Borland out at Michael Waltrip Racing

Borland out at Michael Waltrip Racing
FOXSports.com

Michael Waltrip Racing and Dale Jarrett's crew chief Matt Borland have parted ways.

Before joining MWR to lead the No. 44 team, Borland had been Ryan Newman's crew chief at Penske Racing South since the inception of the No. 12 team in 2000.

"Dale Jarrett wasn't happy, UPS wasn't happy, and we had to do something immediately," Waltrip said. "Originally, we had hoped that Matt Borland would take the role as the technical director, but he wasn't ready to come off the road. We need a technical director down the road, but it wasn't going to help us this weekend."

Jason Burdett, formerly the co-crew chief of the No. 88 car at Robert Yates Racing, left Yates on Wednesday and will eventually be the No. 44 crew chief. Waltrip wanted to give Burdett time to get acclimated to the system at Michael Waltrip Racing before he jumped into that role. Burdett worked with Jarrett last year.

This weekend at Richmond, Derrick Finley will be the No. 44 crew chief. Finley started the season at Bill Davis Racing as the crew chief on Jeremy Mayfield's No. 36 car. After leaving BDR, he became the crew chief and then lead engineer on Waltrip's No. 55 car and is already familiar with the operations at MWR.

Jarrett, Mark Green and David Green tested the Car of Tomorrow on Tuesday at Nashville Superspeedway without Borland. Waltrip said that the test went really well, and it gave them encouragement for this weekend at Richmond International Raceway. Given the situation as it was, it was time to make a move.

The 1999 Cup champion used all six of his champion's provisionals in the first nine races of the season, and the No. 44 team must make the field for Saturday's Cup race on speed during qualifying on Friday.