Waltrip swapping drivers
Driver/owner shifts lineup for Sonoma
Published: Sun, Jun. 17, 2007 12:00AM
Modified Sun, Jun. 17, 2007 02:21AM
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeBROOKLYN, MICH. -- Michael Waltrip again juggled his roles as owner and driver Saturday, replacing David Reutimann for next week's race at Infineon Raceway.
P.J. Jones will drive on the road course while Reutimann will concentrate on the Busch Series race in Milwaukee. Reutimann is fourth in the Busch standings.
Reutimann, who is 43rd in the Cup standings, is not assured a spot in the field and Waltrip believed Jones had a better chance of qualifying the car.
More Sports
"It just wasn't fair to David," Waltrip said. "He has no experience at Sonoma and we needed to put the car in the show."
Earlier this week, Waltrip said he would step out of his own car to let Terry Labonte race it at Sonoma. Waltrip has missed 12 of the 14 races this season, but he did make the field for today's race at Michigan International Speedway.
COURTING KYLE: Kevin Harvick isn't interested in having Kyle Busch as a teammate.
Asked if he could envision Busch at Richard Childress Racing, Harvick said "no" without elaborating.
That doesn't mean car owner Richard Childress isn't interested in the 22-year-old Busch.
"Anybody would look at Kyle right now -- any team in here," Childress said. "Kyle's a really talented young driver and I just think he'd be the future of any team that he went to."
LEAVING HENDRICK: Brian Vickers wasn't surprised Kyle Busch became the odd man out at Hendrick Motorsports when the team signed Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Vickers spent four seasons in a Cup car at Hendrick but asked out of his contract last summer when he grew frustrated with his performance. In the shadow of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Busch at Hendrick, Vickers is now the lead driver at Team Red Bull.
He was replaced by Casey Mears at Hendrick.
"Jeff and Jimmie are champions, so they aren't going anywhere," Vickers said. "And Casey just got signed and has a new sponsor, so he wasn't going anywhere. So that left Kyle.
"Kyle got himself in some situations this year that I'm sure haven't pleased Rick. So it didn't surprise me that he was the one to go."
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
Get it all with convenient home delivery of The News & Observer.
The News & Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.
Since The News & Observer does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The News and Observer.
If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.
