<table> </table> During the early part of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Michael Waltrip was spending a lot of time making promises. He was making promises to his sponsors, to his fans, to his team and even to himself.</p><p>Once the new Car of Tomorrow his team was building was put into use in the Sprint Cup series, Waltrip told the world success would follow.</p><p>But on a recent morning, Waltrip let out a deep breath and quietly admitted something about all of that. It seems the things he told people were as much prayers as they were promises &#8212; and if the prayers went unanswered, well, Waltrip said he would have had &#8220;egg on the face.&#8221;</p><p>The truth, though, is that the consequences of his promises might have been significantly more dire than a little egg on his chin.</p><p>When the Sprint Cup series arrives this weekend at Kansas Speedway for the Camping World RV 400, Michael Waltrip Racing personnel will be thinking more about winning than prayers and promises.</p><p>Over the last several weeks, Waltrip&#8217;s teams have been performing at very satisfying levels. Last week, the team may have had its most gratifying race in the one-plus season it has competed in the Sprint Cup series.</p><p>One of its drivers, David Reutimann, finished 17th but ran with the leaders almost all day at Dover International Speedway. And Waltrip finished in 10th place.</p><p>&#8220;To battle all day long and run good,&#8221; Waltrip said after getting out of his car, &#8220;that&#8217;s what it&#8217;s all about.&#8221;</p><p>They were strange words from Waltrip, an owner/driver, saying that a 10th-place finish and a 17th-place finish by his teammate made for a happy Sunday. But Waltrip&#8217;s journey as a team owner has been strange from the beginning.</p><p>The bulk of Waltrip&#8217;s career has been as a driver. In the Sprint Cup series, there were 675 starts from 1985 through 2006. He drove for such owners as the Wood Brothers and Dale Earnhardt Inc. With DEI, he was a two-time winner of the Daytona 500.</p><p>In 2007, he became a Cup owner/driver, and he did it with a lot of hoopla. He signed on to become a charter Toyota team, he nailed some high-profile sponsors and assembled a nice group of drivers that included former champion Dale Jarrett and promising youngster Reutimann.</p><p>And then there was television &#8212; the story of building his team became a reality show and Waltrip began to become a personality on cable race coverage.</p><p>When Michael Waltrip Racing showed up at Speed Weeks in Daytona in February of 2007, it was all good &#8230; for a couple of hours.</p><p>After qualifying, NASCAR inspectors found something illegal in the intake manifold of his car. The manifold was confiscated and severe penalties were later issued. Waltrip headed to the second race of the season as the only driver in Cup history to have a negative number of points.</p><p>But the damage caused by the penalties to his points position was minor compared to that done to him, as well as his team&#8217;s and Toyota&#8217;s image. In their coming-out parties, all were branded as cheaters.</p><p>It was a grim Jim Aust &#8212; Toyota Racing Development president and CEO&#8212; who stood at the back of the Daytona media center the night the cheating incident took placed and said, &#8220;This is not the way you want to enter the Nextel Cup series by any means.&#8221;</p><p>Waltrip explained on Wednesday that the depth of the damage which the Daytona &#8217;07 incident caused brought major damage to his team and to himself.</p><p>&#8220;It was definitely a standing-eight count for us,&#8221; Waltrip said. &#8220;It could have been a knockout blow. That was serious.&#8221;