After failing to qualify for his third straight race at Atlanta, Michael Waltrip was meeting with Toyota Racing Development officials to find a way to integrate their people and resources more into his struggling organization.

“We don’t think we’re doing a good job of implementing and taking advantage of all the wonderful technological help [they] can offer us. They’re reassessing how that will go forward.”

Waltrip would like to see a few key engineers move from TRD’s Concord, N.C., office to his new shop in Cornelius, N.C.

“We can move a couple of desks around and say, ‘Sit here and watch what we’re doing and tell us how we can do it better,’ ” Waltrip said.

Jim Aust, the chairman of TRD, said Waltrip is the first of the three Toyota organizations to step forward and ask for such help even though all three teams — Waltrip’s three-car operation, Bill Davis Racing’s two cars and Team Red Bull’s two cars — have struggled to qualify for races.

“Michael obviously needs a redo, I guess,” Aust said. “They need help with car setup, primarily. So our engineering group is going to take a look at that and come up with a plan to see how we might be able to provide more general assistance as opposed to specific assistance.

“Sometimes it helps if you get a different perspective on things. That’s what Michael is looking for.”

Aust said TRD has agreed to help more from a planning and administrative standpoint than throwing more bodies into the organization to “make everything right.”

ESPN.com