Background and career
Michael Curtis "Mikey" Waltrip (born April 30, 1963) is an American former professional stock car racing driver, racing commentator, racing team owner, amateur ballroom dancing competitor and published author. He is the younger brother of three-time NASCAR champion and racing commentator Darrell Waltrip. Waltrip is a two-time winner of the Daytona 500, having won the race in 2001 and 2003. He is also a pre-race analyst for the NASCAR Cup Series and color commentator for the Xfinity Series and the Craftsman Truck Series broadcasts for Fox Sports. He last raced in the 2017 Daytona 500, driving the No. 15 Toyota Camry for Premium Motorsports. All four of his NASCAR Cup Series wins came on superspeedways driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc..
According to his autobiography Blink of An Eye, Waltrip's career started at the age of twelve when he phoned his older brother Darrell Waltrip, who was racing in the 1978 Daytona 500. Michael asked Darrell to help him build a career in NASCAR, but Darrell advised him to stay focused on school. Michael then obtained assistance from his older brother Bobby Waltrip, who was very close to him in their childhood. Michael began building a career by racing go-karts at carnivals and various racing clubs around his hometown. He won many races and, thanks to Bobby's help, was noticed by Dale Earnhardt. When Waltrip moved out of his house, he moved in with Kyle Petty and then ultimately lived with Richard Petty as a roommate. When Michael explained to Petty that he was going to try the Busch Series (now the Xfinity Series) to build his NASCAR career, Petty told Michael he was "wasting his time" and advised that Michael should immediately go for the Cup Series ride.
Waltrip's stock car career got off the ground in 1981, when he captured the Mini-Modified division track championship at Kentucky Motor Speedway. A year later, Waltrip entered the Goody's Dash Series, where he won the series championship in 1983 and was voted the circuit's most popular driver that year and in 1984. Waltrip made his Cup debut in 1985 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte driving for Dick Bahre. He finished 28th in that race and finished 57th in the series standings after just five starts. His brother Darrell won the race. At the same time, Waltrip got confronted by Earnhardt, who questioned a previous move early in the race in which Waltrip nudged him out of the way and Dale responded by flipping the bird.
In 1986, driving the No. 23 car for Bahari Racing, Waltrip finished second in the Rookie of the Year standings to Alan Kulwicki on the strength of a pair of eleventh-place finishes at Martinsville and Pocono. The following season, he posted his first career top-ten finish when he ended up tenth in Martinsville's spring race. In 1988, Waltrip began running Busch Series events, making five starts for his brother's team. He took the checkered flag for the first time at Dover in his fourth start. In 1989, he had his first top-five finish in the No. 30 Country Time Lemonade/Kool-Aid-sponsored Pontiac.
For Waltrip, 1990 was notable for a horrific crash at Bristol in the spring on the 170th lap of the Budweiser 250, where he destroyed his Busch Series Pontiac Grand Prix. After making contact with Robert Pressley in the No. 59, he hit a gate that was in the outside wall at the exit of turn two. The gate was used to allow vehicles in and out of the infield because the track did not have a tunnel. The impact broke the gate, and Michael went head-on into the end of the wall, disintegrating the car on impact and collapsing the car into itself. Onlookers were sure that Waltrip was severely injured, perhaps fatally, because of how massive the impact was and his brother Darrell rushed to the wreck fearing the worst. Amazingly, Waltrip not only survived the accident but he only suffered minor cuts, soreness, and bruises in the wreck. After Mike Harmon had an almost identical impact several years later (and also amazingly walked away), the gate was moved down to just before the entrance of turn 3, thus lessening the chance of a car hitting it because cars are diving away from the wall at that point. Later, when asked about the crash by Ken Squier, he replied saying he had "some contusions and a little bit of confusion" and ended with "Hope we did a good job for Kool-Aid." Years later, Waltrip said that at first, he thought that Pressley wrecked him on purpose, and thought about fighting him after the incident before thinking better of it.
In 1991, he gained new sponsorship from Pennzoil and won the Winston Open, as well as his first two career pole positions. He came close to winning the 1991 TranSouth 500 at Darlington, but a jammed air hose on his final visit to the pits caused his stop to last 37.4 seconds, costing him the victory. He stayed with the Bahari team until the end of 1995 when he was replaced by rookie Johnny Benson. He joined Wood Brothers Racing to drive their No. 21 Citgo-sponsored Ford. He won the 1996 edition of The Winston after capturing the last transfer spot in The Winston Open. After posting one top-five finish over three years, and missing his first race since 1986 at the 1998 Dura Lube/Kmart 500, Waltrip departed the Wood Brothers at the end of 1998 to drive the No. 7 Philips-sponsored Chevrolet for Mattei Motorsports, posting three top-ten finishes and ending that season 29th in points. However, mid-season the ownership of the team transferred from Mattei to Ultra Motorsports and Jim Smith. The next season, Nations Rent replaced Philips as the sponsor & Waltrip moved up to 27th in points but only finished in the top-five once, causing him and the team to part ways at the end of the season. Waltrip would later say in his 2011 book, In the Blink of an Eye, that 1999 and 2000 were the most disappointing years of his racing career and he began to lose hope that he would ever win a Cup Series race.
