DEI's Gilmore gives Waltrip vote of confidence

LONG POND, Pa. -- Dale Earnhardt Incorporated director of motorsports racing Richie Gilmore gave Michael Waltrip a resounding, but qualified, vote of confidence Friday at Pocono Raceway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., son of the team's founder, recently made comments that were construed by the media as an indictment of Waltrip's performance in DEI's No. 15 NAPA Chevrolet.

RELATED STORY  •  Struggling Waltrip's future with DEI in doubt

The interpretation was that Waltrip needed to improve his performance -- most recently marked by three consecutive top-10 finishes that have pushed him from 30th to 20th in the Nextel Cup standings -- to insure his continued employment.

Gilmore said that wasn't exactly correct.

"Michael's in the 15 car through 2005, and all of our drivers really are in place through 2005," Gilmore said. "Martin (Truex) is going to stay in the Busch Series, Michael's going to stay in the NAPA Chevrolet and we're probably going to keep Junior in the Budweiser Chevrolet."

Gilmore was laughing when he made the comment about Earnhardt, but he got serious when discussing Waltrip, saying most of the speculation about Waltrip's future came from the media, not DEI officials.

"Right now, if Michael performs at the level that we need him to -- and that's top-10 -- he can have that ride for five years," Gilmore said. "He has nothing to worry about if he can perform in the top-10.

	Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"NAPA is a huge Michael Waltrip fan and a huge DEI fan."

Gilmore explained where the smoke in the situation came from.

"Our whole plan was always to run Martin for two years in the Busch Series," Gilmore said. "But when he started having some success right out of the box, a lot of people started putting him in the 15 car when (Waltrip) struggled."

Truex has won four times in 14 Busch starts and is 13 points out of the lead in the Busch standings heading into Saturday night's race at Nashville Superspeedway.

"I think what Junior was doing at Dover was trying to protect Martin and make people realize he's our Busch driver and he's staying there," Gilmore said. "I think he was trying to get the media off Martin's back.

"I don't think he was putting Michael as much on the spot as he wants (Waltrip) to be parked next to him in the garage area. Michael and Junior are good teammates on the speedways and everywhere else and they're good friends off the track.

"Junior was trying to make it clear that he wants that team to run better because we're down to two teams, now, and the last thing he wants anyone saying is that we're a one-car team."

DEI previously ran three full-time teams but has fielded only Earnhardt and Waltrip in 2004, save for three races by John Andretti in the No. 1 Chevrolet.

Earnhardt leads the standings by 98 points over Jimmie Johnson, with three wins in 13 starts and 10 top-10 finishes. Waltrip has four top-10s.

"These drivers get busy and sometimes they're not at the shop every day and they don't know what's going on," Gilmore said. "Our guys are pretty good about staying informed but Junior's schedule's been busy the last few weeks.

"He and I had a long talk last night and he knows where we're going. We've got some real good announcements coming up next week at DEI and we're going to be real strong.

"There's a possibility we'll be a five-car operation before the end of 2004."

Gilmore's reference was to three full-time Cup teams, for Earnhardt, Waltrip and Andretti; and two full-time Busch operations, for Truex and Paul Menard.