Nashville Music To Our Ears!

Nashville, TN (April 10, 2004) Michael Waltrip took the Aaron's Dream Machine to Victory Lane at the Nashville Superspeedway Saturday after a surprising turn of events with two laps left in the race. 

This was Michael's first race at the 1.33-mile concrete speedway, and the team worked hard to get the car setup competitively.  After a disappointing 22^nd place qualifying effort, the team hit on a good setup during the happy-hour practice, and looked forward to a strong run on Saturday.

 

Starting the race in 22nd, Michael carefully worked his way through traffic and into the top-ten by lap 45 of the 225-lap event.  During a long green-flag run, Waltrip moved into the top-five after most of the field had to come in for pit stops.  That is when the caution flag fell on lap 142, just before the Dream Machine came in for service.  It was a timely caution that caught most of the field one-lap down and put Michael into third. However, shortly after the restart on lap 153 the Dream Machine hit a spinning Ron Hornaday and suffered damage to the front left fender.  Waltrip was running second when the incident took place, but with so few cars on the lead lap, the Aaron's crew was able to make repairs and send Waltrip back on track in seventh.  He picked up one spot when Kasey Kahne fell off the pace with old tires.

Sitting in sixth after the final caution on lap 216, the team was looking at another top-ten finish when the excitement started with four-laps to go. Rookies Kyle Busch and Clint Bowyer traded the top-two positions, and some paint, after the final restart, with Robbie Gordon and Johnny Benson right on their bumpers.  The four cars went into turn 2 bunched in a pack of four, when Clint Bowyer touched Busch's bumper and started a four-way synchronized spin down the backstretch. 

 

Waltrip witnessed the spin and took the highline coming out of turn 2.  Replays showed Waltrip coming out of the smoke, passing Johnny Sauter and taking the lead when the caution flag came out.  Michael finished the last two laps under caution to take the win, much to everyone's amazement.

"We were lucky for sure," Waltrip said. "The first thing I thought when I drove out of the smoke on the back straightaway was the Red Sea had just parted. I drove out of the smoke and into Victory Lane."

After much review by NASCAR, the official results show Michael finishing first, followed by Johnny Sauter, Kasey Kahne, Clint Bowyer and Robbie Gordon.

 

It was Waltrip's first victory of the year and the win vaulted him into the championship points lead by eight points over David Green.  Congratulations to Michael and everyone on the crew and in the shop for a job well done!

The Busch Series is now off a week before hitting the track in Talladega, AL for the Aaron's Dream Weekend.