MWR Weekly Wrap-up: Truex grabs $200k and Martin leads team efforts

Mark Martin, Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. - Team MWR 

NAPA Knows How to get a $200,000 bonus!

Martin Truex Jr. was leading at lap 100 and netted the halfway award money, a prize reestablished by NASCAR and Daytona International Speedway.

In response to the nice bonus, Truex's longtime girlfriend Sherry Pollex tweeted "momma needs a new pair of shoes!!!!" Good luck spending that cash, Martin, Twitter consensus has that you should finally buy a ring and pop the question.

In racing news...

MWR had a strong showing in the 54th annual Daytona 500. Led by Mark Martin, the team posted 10th, 11th (Clint Bowyer) and 12th (Truex Jr.) place finishes.

Mark Martin's debut with MWR was a success. Avoiding any damage and leading for 2 laps, Martin and the No. 55 team performed strongly all evening. As Martin took the lead, boss Michael Waltrip tweeted: Woo hoo! @55MarkMartin @aaronssports leads! Uh led!

In his post-race comments, Martin said: “I had a great night. I’m really happy how our team worked together. I told everyone before the race to remember how long 500 miles here really is. I was really reminding myself that what happens in the first three-quarters of the race doesn't matter. So we were just riding until the end. We could see the front at the end and I thought we had a shot with Martin pushing us but we came up just a bit short. Still, it was a great night for my team, Aaron’s, Michael Waltrip Racing and everyone."

Clint Bowyer's night was not as easy. Running in the top five for portions of the race, a miscalculation of fuel mileage was a costly error for the 5-Hour ENERGY team as they ran out of gas on Lap 128. Losing two laps to the leader, the Aarons' Lucky Dog put Bowyer back on the lead lap with just 12 laps to go.

"I’m not sure exactly what happened, but for some reason we ran out of fuel. My team never gave up and we were able to get back on the lead lap. Heck, I thought we had a shot there at the end. All in all, a really good run for us considering everything we encountered.”

The aforementioned Truex Jr. had about the same results of his teammates, add in the bonus and leading seven laps.

“I pushed as hard as I could and I just couldn't go anywhere at the end. We had a good NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota all day. We started to run hot there in the end and that was about it for the race when it came to any real challenges with our car. Chad and the guys did a great job to improve our car since the Duels. We led laps and led at halfway for the bonus. We just didn't lead at the end. Good day all-and-all for the entire Michael Waltrip Racing organization.”

For your viewing pleasure head over to view this hilarious MWR commercial for AAA insurance.

Amanda Ebersole brings the readers of Skirts and Scuffs interviews and insight into the people who make NASCAR the sport we all love. Besides interviews, Amanda also writes her weekly columns In the Rearview Mirror and NASCAR By the Numbers. Catch up on all Amanda's writing by clicking here. Feel free to contact Amanda via Twitter or e-mail.