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Focus Is On Getting Ready For Next Year

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 19, 2007

For all those teams and drivers such as Zephyrhills' David Reutimann who are not in the Chase and have no realistic chance of climbing into the top 35 in the owners standings before the season ends, the focus has shifted to next year. In this week's edition of his Tribune diary, Reutimann talks about the importance of being ready for NASCAR's shift to the Car of Tomorrow for all races next season.

We spent a little time in Canada this week, appearing at a function for Best Western Hotels in Montreal. Best Western is the primary sponsor on my Busch Series car in two races and an associate sponsor the rest of the year.

Last week's Nextel Cup race at Charlotte was a tough one for us. We qualified 20th, which was pretty decent, but we wound up 29th after I made contact with the wall on the first lap. To be honest, it just broke loose off Turn 4, and I couldn't catch it quickly enough. The team got the car patched up, and it still ran competitive laps throughout the race.

It's good to have everything out in the open as to what we're going to be doing next year at Michael Waltrip Racing. Once again, I'll be driving as a full-time driver in Nextel Cup and the Busch Series. I'll run the first five Cup races in the No. 00 Toyota, then take over for Dale Jarrett in the No. 44 UPS-sponsored car. My understanding is that I'll basically just be switching paint schemes. My whole team will be changing over with me.

Needless to say, we're starting our preparations for next year. The Car of Tomorrow will be used in every race next year, and we haven't run it yet on any of the intermediate tracks, so we want to be ready. Our guys did some testing this week at Kentucky, which is a mile-and-a-half track, and we'll have a two-day test after the Atlanta race next weekend.

We can't ignore the current car, because we still have to run it this year at Atlanta, Texas and Homestead, but we're shifting our focus a little more toward the COT because that's where everything is headed.

Martinsville is next and, make no mistake, it has not been one of my favorite tracks. I had six starts there in the Craftsman Truck Series and really only got one good finish, an eighth in 2004. We qualified for the Cup race there back in April, but we struggled and finished 33rd.

Tony Fabrizio

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