The No. 15 5-hour ENERGY team will be featured in the ABC television special Catching Speed presented by John Deere that airs at 2 p.m. ET Sunday. The show features the Michael Waltrip Racing team as it prepares for The Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway—one of NASCAR’s most prestigious races.
“The opportunity for theCatching Speed program came along and it was just too good to pass up for our team and our sponsors,” said Ty Norris, MWR executive vice president business development. “The No. 15 team is all-new this year—a new driver, crew chief, crew, sponsor—and they along with the NAPA team are combining to make this the best year in Michael Waltrip Racing’s brief history.
“The No. 15 team is a group of great guys that has a ton of characters—they know how to have fun better than most of the teams in the garage, so it should be a very entertaining hour of television.”
The show features the 5-hour ENERGY team’s race preparation and execution from several different perspectives including the crew chief, driver, crew and marketing team.
“Indianapolis is a stressful weekend for a team,” said Bowyer. “I think thatCatching Speed showed just how stressful it can be and how difficult some weekends are when you don’t unload with the speed you like to see. It was a real struggle that weekend. From my perspective it would have been great to have the crew follow us in Sonoma so the show would have ended with us celebrating in victory lane, but a weekend like Indy will probably make for better TV—lots more to overcome.”
Catching Speedeven ventured away from the racetrack to follow the No. 15 team as it visited the high school of crew mechanic and Indiana native Travis Stock as the team went to play basketball after the garage closed.
“This was really a fun opportunity for the race fans that watch on television to get a look at some of us guys that work on the car and travel with the team each week,” said Stock.
“I think they captured us in our element. We clown around from time to time and take pride in having fun while we do what we do, but it also shows how stressful it can be when things aren’t going just right. Indy was not one of our best weekends on the track, but we all came together and worked through it and came out with a decent finish.”
MWR
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