Marc's Michael Waltrip Page

Main >> Sports & Recreation >> Auto Racing

Next NASCAR Race:

Subway Fresh 500

Pheonix Int'l Speedway

April 22, 2006

Next Busch Race:

Pepsi 300

Nashville SuperSpeedway

April 15, 2006

Images from TeamCaliber.com

My REAL jobs:

www.MichaelWaltrip.com Race Recap

Waltrip Salvages 26th in Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at Texas Motor Speedway

04-10-2006 10:00am -

Fort Worth, Texas (April 9, 2006) – The seventh event of the 2006 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season was a frustrating one for Michael Waltrip and his NAPA Racing team. The No. 55 Dodge was either tight in or loose off, no matter what adjustments were made throughout the 334-lap event. Waltrip finished in the 26th position, three laps down to winner Kasey Kahne, and remains in the top-35 in NEXTEL Cup points standings heading into the off-weekend.

It was a struggle for the Waltrip-Jasper Racing team from the start of the race weekend at The Great American Speedway. Slow times in practice due to rough times getting off the corners spilled over into qualifying. Waltrip could not post a lap fast enough to make it into the race on time, and was forced to take the second to last provisional to start the 500-mile race.

The outlook for Sunday’s race was much better after Waltrip let his crew know that the NAPA car had been the best it had been all season after Happy Hour practice. That looked to be true once the green flag dropped to start the Samsung/Radio Shack 500. Waltrip picked up 13 positions before the first green flag pit stop on lap 58. Loose off the corners, Waltrip-Jasper consultant Larry Carter went with four tires, fuel, and rear air pressure adjustments to see if it would help.

A little bit about Michael and his Winston Cup Stats

Marc's Michael Waltrip Paint Scheme Page

Top Story:

A Long Track Record

Arute Helped Change Perception Of Local Auto Racing

Hartford Courant, By SHAWN COURCHESNE, Courant Staff Writer (April 4, 2006) --Two weeks ago, Jack Arute Jr. sat with his father talking about changes for the 2006 season at Stafford Motor Speedway.

A new Modified division will take to the track and a TV program produced by the track will be shown weekly on the New England Sports Network.

"He was just so proud," Arute Jr. said. "With everything in the offseason and the way things were going, I think he finally knew the torch could really be passed. He was at peace. It's never easy, but the nice thing is that he lived to see everything that he dreamed about be in place at his racetrack."

Arute, the longtime owner of Stafford Motor Speedway, died Monday in Bedford, N.H. He was 78.

"He was getting ready to go to the doctor. He was in the car in the driveway and his heart just stopped," Jack Arute Jr. said. "The one solace to all of this was that it was so quick. The doctor said it was not a heart attack. ... His heart just stopped beating."

Arute's love for racing was born as a teenager when he would hitchhike from his home in New Britain to watch Midgets race at the long since closed Cherry Park racetrack in Avon.

In the 1950s he got involved as a car owner. By the mid-1960s his dreams turned to owning a track. In 1969, Arute - who owned the Arute Brothers construction company with his brother Chuck - began talks with Stafford Speedway owner Mel Barlow. The sale was finalized before the 1970 season.