NASCAR Cup

Loudon: Michael Waltrip race report

Loudon, N.H. (July 25) - Michael Waltrip drove the NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Monte Carlo to a sixth-place finish in the Siemens 300 Sunday afternoon at New Hampshire International Speedway, enabling him to pass Rusty Wallace and Casey Mears for ...

Edited: Jul 27, 2004, 3:32 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Loudon, N.H. (July 25) - Michael Waltrip drove the NAPA AUTO PARTS Chevrolet Monte Carlo to a sixth-place finish in the Siemens 300 Sunday afternoon at New Hampshire International Speedway, enabling him to pass Rusty Wallace and Casey Mears for 16th in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series points standings.

Waltrip started the Siemens 300 from the fourth position. On lap five Waltrip went to the second position where he stayed for 137 laps behind pole sitter Ryan Newman. Only when the jack failed on the left side of the car during a pit stop on lap 142 did the NAPA team fall out of the top-four. The pit stop caused Waltrip to fall all the way back to 16th.

Brakes became an issue for the NAPA car as well. Waltrip let his crew know he had issues with the brakes as early as lap 123. The team took tape off of the brake ducts and watched the brakes carefully for the remainder of the 300-lap race.

One position at a time Waltrip worked his way back into the top-10 passing arguabley more cars than any other race car on the track. Waltrip finished sixth after passing Jamie McMurray on the final lap of the race.

"We got another top-10 finish for the NAPA team," Waltrip said. "We were up in second spot and then had a bad pit stop and wound up getting way in the back. We fought our way back up to sixth and I'm real proud of the effort. We also had a brake problem. The fan that cools the brakes on the front-end of the car malfunctioned, so I had to really drive the car carefully. It hurt me some. I figured out how to deal with it, but we lost some speed because of that. All-in-all, it was a really good day."

Waltrip climbed two notches in points to 16th (2110), 238 points behind the coveted 10th position occupied by Ryan Newman.

"Our points situation has improved," Waltrip continued. "Mainly, we gained on the top-10 again - only 20 points. With seven (races) to go, and just over 200 points back, if I do the math correctly, we need to gain about 30 points a race. That's very important to do. We're going to Watkins Glen tonight and spend Monday testing. Then it's home for a couple of days and then to Pocono."

The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series heads to Pocono, Penn., this week for the running of the Pennsylvania 500 which will be broadcast live on TNT and MRN Radio.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Loudon: Craven Wake-Up Call interview

Next article Mike Beam reinstated as #32 Crew Chief

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Will Kimi Antonelli become champion?

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

32 min

F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Will Kimi Antonelli become champion?

Charles Leclerc reacts to Ferrari fear: 'We know what line not to cross'

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

3 h

Charles Leclerc reacts to Ferrari fear: 'We know what line not to cross'

Kyle Busch Remembered: Rowdy's wildest and most impressive Talladega moments

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Talladega II

3 h

Kyle Busch Remembered: Rowdy's wildest and most impressive Talladega moments

Lamborghini World Finals PRO-PRO/AM Race 2: Leitch/Stasi dominate to seal title

Lamborghini Super Trofeo

LBST Lamborghini Super Trofeo

World Finals - Monza 2026

4 h

Lamborghini World Finals PRO-PRO/AM Race 2: Leitch/Stasi dominate to seal title

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts