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Michael Waltrip Racing is doing an expansion - of sorts.
The race team announced this week that it will form an alliance with RAB Racing to field entries in the Nationwide. That will include one for extreme sports star, Travis Pastrana.
According to the announcement as part of the agreement, RAB Racing will acquire additional cars and receive technical and marketing support from MWR. Also, RAB Racing will change its current No. 09 number to the No. 99 starting at Richmond on April 27.
RAB Racing will field the No. 99 Boost Mobile/KMC Wheels Toyota Camry for 11-time, X-Games gold medalist Pastrana in seven 2012 NASCAR Nationwide races. RAB Racing will also field Nationwide Series entries for MWR in additional races. Pastrana was supposed to have made his debut last year, but, he was injured in late July's X-Games.
"We love the Nationwide Series because it is what started Michael Waltrip Racing behind my house years ago," said MWR co-owner Michael Waltrip. "As our organization has grown into three full time Sprint Cup teams, it has taken a lot of our focus and resources. We have been so impressed with what the Bentons and Brack Maggard have been able to do with RAB Racing that we believe this is the perfect relationship for both organizations. We can help RAB Racing in certain areas and they can continue to elevate themselves into one of the top Nationwide Series teams."
"This is the next step for our team, having an alliance with a top Sprint Cup organization," said RAB Racing co-owner Robby Benton. "We have a great core of people who believe in one another and this will help us grow in the future."
"Benton explained that running a one-car team for Kenny Wallace was not panning out in the financial sense. We operate in a sport in which it takes cubic dollars to exist," said Benton on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway. "We went through the whole season last year with Kenny, and as a team, we're still behind Kenny 110%, to the point where it makes good business sense. Kenny, my father, (partner) Brack Maggard and myself felt that if we did what we did last year, we'd be building toward something. We made a conscious decision to invest in ourselves (and) with the (sponsorship) partners we had last year, we felt like we could move forward to (become) a fully funded, full-time program this season.
“Unfortunately, that hasn't worked out.”
Thus the new situation is a good fit for both organizations.
Waltrip said the alliance isn't limited to fielding cars for Pastrana.
"Whenever we have an opportunity to go Nationwide racing with any of our drivers, it will be in the No. 99 at RAB Racing," Waltrip said. "We'll add to the schedule here pretty soon with another announcement."
The race team announced this week that it will form an alliance with RAB Racing to field entries in the Nationwide. That will include one for extreme sports star, Travis Pastrana.
According to the announcement as part of the agreement, RAB Racing will acquire additional cars and receive technical and marketing support from MWR. Also, RAB Racing will change its current No. 09 number to the No. 99 starting at Richmond on April 27.
RAB Racing will field the No. 99 Boost Mobile/KMC Wheels Toyota Camry for 11-time, X-Games gold medalist Pastrana in seven 2012 NASCAR Nationwide races. RAB Racing will also field Nationwide Series entries for MWR in additional races. Pastrana was supposed to have made his debut last year, but, he was injured in late July's X-Games.
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| Photo: NASCAR |
"We love the Nationwide Series because it is what started Michael Waltrip Racing behind my house years ago," said MWR co-owner Michael Waltrip. "As our organization has grown into three full time Sprint Cup teams, it has taken a lot of our focus and resources. We have been so impressed with what the Bentons and Brack Maggard have been able to do with RAB Racing that we believe this is the perfect relationship for both organizations. We can help RAB Racing in certain areas and they can continue to elevate themselves into one of the top Nationwide Series teams."
"This is the next step for our team, having an alliance with a top Sprint Cup organization," said RAB Racing co-owner Robby Benton. "We have a great core of people who believe in one another and this will help us grow in the future."
"Benton explained that running a one-car team for Kenny Wallace was not panning out in the financial sense. We operate in a sport in which it takes cubic dollars to exist," said Benton on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio's Sirius Speedway. "We went through the whole season last year with Kenny, and as a team, we're still behind Kenny 110%, to the point where it makes good business sense. Kenny, my father, (partner) Brack Maggard and myself felt that if we did what we did last year, we'd be building toward something. We made a conscious decision to invest in ourselves (and) with the (sponsorship) partners we had last year, we felt like we could move forward to (become) a fully funded, full-time program this season.
“Unfortunately, that hasn't worked out.”
Thus the new situation is a good fit for both organizations.
Waltrip said the alliance isn't limited to fielding cars for Pastrana.
"Whenever we have an opportunity to go Nationwide racing with any of our drivers, it will be in the No. 99 at RAB Racing," Waltrip said. "We'll add to the schedule here pretty soon with another announcement."