“We’ve got people’s attention now,” NASCAR competition director Robin Pemberton said Wednesday.

Waltrip, a two-time Daytona winner, lost his crew chief and team director right before the biggest race of the year. The two were suspended indefinitely after an illegal substance was found during inspection for the season-opener.

Waltrip, docked 100 points, will be allowed to participate in Thursday’s races that determine the field for the 500.

David Hyder, his crew chief, was thrown out of the garage and fined $100,000. Team director Bobby Kennedy also was kicked out.

Waltrip said he was “so sad and embarrassed” but tried to shift blame to an unnamed individual within his team.

“This is not the action of an organization, a manufacturer or a sponsor,” Waltrip said in a statement. “This was an independent act done without consent or authorization from me or any of my executive management team.”

You’re a nice guy, Mikey, if not the greatest driver in the world. You’ve carved out a nice niche for yourself and I think you’re an intelligent, likable person. My wife likes you, I like you, a lot of fans like you.

But that’s a pretty pitiful excuse and “explanation”, and doesn’t help your case any at all. Do you really expect us to not only believe that some renegade member of your team monkeyed with the car in the dead of the night but also that no one else happened to notice it? Despite all of that checking over and tuning up of your car before qualifying, do you really expect us to believe that something like that would somehow go unnoticed by everyone, except for the officials inspecting the car?

Aside from weak excuses and explanations, you’ve also apparently managed to draw the ire of other teams as well for breaking the unspoken rule that cheating and creative engineering is fine as long as you leave the engine, tires, and fuel alone.

Nice work, Mikey. Way to kick off the season on a high note.

My own guesstimation is that the Michael Waltrip Racing Toyotas (Waltrip, Jarrett, and David Reutimann) will probably acquit themselves the best this season, and be reasonably competitive. They’ve got the most driving experience and past history of success, as well as some past champion provisional spots in Jarrett’s back pocket if they need them to make the field.

Bill Davis Racing is hard to figure, as they’ve got more experience as a team than Michael Waltrip Racing or Team Red Bull, but not quite the same talent in the driver’s seat, with Jeremy Mayfield and Dave Blaney driving. Mayfield is likely the wild card here, as far as how competitve the team will be, but it’s hard to predict whether he’ll bounce back from a tough year or continue to slide back in the standings, with all the turmoil of recent years taking its toil.

As far as Team Red Bull (which is fielding Brian Vickers and A.J. Allmendinger), who knows. Allmendinger is off to a bumpy start and the team seems resigned to  an up and down season for him (with likely more downs) as he gets experience in his first year in Cup racing. Vickers is obviously the best bet to post some decent results,  but he’s going to need some help. He’s obviously got the talent to make it happen, but Red Bull needs to step up and provide him with a consistently competitive car, something they’ve shown no real talent for doing thus far in their F1 efforts, despite splashing around a lot of cash.