The No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver Michael Waltrip finished 25th in Saturday night’s 75-lap Budweiser Shootout at Daytona. Waltrip raced mid-pack on lap nine when several cars at the front began spinning. Waltrip, racing near the wall, had no place to go to avoid the wreck. The damage to the No. 55 was too great to continue ending the race for the Michael Waltrip Racing team. After a mandatory visit to the care center, Waltrip spent the rest of the race in the Fox Hollywood Hotel.

Click to see the recap video on www.michaelwaltrip.com

Waltrip Notes:
• Started 20th and finished 25th.
• Collected in a lap nine accident severely damaging the No. 55.
• Waltrip drove the No. 55 in Saturday’s Shootout & Mark Martin will drive the No. 55 in the Daytona 500.
• Martin sat on Waltrip’s pit box Saturday night with Crew Chief Rodney Childers

WALTRIP QUOTE: “Clint Bowyer and I were talking before the race started and he said, ‘You don’t want to be up high, because there ain’t nowhere to go.’ I just saw them start spinning and stayed high and ran into someone. It was crazy. I caught on fire and everything. I ‘Twittered’ before the race started that I was going to share the track with the greatest drivers in the world. I think it proved right there that even great drivers sometimes run out of room.”

RACE NOTES
• Kyle Busch edged Tony Stewart by .013 seconds – the closest finish in the race’s 34-year history.
• Marcos Ambrose, Brad Keselowski and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five.
• The 75-lap race saw a 10-minute break at lap 25 and a 50-lap sprint in the final segment.
• The race featured 24 lead changes among 13 drivers; ten of the race’s 25 cars finished on the lead
lap.
• Five cautions slowed the race for 22 laps for an average speed of 128.281 MPH.
• Although there were several hard crashes, there were no injuries.
• The race lasted an hour and 38 minutes in front of an estimated crowd of 82,000.