Michael Waltrip: David Reutimann Will Run Full Season

Sponsors are hard to find these days in the Sprint Cup Series...Heck, they are hard to find anywhere these days. Check out the latest news about the ARCA Series.

However, teams are trying to push on, without the big dollars from the corporations. Michael Waltrip Racing announced Wednesday that David Reutimann (driver of the No. 00 Toyota) will run the entire season, despite only having sponsorship from Aaron's Sales and Lease for half of the season.

In a conference call with reporters, Waltrip said, “We will definitely run the full season with David driving the 00 car. We’ll just look at it as part of the investment in the future of our team. David is obviously a fast race car driver that can win races at the Cup level. We believe that. We think that the investment in the future we cannot afford to not run that car, so that’s what we’re going to do.” (SceneDaily.com)

Last year, Reutimann took over (what was then the No. 44 car) Dale Jarrett's ride when he opted to retire. The car was sponsored full-time by UPS.

According to Waltrip, the first race Reutimann will display a sponsor-less car will be Feb. 22 at Auto Club Speedway in California.

Obviously, the search continues for sponsorship, but it's a task that's becoming harder and harder with the failing economy.

“We understand that at this late date it’s really tough to pull together sponsorship because of the timing, but we certainly want people to know we’re open and available for partners that might want to run not only a race or two at a specific track, but also a program for the whole season,” Waltrip said. “We’re very cognizant of it being a late date, and the price of the sponsorship would reflect that.” (SceneDaily.com)

Waltrip has full sponsorship on his No. 55 in NAPA Auto Parts. The No. 47 car, which is the former No. 00, also has full sponsorship. The car is being run as a partnership between Waltrip Racing and JTG Daugherty.

In Reutimann's short career, he has four top-10 finishes (all of which came during 2008.) He finished the year 22nd in points and made all 36 races.

In the Nationwide Series, Reutimann finished seventh in points last year and was runner-up in 2007.

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