As an unabashed fan of country music, Michael Waltrip knows the struggles his Nextel Cup racing operation endured last season could serve as perfect fodder for the kind of sad song that genre long ago made famous.

But when asked what he would title a country-music song about Michael Waltrip Racing's disastrous 2007 season, it's no coincidence that what he comes up with encompasses less of what happened in the past and focuses more on what he envisions as a brighter future.

His first inclination was to go with something like, 'Heartache and the Power of Positive of Thinking.' But while his reasoning on that is sound -- "the only thing that got me through was the power of positive thinking, and not dwelling on where I was but focusing instead on where I was going" -- he knows it doesn't have a true country-music ring to it.

After another minute or two to ponder the possibilities, Waltrip added: "So I guess it might be, 'I might be here now, but watch where I am when I get there.' That sounds country, doesn't it? Or it could be, 'I know where I am now, but you don't understand where I think I'm gonna be.'"

OK, so Waltrip's country-music title offerings need some work.

So did his three Cup teams last season. Fielding Toyotas for himself (the No. 55), former points champion Dale Jarrett (No. 44) and rookie David Reutimann (No. 00) in 2007, all three struggled to consistently make races.

Reutimann started 26 races and failed to finish nine of them, with his best finish 13th at Dover in September. Despite the luxury of having six past champion provisional starts, Jarrett made only 24 races, failed to finish eight of them -- and never finished higher than 17th. Waltrip himself missed 11 consecutive races after rallying to qualify for the Daytona 500 this past February, and went on to make just 14 starts -- although he did win the pole at Talladega in the fall and registered MWR's only two top-10 Cup finishes.

But that was last year, the first in Cup not only for MWR but also for the Toyota manufacturer which initially chose Waltrip's organization as its flagship operation, ratcheting up expectations of instant success in the process.

Success came only in small doses and barely recognizable baby steps, however. The season started unraveling quickly, as soon as Waltrip's No. 55 team was caught trying to boost speed by adding a fuel additive to his engine for qualifying prior to the season-opening Daytona 500, leading to open-ended suspensions by NASCAR of crew chief David Hyder and competition director Bobby Kennedy. It got only marginally better -- and never for long -- the rest of the 36-week season.

As is typical of the usually optimistic Waltrip, he prefers to look forward rather than behind.

"Last year was very, very important to me because it got us prepared for next year," he said. "And when I say that, I mean that when I look back to where we were a year ago right at this moment, and I see where we are now, it makes me smile. It makes me very happy.

"We weren't ready to go, and we didn't know it. We were trying to build old cars, new cars, finish a shop, hire people. You know, quite frankly, I thought we had a grasp on it. There were times when I was a little bit concerned; but most of the time, all of my positive thought process and justifying that we were going to be OK, I hinged that all on Toyota. And quite frankly, it was their first year in Nextel Cup racing and they had a lot to learn as well."

Too much, too fast?

Waltrip's older brother, former points champion and current television analyst Darrell Waltrip, said that he thinks Michael simply tried to accomplish too much, too fast.

"His vision was a multi-car team. I think he got caught up in the thinking that you have to have a multi-car team to be successful," Darrell said. "I think probably, in my view, I would have said, 'OK, I need a multi-car team to be successful -- but I'm going to start with one car in the Cup, one car in the Busch, and a truck team. And I'm going to grow that, and next year I'll add a second [Cup] car and the next year after that I'll add a third car, if in fact that's what I can do.'

New No. 2 man

David Reutimann will start out in the 00 car he drove in 2007, but will move over to the 44 once Dale Jarrett retires after the first five races in '08.

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"He had the sponsors, he had the drivers and he had Toyota, so he had the cars. But he didn't have the infrastructure. He didn't have the organization to be able to manage all of the entities. So he had everything out front, but he didn't have anything behind. So he had to work really hard.

"It was just he and Ty [Norris, MWR general manager] and Bobby Kennedy, and then he goes to Daytona and he gets in trouble and he gets Bobby Kennedy kicked out to where [Kennedy] can't come to the track. So then he's got him and Ty trying to manage three race teams -- three really high, visible sponsors and three really visible drivers. And it was just overwhelming."

Michael isn't so sure he agrees completely with big brother's sweeping assessment of what went wrong last year.

