Birth Date December 18, 1952 + Hometown Horicon, WI

Residence Denver, NC + Spouse Sandra + Children Cory, Troy

20 years of corporate leadership as a Senior Executive with financial expertise led Larry Johns to his latest role as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Michael Waltrip Racing to direct the company's finances. Some of Johns' primary responsibilities include managing cash flow while helping the company develop strategic direction. He is also responsible for communicating the strategy effectively so that it can be executed from the shop floor to the racetrack. His facilitation and coaching skills will help the company be successful in all areas.

Before MWR, Johns experience at PPI Motorsports, LLC (Precision Preparation, Inc.) educated him about the inner workings of a race team. As a CFO at PPI in 2006, he was a trusted business advisor and managed budgets to achieve positive cash flow and profit improvement. He also participated in sponsorship presentations and worked closely with the team owner and chief marketing officer on sponsor relations and new business development.

Joining PPI was Johns first taste of motorsports. He was always a fan of the sport, but he thought it would be a long shot to have a chance to be front and center working for a race team when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series took the green flag in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway. One day that all changed. While working in Hickory, NC for a furniture company, Johns came home to find that his wife (Sandra) had circled a job posted in the Hickory Record. PPI was seeking a CFO and Johns immediately called to inquire about the position. After owning his own business for almost a decade, he was looking for a change. Having a passion for NASCAR, he applied to the job advertisement and met with the owner, Calvin Wells III.

Johns was best known for being a strategic facilitator among many other things. Wells liked what he had accomplished in his career and the way he answered his questions. After several meetings, Wells hired the Horicon, WI native. On February 19, 2006, Johns witnessed in person the Daytona 500 as Travis Kvapil qualified the PPI Motorsports entry for The Great American Race and at that moment he knew he had made the right decision in his career path.

Ironically, one of John's most memorable racing moments before actually entering the sport was watching Rick Craven and Kurt Busch on television beating and banging across the finish line for the win at Darlington Raceway in 2003. To join the team that was victorious that day three years later was quite an honor for Johns.

After being employed by PPI for a year, the 28-year-old company closed. Johns and Wells had kept a close eye on Michael Waltrip Racing as they grew from one NASCAR Nationwide Series team to three full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams with the support of Fortune 500 sponsors and strong backing from Toyota.

Early on, Wells began working with Ty Norris (Vice President and General Manager) and ended up creating a bridge by placing several of his PPI employees at Michael Waltrip Racing. As MWR appointed Wells as Executive Vice President, he recognized Johns was the right person for CFO because of his high degree of reliability in looking at future forecast versus proven results. Johns accepted because he wanted to be a part of a management team that helped bring Michael Waltrip's dream to reality.

Today, Johns continues his due diligence in helping the organization become one of the premiere elite race teams in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series while maintaining a championship caliber NASCAR Nationwide Series team.