Michael Waltrip struggled with a plowing #55 Napa Auto Parts Dodge throughout most of the Nextel All-Star, tonight's non-points event at Lowe's Motor Speedway. With adjustments to correct the situation, the car then became too loose and spun on lap 44. Mikey finished the All-Star 19th, falling out of the race during the second segment.
The race began late, due to rain before the Nextel Open. After somebody asked if the spotter was on the radio yet, Mikey's voice came over the team frequency. "Hello?"
"I got ya," the spotter replied.
"Yeah," crew chief Joe Shear Jr added. "I got you too."
"Can you hear me too?" asked the spotter.
The crew chief responded with, "I can hear you loud and clear." After the Red Hot Chili Peppers gave the command to start engines, he told the team he wanted to thank them and Napa for accepting him on such short notice.
"We'll make it a good night, Joe," Mikey replied. He said they would do all they could in the next month too.
"Okay, guys, make sure you get us a good pit road speed," Shear requested.
"I guess it should be 4250," Mikey replied, "which it was last night."
"All right, that's pit road speed right there," the spotter replied.
"Did you get me a good pit road speed?" Shear asked, after a pause.
"Yeah, 4250."
"Okay, thank you." After another pause, the crew chief asked, "You still got a good copy on me back there?"
"Yeah," the driver replied. "You sound great."
The crew chief told his driver to have a good day, and asked him if he could see the pit box. Mikey identified where it was. "Good eye, good eye," Shear commented. "Make sure you work those tires. Heat's going to be your friend.
"Some of the guys are saying that might be too much RPM," Shear added, in regard to Mikey's pit road speed.
"Okay, I'll be conservative," Mikey replied. He said he just didn't want to get lapped during the green flag stop.
"Pace car's off," noted the spotter. "Ready... ready... ready... Green flag, green flag. Everything's good. I know you see those guys in there. Got two of them now."
As Kasey Kahne took off from the pose position, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jamie McMurray got around the Napa Dodge. Mikey went from his 14th-place starting position to 16th. His spotter warned him that cars were stacking up in front of him. Lap 3 saw Scott Riggs and Mark Martin get around the #55.
Jimmie Johnson took the lead on lap 4. Meanwhile, Mikey had dropped two more spots to Jeremy Mayfield and Kyle Petty. He was now last.
"Plowing," he reported the next time around the track.
"Okay guys," Shear responded.
On lap 10, Mikey added, "I don't like 'em."
"Sorry about that," Shear replied. "I was just trying to get some adjustments to the guys." He gave Mikey his times. "30.91," Shear said on lap 12. "Give me some temps down the backstretch for the motor guy."
Mikey gave them, just before the yellow flag waved.
Mark Martin spun Jamie McMurray, bringing out the first caution on lap 13. Under the yellow, Shear told his driver to come in for adjustments, pointing out the fact that they had nothing to lose.
"Yes, lots of adjustments," Mikey replied. He suggested some. Shear told the team to do the adjustments he gave them.
"Please tell me when it's open, spotter," Shear requested, referring to pit road.
The spotter said he didn't know if NASCAR would open it; they were discussing the call in the tower.
"Well, if we pit, we'll just have to start at the tail end of the longest line," Mikey noted.
"Right," Shear answered. He told his driver to pit now, and to come back later for tires. Mikey said he wanted to pit and make adjustments, and then say if the adjustments were any good or not within the next three laps. Shear said he knew that they would come anyway, but was deciding whether they'd take tires now.
The spotter told them pit road was open while the tower was deciding what to do. Mikey pit with a few others. Shear instructed the #55 crew to go three turns down on the right rear.
"I have a water issue," Mikey informed his team, as water squirted out of the right front of his car, by the windshield. "If you want to pull any tape," he added, and mentioned he didn't have high temperatures. Shear reminded his driver of the radiator fan.
"Joe, do you listen to NASCAR?" the spotter asked. He said the tower was having issues regarding when they could pit. Mikey was 18th after his stop.
Shear asked if the temperatures were all right now.
"Yeah," was Mikey's response.
Shear said they would pit three laps after the restart. The spotter commented that the line-up for the restart was messed up, but that NASCAR wouldn't fix it.
Kahne led the lap 17 restart, with Mikey in 15th. A number of cars pitted on lap 18, and Martin spun out Scott Riggs when Riggs pitted his #10. The spotter led Mikey high around the crash.
"Keep digging, man," the spotter encouraged his driver. "I don't know why the lights aren't on," he said in reference to the caution lights.
Tony Stewart took the lead on lap 19 as cars continued to pit. Mikey made a stop, and Riggs' struggling #10 was in Stewart's way as he headed for his box. Johnson was required to return to pit road to serve a speeding penalty, which he accrued while dodging the accident caused by Martin.
