Finally a reason to smile for Waltrip and No. 55 team (cont'd)

A more potent Toyota engine, unveiled before the May races at Lowe's Motor Speedway, has helped. So has the presence of Toyota senior program manager Andy Graves, who began sitting in on competition meetings at MWR and providing the organization with guidance as to how better build their cars.

"He's built plenty of race teams before at this level, and we didn't really have anybody in the position to give us some direction," Waltrip said. "He works for Toyota, but he's kind enough to come in and listen and give us direction and advice. We've restructured quite a bit. We've got a little more to go. But there's a lot to be proud of today, for sure."

The struggles are far from over. Waltrip missed last week's race at Pocono, Pa., and MWR driver Dale Jarrett missed the event at Michigan -- albeit by one hundredth of a second in qualifying. All three cars remain well outside the top 35 in owner points, which guarantees a starting spot. But Waltrip's performance Sunday, backed up by a career-best 15th-place run by teammate David Reutimann, provide a small sliver of hope.

"It's been a huge endeavor for their whole start-up organization, and it showed early in the season," Graves said. "It's really hard to get all your systems in place when you're having to go to the racetrack every week. They've done a great job, and hopefully this is somewhat of a turning point in their season and they can start piecing together some good runs each week."

Able to find a little more grip in final practice Saturday, Waltrip started 18th and ran in the top 10 for much of the day. As the event neared its conclusion and it became clear fuel mileage would be an issue -- Jimmie Johnson's car ran dry with seven laps to go -- Sisco assured his driver over the team radio they had plenty of gas to make it to the end.

"We were prepared to do a green-white-checkered twice if we had to," the crew chief joked after the race.

"We're taking momentum any way we can get it," he added. "We've had some struggles this year getting in races, but once we get in races, we run pretty good. We ran good at Daytona, ran good at Dover. Michael can drive. Everybody knows he can drive. We get him a good car, he can go to the front."

And now he'll get out of it, turning his Camry over to formerly-retired two-time champion Terry Labonte for next week's event on the road course at Sonoma, Calif. Following suit, Reutimann's car will be driven by road-race specialist P.J. Jones.

"I can't wait to go out there to watch Terry and P.J. and just have a radio on and know that I'm helping my team by what I'm doing," he said. "I've never been full of myself. I've always been very humble, and realize there's more to this picture than just me. So I don't have any problem jumping out of the car, because I know it will help my team."

Even after Sunday's run, there's no temptation to stay in the car. Labonte finished third last season at Infineon Raceway, and the Waltrip organization needs all the points it can get.

"I made the decision a long time ago that if I could do anything to help my organization, I was going to take advantage of it," Waltrip said. "Getting Terry to drive for us is definitely something that's going to help us. So long-term, it's a move that I think I have to make."

But next week can wait. Sunday afternoon saw crewmen from other teams coming over to slap congratulatory high-fives with Sisco, as an organization surrounded by so much darkness enjoyed a little time in the sunlight.

"We're full bore," Waltrip said. "Me and [competition director] Bobby [Kennedy] decided Friday that this ain't as hard as we've made it look. It's really hard, but it's not as hard as we've made it look so far. So it's good to have a little bit of success and be able to see smiles on guys' faces."