Michael Waltrip Racing Ready to Lay Off More than 200 Employees
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Robert Laberge/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway(CORNELIUS, N.C.) — Michael Waltrip Racing has filed a notice with the state of North Carolina indicating that it is planning to permanently lay off more than 200 employees, Fox Sports reports.
MWR filed a notice with the state Sept. 1 say that as early as Nov. 1 the team intends to lay off 217 employees at its race shop in Cornelius. Team co-owner Rob Kaufman said last month that MWR would close up shop at the end of the season, noting that the race shop is for sale. In July Kaufman announced that he would purchase a stake in Chip Ganassi Racing.
Last month MWR announced that would not field a full-time car in 2016 and that it would release Clint Bowyer from the final year of his contract so he could sign elsewhere for next season.
“I think that just from a business standpoint, that didn’t make sense any longer,” Kaufman said two weeks ago at Bristol Motor Speedway. “You can’t have a top-10 budget and top-10 resources and not be in the top 10 for a sustained period of time.” He added, “From a business decision, it just made sense to not go forward with that organization because it just wasn’t commercially viable.”
No word yet on where Bowyer or David Ragan will land.
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