Stops cycled by lap 22, with Kyle Busch leading. Mikey was 13th. He commented that he felt like he had zero shock; the shocks were too stiff.
"The right front corner's just a mess," Mikey said on lap 27.
"Doing any bottoming out or anything?" Shear asked.
"Feels like shit."
Shear assured his driver they had more adjustments they could make.
Mikey rode six seconds behind 12th place, and approximately three ahead of 14th. He was still running 13th when Kurt Busch's #2 began smoking heavily on lap 33.
The yellow flag waved for the second time on lap 34 for Busch.
"Caution's out for tire smoke," the spotter said. The problem was worse than tire smoke, as Busch became the first driver out of the race with a broken engine. "He's coming to pit road. All clear."
Shear noted it was raining too. He asked if the rebound was hurting the car.
Mikey told his team to do everything. He said it was still plowing off the turns. He wanted them to work on the front shocks, but more rubber in the right rear, and take out some wedge. Shear said they'd go with that, and Mikey made a stop. He was being marked in 17th.
Shear said he'd go all the way on the right front shock, and six to seven clicks on the left front. Mikey asked about rubber in the right rear. Shear said the pace car would bring him down pit road.
Mikey said he liked the other springs. The springs he had now had a metal stop, they were so tight. Shear said they'd do everything here. The driver asked if he had problems with the tires when he took off. He said he felt like he had 100 pounds of air in it.
When NASCAR red flagged the race at lap 35, Shear noted that the tire was rubbing, and asked if they could work on the car under red. Mikey told him they'd said in the driver's meeting that they can work under the red flag, but didn't say anything about rain. Shear wanted to go ahead and do it. A couple minutes later, he said NASCAR told them they could work on the car, so they are. He noted that the tire didn't show anything but that it was rubbing.
"Somebody bring over rags," he told his team. He also told them to raise the whole track bar and add rubber in both rears too.
"Five minutes, guys," he said at 11:01pm. "Five minutes." The field returned to yellow at 11:08. "We're scored 17th, so we'll start on the inside." He told his driver to work on those tires, to clean them off.
"You should be behind the 88," the spotter said. "Yeah, you're all right."
Kyle Busch led the lap 38 restart, with Mikey in 17th. He lost a spot to Kyle Petty one lap into the run, but then passed Petty and McMurray.
NASCAR drew the yellow flag for the third time on lap 40 to end the first segment of the All-Star. The field returned to pit road for a red flag.
"Well that was the best it felt," Mikey commented. "It turned real good." Shear asked about putting more rubbers in the right rear. Mikey wanted to know about a shock adjustment there. Shear said he would check, then asked somebody to call on the phone.
Mikey went to his pit box. "Let's not put tires on it," he said. "Come here, Joe."
Shear told his driver to shut off the car, and told the team to check for air pressures.
Through a random process, NASCAR had brother Darrell choose the number of cars to be inverted. Before the race, he had picked ten. That would put Ryan Newman in the lead.
"Make sure to put fuel in it too, guys," Shear said. The team worked as the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed in the infield. During the performance, Shear told Mikey he would restart behind Bobby Labonte, and beside Dale Earnhardt Jr. He said they still had three minutes.
"Okay, fire it up," Shear said at the end of the song. "They're leaving." The spotter said they were back to one to go, and Shear reminded his driver to keep on the blower fans to help air pressures. Mikey said he'd been doing that since the beginning.
"We're not going, not going," the spotter noted. "I think it has something to do with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' lights."
FX reported that fans had asked for an encore, and the lights from the stage were blinding the drivers on the track.
Newman led the lap 41 restart, beginning the second segment. Mikey was 16th. One lap into the run, Mark Martin took the lead. Dale Jarrett passed Mikey one circuit after that, putting Mikey in 17th. He was warned of someone slowing on the backstretch in front of him, but he fell to 18th on lap 44. The car got loose in the corner and spun.
The fourth caution came out on lap 45 for the Napa Dodge.
"Are you all right?" Shear asked, after watching Mikey spin and hit the wall.
"Yeah, I'm fine," the driver murmurred. "Tried to cut under Dale too aggressively, and I lost it. Just one of those deals."
"All right," Shear replied. "We can fix those cars any day."
Mikey was done at the start of the second segment, and would finish the race 19th.
NASCAR returns to Charlotte next weekend. Coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 begins May 28th at 5:00pm ET on FOX. Mikey may compete in the Busch Series' Carquest Auto Parts 300 the day before. Coverage starts at 7:30pm on FX.
