DAVID REUTIMANN
No. 00 TUMS TOYOTA
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY
CORNELIUS, N.C. — MWR Executive Vice President of Competition Scott Miller will spend his second weekend at Michael Waltrip Racing calling the shots on the No. 56 NAPA Toyota pit box. While Miller serves as the No. 56’s crew chief for the final two races of the 2011 season, the veteran racer’s primary task will be to turn that car plus Mark Martin’s No. 00 Aaron’s Toyota and Clint Bowyer’s new No. 15 5-hour Toyota to Chase contenders in 2012.
SCOTT MILLER QUOTES
IMPACT AT MWR: “As with any race team at this level your goal is to build a team that is not only contending to make the Chase, but contending for championships. That doesn’t happen overnight, but you’ve got to get the wheels turning and headed in that direction. It’s been very short for me as far as time goes as far as assessing how everything goes and how everything works, but I can tell you just from a few days here that they do have a lot of good things going on. I think they really have built the foundation that just needs a little polish here and there before we start to see the upswing. With the addition of Clint Bowyer and the Mark Martin piece there is certainly a lot of things happening at MWR that are moving in a positive direction.”
MARK MARTIN: “Obviously he has a wealth of experience in all aspects of it. He pays a lot of attention to his racecars and his setups. He works with his guys and it will just be like Clint and I will bring a little background knowledge from the programs we worked at previously at RCR and Mark can bring a little of what he learned from where he is coming from – all of which have been successful organizations. Hopefully we can mold some of those things together and come together from a competitive standpoint.”
MOMENTUM HEADING INTO THE OFF-SEASON: “It never hurts. The momentum and having a good run of races to finish off the year helps build morale and gets everyone feeling good about the things to come. But by the same token if something were to happen that were to set us back, we have so many new things planned for next year and all of that over the winter that I don’t think it would affect us too much. It sure would be nice to take a good couple runs into the winter and start off next year with some of that momentum.”
PHOENIX: “Well, I have one race with the new team, so we have that experience base to work from. (Laughs). Other than that, I didn’t even go to the tests out there, so I really don’t even know what the place looks like since the reconfiguration. I might not even be able to find the front gate. We’ll just role with the punches and go with the flow and hope for the best this weekend.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST
· Reutimann at Phoenix International Raceway: In eight career NSCS starts at Phoenix International Raceway, Reutimann has an average starting position of 19th and finish of 21st. Reutimann has two top-10s that he recorded back to back in 2009 and led 1 lap in the 2009 spring race.
· Program Alert: On Wednesday, Nov. 9, David Reutimann is scheduled to appear on ESPN2’s NASCAR Now at 3 p.m. and SPEED TV’s NASCAR RaceHub at 6 p.m.
· Autograph Signing: Reutimann will sign autographs at the MWR merchandise hauler on Sunday from 11:00-11:30 a.m.
· Starting in 2012: Michael Waltrip Racing announced last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway that Mark Martin will take over the driving duties of the No. 00 for 25 races and Michael Waltrip will drive for five races next season. The No. 00 will compete in all events, but a driver and sponsor have not been announced for the remaining races.
