Michael Waltrip - Rockingham Preview
19 February 1999
"The Rock" holds plenty of insight for Michael Waltrip
HARRISBURG, N.C. (Feb. 17, 1999) - Michael Waltrip, driver of the consumer
electronics giant backed Philips Chevrolet, jumpstarted his 1999 NASCAR
Winston Cup Series campaign with a fifth place finish in Sunday's Daytona
500, marking his best finish ever in the "Great American Race." Now,
his thoughts broaden to the rest of the 1999 season, which picks up this
weekend at North Carolina Motor Speedway.
Michael Waltrip at Rockingham...
Avg. Avg.
Starts Top 5s Top 10s start finish Winnings
----- ------ ------- ----- ------ --------
Spring races 13 1 3 21.92 19.23 $175,495
* Started 13th, finished 34th in 1998 after accident on lap 363
Michael Waltrip on...
...the importance of Rockingham:
"We had to put Daytona behind us pretty quick and start thinking about
Rockingham. Running well at Daytona means that this Philips Racing Team
will probably run well in the four races at Daytona and Talladega. But,
if you can run well at Rockingham, that means you'll be good in about
30 other races, so we're pretty eager to go down there and have a good
run. If we look good at Rockingham, we're going to be pretty excited."
...preparing for Rockingham:
"For me, everything is basically different than when we were at Rockingham
last fall, and I'm pretty happy about that because we didn't run as well
as we wanted to.
"I have every note from every spring and shock that we ran there last
year. We'll just try to make a better set up for this weekend. That's why
we tested at Greenville [S.C.] this week. This is the first unrestricted
Chevrolet Monte Carlo I've been able to drive. Our team has been finishing
cars almost every day getting us ready to go for the season. But this
is the first chance for me to drive my Philips Chevrolet without a
restrictor plate on it, and it's feeling good."
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is one of the world's
biggest electronics companies and Europe's largest, with sales of over
US$ 39 billion in 1997. It is a global leader in color television sets,
lighting, electric shavers, color picture tubes for televisions and
monitors, and one-chip TV products. Its 256,000 employees in more than
60 countries are active in the areas of lighting, consumer electronics,
domestic appliances, components, semiconductors, medical systems, business
electronics, and IT services (Origin). Philips is quoted on the NYSE,
London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and other stock exchanges.
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