BRISTOL, Tenn. — Rob Kauffman, the former investment banker who stepped in to keep Michael Waltrip Racing afloat with an influx of financial support in 2007, said this week’s move to end full-time competition for MWR in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series after the 2015 season was a “financial decision.”
“I think that from a business standpoint it didn’t make sense. You can’t have a top-10 budget and top-10 resources and not be in the top 10 for a sustained period of time,” Kauffman said Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kauffman co-owns the Cornelius, North Carolina-based organization along with former driver Michael Waltrip.
MWR fields the No. 15 Toyota for driver Clint Bowyer as well as the No. 55 for driver David Ragan. The organization has approximately 250 employees.
Bowyer hasn’t won in the series since 2012, the same year he finished runner-up to Brad Keselowski in the 2012 Chase for the Sprint Cup. He finished seventh overall the following year, then failed to qualify for the 10-race playoff last season.
Heading into Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Bowyer is 15th in points with one top-five and nine top-10 finishes this season. He can qualify for the Chase by either winning one of the three remaining “regular-season” races or possibly earning a berth based on his points position.
Ragan was brought in after the season’s first 10 races as a replacement after Brian Vickers, the team’s former driver, was sidelined due to health issues. Ragan is currently 24th in points.
The last victory for the organization came with Vickers and the No. 55 team at Loudon, New Hampshire in 2013.
“It’s a performance-related business,” Kauffman said. “It’s a great sport but a very difficult business model.
“From a business decision it just made sense to not go forward with that organization, which isn’t really commercially viable.”
MWR receives technical and engineering support from Toyota and that assistance was expected to continue for the 2016 season. On the sponsorship front, 5-hour Energy signed a multiyear extension last season to serve as primary sponsor for 24 of 36 races with Bowyer. Aaron’s, sponsor of the No. 55, had yet to announce its 2016 plans, but the company has been affiliated with Waltrip for 15 years.
The organization fielded three full-time teams in 2012-13 but cut back to two after 2013 after penalties for manipulating the finish of a race at Richmond International Raceway resulted in the loss of NAPA as a primary sponsor.
“Certainly that was a pretty heavy body blow to the organization, causing me to restructure it,” Kauffman said.
The following season “was at some level a large reset year, competitively and also financially.
“I think as we got into the late spring, April, May (of) 2015, really from a performance standpoint the company wasn’t where it needed to be and that kind of forced some decisions and thought processes over the summer.
“That’s kind of where we wound up today. At the end of the day, it’s a competitive business and that’s where we are.”
In late July, it was announced that Kauffman had agreed to purchase an interest in Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. That organization fields two Sprint Cup Series teams, for drivers Jamie McMurray and Kyle Larson. It fields entries in IndyCar, the TUDOR United Sportscar Championship and Global RallyCross Series as well.
“Certainly the past years I’ve been pretty involved in the day-to-day operations with Michael Waltrip Racing,” said Kauffman. “I think now I’ll be able to step back from that.
“I’m probably not the best person to run a race team day in and day out. One of the attractions in partnering with Chip is really he runs his business himself; he’s a racer, he’s at a race event almost every single weekend.”
Kauffman is a racer as well, having competed in events such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans (2011-’12) and the Rolex 24 at Daytona (’12-’13).