Waltrip comfortable with stepping down

Michael Waltrip had announced in July he wasn't going to return to full-time racing. He released his 2010 Sprint Cup schedule on Wednesday night at MWR during the 2010 Media Tour at – the Budweiser Shootout and the Daytona 500. "I'm comfortable with that," Waltrip said during the Sprint Media Tour. "I talked to Billy Ballew about running some Camping World Truck Series races. I definitely am going to run a couple of those. When I think about going to Daytona, I get excited because I know I know how to win that race. When I think about the next Cup races at California and Las Vegas, I just haven't performed at a level that makes me say, 'I'm going to go out there and win.'" Replacing Waltrip in the full-time ride will be #56-Martin Truex Jr. from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing and also new is Pat Tryson from Penske Racing to be the crew chief for Truex. The last time Tryson was seen in the garage, he was crew chief for Kurt Busch on the track but wasn't allowed in the Penske Racing shop except for a weekly meeting because of his pending departure to MWR. Tryson was no longer wanted in the Penske shop, but Penske also didn't let him start at MWR until Jan. 4. Tryson seemed to shrug off the late start with his new team. "The communication here is better than anywhere I've ever worked, between the crew chief, ownership, between the management," Tryson said. "It's really open, and everybody talks to everybody about everything. That's the way it needs to be. Martin is fun. We went testing, and he was fun to be around. He's a great guy." Truex will drive the #56 this year, while Waltrip will drive the #51. Neither car will have the #55 that Waltrip used ever since he started MWR in 2007. "The 55 was getting a little heavy," Waltrip said. "I hadn't won with it. I felt real comfortable coming close to winning a couple of times. But I just wanted a change of pace. The 15 I once drove was available, but I didn't feel like that was right. I wanted a variation of the 15, so I went with the 51." SceneDaily