TALLADEGA, Ala. -- What a difference a year makes for Michael Waltrip.

Last season coming to Talladega, the driver of the No. 55 Toyota had raced in one event, the Daytona 500, and failed to qualify for a race until Dover in June. Waltrip was dead last in points at Talladega last year and his season would never recover.

But this is 2008, and things are different for Waltrip. He started on the front row at Daytona, brought home a 29th-place finish and set the tone for his season. Since Daytona he's qualified for every race, and while the finishes haven't been spectacular -- his best was a 23rd at Bristol -- he's racing, and that's all that matters.

"There's no room for error, but it's great to know [at] Talladega we feel very confident with what we have, especially considering how we qualified at Daytona and at Talladega last fall," Waltrip said. "Our results this season aren't what we are looking for yet, but it's a start."

Superspeedways like Talladega, site of Sunday's Aaron's 499, have been Waltrip's strong suit in his 24-year career. All four of his Cup Series wins have come at NASCAR's restrictor-plate tracks, with three at Daytona and one at Talladega in 2003 when he beat then-teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the line by .095 seconds.

But times have been tough for Waltrip at the 2.66-mile speedway recently. In three of the last four races, he's been involved in crashes leading to DNFs. Still, Waltrip says he can't consume himself worrying about the "big one."

"What I know is there has never been a race where just 20 cars finished a race," he said. "So there is a 50-50 chance that a driver can miss the 'big one.' I don't worry about it."

Waltrip was concerned after first practice on Friday, when the No. 55 was 33rd on the chart with a speed of 191.306 mph, but the team made adjustments and Waltrip paced the final practice with a speed of 192.754.

"I didn't even think I had a chance to win after the first practice," Waltrip said. "[Crew chief] Bobby Kennedy and I got together and we changed gears and we changed springs and we went in a different direction.

"The board is not really that significant but the fact is now I think I can win and that is very significant. I think we were the slowest cars that did race runs in the first practice and then we worked on it and we made it a lot faster. Something let the motor run better, whether it was more gear or just getting the front end cleaned out. It's real important to have the right attitude on the track and we improved ours tremendously."

Already locked in the show, Waltrip didn't have to worry about his qualifying run and he was more than happy to focus just on Sunday.

"I've been celebrating for about three or four weeks now not giving a crap where I qualify," Waltrip said with a laugh.

He wasn't laughing after qualifying though, as he thought he had a car that could start up front but instead will roll off 27th in Sunday's race. Still, Waltrip knows compared to last year, this is the beginning of what he hopes is a continued climb up the standings.

"It's a nice feeling, but as a racecar driver you are never satisfied," Waltrip said. "We didn't show up this year to be 32nd in the points and locked in; we showed up to be a top-20 [team] and we've fallen a little bit short of that. But we've made a lot of improvements and we will keep working on it.

"We always want more, there's no two ways around it. We owe more -- we owe NAPA more, we owe UPS more and we owe Aaron's more and that's what gets everybody up every day to head to work is to say, 'Were gonna get more, too.'