"It's easy to judge and say we should have done this and we should have done that," Michael said. "But I didn't exactly notice any of the Toyota teams doing overly well. And we did what we felt like we needed to do at the time.

"Hindsight is always 20-20. We can sit here and say could've, would've, should've -- but we don't choose to live that way. We wanted a technical director; we just couldn't find anybody to fill the role. We tried to add depth on our team, and we just weren't ready. We didn't know we weren't, but we weren't.

"And so what doesn't kill you, I think probably makes you stronger. What we learned last year is going to make us better this year -- and to me, that makes what we went through last year worthwhile."

Beefing up

MWR took on a partner with deep pockets late last season, bringing investment group guru Robert Kauffman and his millions into the fold. That has enabled Waltrip to beef up the very infrastructure that his older brother felt was lacking in areas a year ago. (read more)

Dr. Eric Warren has been added as technical director (a position he previously held for five years at Evernham Motorsports). Ryan Pemberton, a respected crew chief, will head up Reutimann's Cup operation, while Paul Andrews will serve as crew chief on Waltrip's own Cup car and Bill Pappas will crew chief the third Cup car that will be driven mostly by developmental drivers Michael McDowell and Josh Wise as Jarrett steps aside.

(Reutimann will begin the season in the No. 00, but will switch to the No. 44 when Jarrett retires after the first five points races, leaving the No. 00 to be piloted by McDowell and Wise).

"It's just a really neat lineup," Waltrip said. "We have a solid, solid group of people now -- way more than we did a year ago."

He added that Kauffman's involvement has been the linchpin that kicked all other late-season and offseason improvements into overdrive as soon as the new partner agreed to come on board in October.

"Rob's partnership with me just gave us a tremendous backstop that we lacked," Waltrip said. "There was a point in time last season when someone said, 'Well, we can't do that right now. We can't afford to do this or we can't afford to do that.' And my reaction to that was, 'Well, I'm pretty sure Mr. Hendrick can afford it, and Mr. Penske can afford it.'

"So I knew in order to stand toe-to-toe with those guys, I had to be able to spend the dollars necessary. And if we thought we needed something, we had to be able to figure out how to get it. Rob has offered his participation, and his partnership has secured the ability to do those things.

"It's not really a number and it's not really a piece of equipment here or there. It's really more of an attitude, and just a very confident feeling by everyone who works here. And that feeling is that if we need it, we're going to get it. It's up to our people -- who are very smart, talented people -- to justify why we need what we're asking for. And if they are able to do that, then we're going to acquire it."

Help from JGR?

With Kauffman and the others in place around him, Waltrip insists that his operation now is on the fast track to be more competitive.

"I just couldn't be prouder of who we are today, and I know that it will result in better performance and happy sponsors and more smiles," he said. "Last year was mildly depressing for me. But again, I've said we were really messed up but now we're getting better.

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"With the improved performance of the Toyota engines, the grasp that Toyota now has around how they're going to support their teams in Sprint Cup racing, and then think about the support that we will gain with Joe Gibbs Racing teams running Toyota racecars now, I think all of that is very positive for our operation." (read more)

Ah, yes. Joe Gibbs Racing.

Outsiders have seemed unsure of what to make of Joe Gibbs Racing switching from Chevrolets to Toyotas, or what it will mean in the short term as well as the long run for fellow Toyota loyalists like MWR.

But Michael Waltrip said he thinks he knows.

"Well, that's a team that has 20-some years of experience under their belt, and has won races and championships," he said. "And so it means that we have a different standard, a different level of support and standard that we have to look to. They know how to win, and we are a new organization.

"But we have put together people on our team who, when Joe Gibbs Racing looks over here, they see people that have won races and won championships, too. We have partnered with those guys on different projects that are going on right now -- whether it would be engineering, or springs and shocks, or aerodynamics. We're working closely with Joe Gibbs Racing."

He insisted that the assistance is flowing both ways. He said that tinkering with the Toyotas has been a two-way street of cooperation since JGR made the manufacturing switch.

"We've opened our arms up and said, 'Please let us help you.' We understand that we're probably going to get more help out of them for the short term because of their knowledge and experience," Waltrip said of working with Gibbs. "But we also have found them to be very, very willing and eager to work with us because we've put together such a strong lineup."

Next thing you know, the two car owners will be singing a country-music duet together. If so, Waltrip clearly doesn't expect it to be a sad tune this time around.