Elizabeth "Buffy" Waltrip is the former wife of NASCAR driver Michael Waltrip and owner of his #55 Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) NASCAR Sprint Cup car. She is involved in modelling and advertising jewellery marketed at the NASCAR community.[1] She is also known for her help for several charities.
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Elizabeth "Buffy" Franks was born on April 5, 1967 in Monroe, La. She is the oldest of three children born to Beverly Louis (BL) and Carol Franks. The family moved from Monroe to Owosso, Michigan for BL's job with Georgia Pacific. During Buffy's junior year of high school, the family once again moved for BL's job with GP, this time to Asheboro, NC. During this period, Buffy met Michael Waltrip.
On April 3, 1993, Michael won the Bristol Busch race, and asked Buffy to marry him on live TV in Victory Circle. They married on November 27, 1993, and have one daughter, Margaret Carol (AKA Macy) born on September 29, 1997. Michael has an older daughter, Caitlin Marie from a previous relationship, who was born on January 12, 1990.
Michael Waltrip Racing was formed as a Busch Series team in 1996 with Michael and Buffy Waltrip as co-owners. The team ran Busch (now Nationwide Nationwide Series) Series races as primarily a single car team until it was announced that Toyota would start racing in the Sprint Cup series (NASCAR's premiere division) starting in 2007. MWR was select by Toyota as the lead team for the manufacturer, so the team developed the engine package used by the Toyota teams. Buffy was named as the car owner of the #55 car, then-driven by her husband Michael Waltrip. Martin Truex Jr. now drives the #56 NAPA Toyota. Michael Waltrip Racing also fields a car driven by David Reutimann and will (in 2012) field a car sponsored (for the majority of Sprint Cup races) by 5-Hour Energy for Clint Bowyer.