RELATED: MWR won’t field full-time entries in 2016
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Toyota officials made their first official comments concerning the demise of Michael Waltrip Racing Thursday, citing the automaker’s long relationship with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series organization.
“We want to thank everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing for a great partnership and for being a part of our ‘freshman class’ — one of the race teams that helped us enter the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series nine years ago,” Ed Laukes, Vice President marketing, performance and guest experience for Toyota Motor Sales, USA, said in a statement.
“Clint Bowyer has been a valuable member of the Toyota Racing family for the past four years, and we will continue to support him, and the rest of the MWR team through the end of the 2015 season.
MORE: Bowyer free to pursue other opportunities for 2016
The two-car organization, which currently fields Toyota Camry entries for drivers Bowyer and David Ragan in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series, announced Tuesday that Bowyer would not return for 2016 and the group would not field a full-time team beyond this season.
MWR is co-owned by Rob Kauffman and Michael Waltrip . Its drivers have won seven Sprint Cup Series events with four drivers. Bowyer, who has driven the team’s No. 15 entry since 2012, finished a career-best second in the points standings in 2012 and enters this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway 15th in points and looking to secure one of the 16 available spots in this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Ragan has been with the organization since May of this season, filling in for former driver Brian Vickers , who has been sidelined this season due to health issues.
Toyota made the move into Sprint Cup competition in 2007 and MWR, along with Red Bull Racing and Bill Davis Racing, was one of three organizations to field Toyota entries. The automaker moved into what is now the XFINITY Series in ’07 as well. It began competing in the Camping World Truck Series in 2004.
“We wish everyone associated with the team the best of luck in the future and we look forward to closing out the season focused on competing for a championship,” said Laukes.
MWR fielded three full-time Sprint Cup Series teams as recently as 2013. But after the group was penalized prior to the start of the ’13 Chase for manipulating the outcome of the final regular-season event at Richmond International Raceway, primary sponsor NAPA departed at the end of the year, forcing the group to scale back to two teams.
Toyota has three drivers sitting firmly in the Chase entering Brisol in Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. Kyle Busch, who has four wins, also is poised to make NASCAR’s playoffs as long as he can remain in the top 30 in the drivers points standings. He enters Brisol in 29th place, 23 points ahead of 31st-place driver Cole Whitt.
MORE: Updated Chase Grid standings