Gatorade Duel No. 2: MWR still running strong

DAYTONA BEACH -- The story out of last weekend's Daytona 500 qualifying was the feel-good resurgence of Michael Waltrip Racing, with team owner Michael Waltrip putting his own No. 55 on the outside pole and 2nd-year driver David Reutimann virtually locking up a starting spot with the 4th-fastest lap of the day.

Under race conditions in Thursday's Gatorade Duels at Daytona International Speedway, the Toyota-backed team looked just as strong. The trio of Waltrip, Reutimann and 3-time Daytona 500 champion Dale Jarrett all ran well enough to qualify for Sunday's 50th running of the 500. Waltrip was guaranteed his spot, Reutimann had his qualifying to fall back on and Jarrett finished 9th to earn a spot in his 20th and final Daytona 500.

For the second year in a row, all 3 MWR entries made Sunday's big show.

"To know that you have to go out there and you know what you have to do, to be able to take the car and put it up in the top five and run there, you know, right around the majority of the race... that was very gratifying," said Jarrett, who will only run the first 5 Sprint Cup Series races of the season before moving into the ESPN broadcast booth. "Personally, hey, when it comes time to get this done -- yeah, I enjoy that challenge."

Reutimann's efforts last Sunday made for a much more relaxing week. Unlike last year when he didn't have a great qualifying time to fall back on during a stressful introduction to Daytona as a rookie, he could use the Gatorade Duel as a chance to polish up his chances for a 500 win.

"I've actually managed to be done here however long we've been and haven't thrown up once, so it's been good," Reutimann said. "It's a lot different than last year."

It would have to be.

Between the 3 teams, MWR failed to qualify for a total of 44 races last season -- 51 if you consider that Jarrett started 7 races with a past champion's provisional. Waltrip had the worst run of all, failing to qualify for 22 events, including 11 in a row after the season-opening Daytona 500.

On Thursday, the teams not only made the field but served notice that they were able to run well in the draft with the likes of Denny Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon and others.

"It was a good time out there," Waltrip said. "I just concentrated on our main goal (which was getting Jarrett into the 500). We needed to practice for a few laps to make sure we knew what we were doing, and we did, obviously."

"Just to be able to get down here, get in a race, function somewhat normal, has been quite a relief," said Reutimann , who will move into the No. 44 UPS Toyotas in place of Jarrett, beginning with the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway in late March.

But Reutimann's Duel day was not without some semblance of adversity -- which the team overcame, a further statement to its off-season improvements.

On the original start of the 150-mile race, Reutimann passed Waltrip before the field made it to the start-finish line and received a pass-through penalty on pit road. That put him nearly 3/4 of a lap behind the field until the race's first caution flag on lap 15.

"Michael told me he was going to be a little soft on the original start," Reutimann said. "I didn't anticipate him being in a coma when they dropped the green.

"Before I realized it, it's like, 'Oh, dang, here comes the start-finish line.' Then I thought maybe (officials) didn't see that. What do you think the chances of that were?"

But Reutimann recovered and was running in the top-10 on lap 60, before a green-white-checkered finish shuffled him to 12th.

Kind of the same way Michael Waltrip Racing seems to have recovered from a disastrous 2007 season.