MWR to Host Collections in Kansas City Area

CORNELIUS, N.C. – Race fans can join Michael Waltrip Racing’s teams and drivers at two locations in the Kansas City area Thursday night collecting donations for the tornado victims of Joplin, Mo.

“I want to show the world that NASCAR has the best fans and I want everyone to come out and support our friends and neighbors in Joplin by bringing stuff they really need right now,” said team owner Michael Waltrip. “If you bring it, my guys will drive it to Joplin.”

No. 00 Aaron’s/TUMS Toyota team members and driver David Reutimann along with JTG Daugherty Racing’s No. 47 Clorox Toyota driver Bobby Labonte will host collections at the Aaron’s store in Shawnee, Kan.  6-8 p.m. Thursday while No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS team members and Martin Truex Jr. will do the same 6-8 p.m. at the Bass Pro Shops in Olathe, Kansas. 

Waltrip will join the No. 00 team at the Aaron’s store 6-6:45 p.m. before joining the No. 56 team 7:15-8 p.m. in Olathe.

Fans can meet, take pictures and collect autographs from the drivers and crewmembers at both sites in return for donations of canned foods, blankets, and toiletry items MWR will transport to Joplin on Friday.  The first 200 donations at the Olathe Bass Pro Shops will receive a No. 56 die cast racecar while the first 200 donations at the Aaron’s store will receive a nine-inch “Lucky Dog” stuffed animal.  

Waltrip said MWR sponsors NAPA, Aaron’s, TUMS, Toyota, Best Western, Boost Mobile and Bass Pro Shops created the events as a response to the tragedy in Missouri. MWR employees at the team’s Cornelius, N.C. race shop will also collect items for the truck going to Joplin.

“Everyone has seen the devastation on television and we wanted to help those people who are suffering right now,” said Waltrip. “We’re racing in the area this weekend at Kansas Speedway and we just wanted to do something that gives back to this community and the people that mean so much to MWR and NASCAR.  I hope everyone in the area will come out to the Aaron’s store in Shawnee and the Bass Pro Shops in Olathe. We’ll have some fun while we collect items the people in Joplin really need.”

Aaron’s, 12108 Shawnee Mission Parkway in Shawnee Kansas, is about 12 miles from Kansas Speedway while Bass Pro Shops, 12051 Bass Pro Drive in Olathe Kansas, is about 14 miles south of the track.

Michael Waltrip Racing will give fans outside the Kansas City area a way to help. The team will make Truex and Reutimann car hoods, fire suits worn during Sunday’s race along with the racing gloves and shoes available through the NASCAR Unites online auction. During the week following the Kansas race, fans can bid on the MWR items at www.NASCAR.com/unites.

The death toll from the massive tornado that devastated the southwest Missouri city now stands at over 126. More than 900 people were injured in the May 22 tornado, which is now considered the nation’s single-deadliest in six decades.