlin soon after, and Hamlin completed the race. Almirola finished second in the Camping World Truck Series last year, winning two races.
His seat time in NASCAR far exceeds Patrick’s, and he is more than willing to share his knowledge.
“I try to help her and explain to her what the racetrack’s going to do later, what it’s going to do during the race. It’s just experience,” he said. “She lacks experience more than anything else. She doesn’t lack any drive or determination. She doesn’t lack talent—she lacks experience. So, for me, I just try to be the best teammate I can be.”