Michael Waltrip Racing announced today their plan for reorganizing for the 2014 Sprint Cup season, featuring two full-time championship contending teams and a third entry running a limited schedules. Their plan also includes a strengthened research and development group.
MWR will continue fielding the No. 55 Aaron’s car and the No. 15 5-hour Energy/Peak car in their pursuit of the 2014 Sprint Cup championship. To support that effort, MWR is bolstering their research and development group and supporting a third car on partial schedule, including Michael Waltrip in the 2014 Daytona 500.
Martin Truex Jr, driver of the No. 56 and his crew chief, Chad Johnston, were given notice, they are free to negotiate with other teams. Scott Miller, the team’s executive vice president of competition, will continue his role as crew chief of the No. 55 team into the 2014 season.
“Our goals for the organization were two-fold, firstly to improve the competitiveness of our race teams and, secondly maintain a stable organizational structure,” said co-owner Rob Kauffman. “The team’s focus has been to find that last one percent needed to move from Chase participant to Cup champion. This realignment will get us closer to that last one percent.”
This reorganization enables MWR to keep more than 85 percent of its current workforce. Those affected by the moves were told on Monday morning.
“Today was about doing what we had to do, not what we wanted to do,” Kauffman added. “It was important to let those whose jobs were affected know as early as possible, and a majority of those will remain with MWR through the end of the season.”
“We have very strong support from Toyota, Toyota Racing Development, 5-hour Energy, Peak, Aaron’s, AAA Mid-Atlantic and other partners who enable us to compete at the highest level,” said MWR founder and co-owner Michael Waltrip. “We are confident that with two teams and a very active test team, our competitiveness will take a step forward. We will also continue to do a great job for our partners off the track, which has always been a cultural staple for our organization.
“Rob and I deeply appreciate everyone who has helped build MWR into a race winning team and we are dedicated to continuing our pursuit of excellence on and off the track.”
This news comes on the heels of an earlier announcement today that Brian Vickers will not race in the No. 55 car for the rest of the 2013 season, due to a blog clot discovered in his leg during a routine medical exam. Vickers’ intention is to return to his normal activities by the beginning of the 2014 season.
Michael Waltrip will continue his original plan to race in the No. 55 entry at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend. The team is working on a replacement beyond Talladega for the rest of the season and an announcement is forthcoming, once those details arranged by the organization.
