Michael Waltrip
Michael Waltrip
Michael Curtis Waltripis an American professional stock car racing driver, racing commentator, 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 Fox NASCAR. He currently drives on a limited basis in the No. 55 Toyota Camry for Premium Motorsports in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. At 6 feet...
ProfessionRace Car Driver
Date of Birth30 April 1963
CityOwensboro, KY
If Jimmy is going to pay everyone back this weekend, he's going to be a very busy boy.
I never thought I would be a car owner in the Cup series. But then I thought, if I can plug into this, I can go race with these guys. ... Now I've got cars. I can race these people.
I guess the last time I was in the Budweiser Shootout was 1992. I finished third in the first segment and eighth in the second. It's just a chance for your team to have some fun. It's a lot like the All-Star race where you get the chance to take the gloves off and fight for first. I'm real proud that I was able to win a pole last year and get my new NAPA team into the Shootout. And now we get to go out and try to win it.
I ran out of brains with about five to go and hit the wall a couple of times. I just saw Kurt and wanted to win so bad. I'd rather mess up trying. I did all I could.
That's going to be really arbitrary to police because even the most sublime bump drafts at a time when a guy's getting ready to make a move in another direction can result in sending a guy out of control.
It's fun to be in the Budweiser Shootout. I'm just real proud that we were able to get a pole. I was real close in 2002, 2003 and 2004 to getting one and we got disappointed on several occasions. To finally get us a pole was fun, and now we will take the NAPA car and try to win the Shootout on Saturday night.
It's a great racetrack. This is the kind of racetrack we need. Tracks that are real wide and real easy to drive, somebody hits the setup.
I've been out there and gotten hit in the back with a bump draft that you would have thought you hit the wall it was so hard. And that's not going to be possible anymore.
I've been doing this for a long time. Bill's won races, and I just like what he stands for and how he conducts business.
I've never had a problem with Robby, ... Like I said, I just held my ground is all I did and he just decided he wanted to take that place from me instead of working for it.
The world was right and then it was wrong, then it was right, and then it was wrong.
They play like the average worker. They play just like I play.
A lot of people might look at it as a step back, but I certainly don't,
There's no reason, with Bill's experience and what I bring to the table, that we can't do that,