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NASCAR WCUP: Michael Waltrip looking to build on Richmond Test

10 September 1999

HARRISBURG, N.C. (Sept. 10, 1999) - Back in May, Philips Chevrolet driver
Michael Waltrip was less than satisfied with the performance he and his team
turned in at Richmond International Raceway.  But, instead of putting it out
of his mind, he immediately allocated one of his seven NASCAR test dates to
prepare for this week's return trip to Richmond, and it has paid off already
with renewed confidence.

Waltrip and his teammates spent two days on the .75-mile tri-oval last week,
and addressed some of the challenges they faced in May.  According to
Waltrip and crew chief Bobby Kennedy, the test was not only productive, but
also eye opening, as they turned lap times that will put them in a position
to be much more successful this Saturday night.


Michael Waltrip at Richmond (career)...

Starts:  27
Top 5s:  0
Top 10s:  0
Top 15s:  6
Ave. start:  20.26
Ave. finish:  24.19
Winnings:  $333,120
Best start:  2nd ('90)
Best finish:  12th ('87, '88)
1999 (race 1):  22nd


Michael Waltrip on...

...the confidence gained from his Richmond test (Aug. 30-31):

"I've struggled there somewhat during my past several trips, so I want to be
really jazzed up about the test, because everything appeared to be really
good.  We compared our 50 lap runs to the '99' and '24,' and those are two
pretty good cats to compare to.  They raced for the win last year in this
race, and our times were right there with them.  Everything appeared to be
good, so I'm cautiously optimistic."


...why he chose to test at Richmond:

"It's a place that we struggled in the spring in practice and qualifying.
We really had the Philips Chevy running pretty decent in the race itself,
but getting prepared for the race was a little bit more of a struggle than
we were used to.  We wanted to try to address that, and hopefully have a car
capable of starting up front and staying there all night."

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