Michael Waltrip, Meet Karma (And Unfortunately For You, She's Not A TV Reporter)
Another week, another Michael Waltrip no show in the Nextel Cup Series.
I wish no ill will on Waltrip or his burgeoning organization Michael Waltrip Racing, but I do believe karma is having its way with the Mikey and that doesn’t bother me a bit.
Now, I don’t think it’s good for NASCAR that one of Toyota’s marquee teams which carries one of NASCAR’s most loyal sponsors, has missed all but one race this season (incidentally, a race that he should have probably be sent home from after getting caught with something in his car that NASCAR still won’t breath a word about). But I do think it’s fitting that Toyota is getting so little from the team after hitching one of its wagons to a guy that has over the years simply only proved to be a pitchman extraordinaire.
As a reporter who has covered auto racing for a decade at The Courant, one of the most common questions I get from people I know or talk to is what certain drivers are “really” like.
I’ll say this, I don’t cover nearly enough Nextel Cup events to get to know these guys very well personally, but you do learn a few things about people over the years. One thing I’ve found in my time in the Nextel Cup garage is that some of the drivers that fans think have the worst personalities are actually the nicest guys.
That’s something I learned very quickly after being around Tony Stewart, most especially when it was away from the racetrack. Other guys I would say that fall into that category would include Robby Gordon, Jimmy Spencer and brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch.
At the same time, some of the guys that people think are the nicest out there are really the ones with personalities as welcoming as a tire iron to the forehead.
Often when people ask the old “what’s he really like” question, Waltrip’s name comes up. I always get a kick out of it because people truly have hard time believing that the smiley faced Waltrip that they see on TV is any different when the camera’s go off.
And oh yes is he is, very very different.
I’ll use three instances to illustrate just how Waltrip operates.
Back a few years ago Thompson International Speedway held its first Nextel Cup driver’s night and Waltrip, along with former Thompson regular Steve Park, were the guests of honor.
Park, who was well known at the track and still friends with many around, couldn’t have been more gracious. And Waltrip, who by the way was getting paid to make an appearance, couldn’t have been more cranky. But it was on this night that I got to see for the first time how it worked with him. Before the event Waltrip met with the media on hand and when the local TV camera crew shined its light it was like they hit the on switch on the back of Waltrip’s head. The smile lit up the room, jokes flew, Mr. Happy was having a great time. The minute the camera light went off and Waltrip was left with a group of print reporters, well, he couldn’t get done fast enough and he made that point very clear. And oddly, just a few minutes later, the guy so unwilling to talk for five minutes to the guys holding notebooks, was again Mr. Personality when he was put in front of the fans. Paging Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde is on the phone.
A year later I was at Pocono Raceway combing the garage on a Friday afternoon before that weekend’s Nextel Cup race at the track. I was working on a few stories to advance the upcoming Nextel Cup event at New Hampshire International Speedway and Friday was the best time to talk to drivers in the garage. With little in the way of obligations between practice and qualifying, most drivers were gracious and accommodating, as is usually the case, when it came to answering a few questions about various topics.
Then I arrived at Waltrip’s hauler where he was sitting in a director’s chair with a bottle of water in his hand. I walked up to him, introduced myself and asked him if I could ask him a few questions. The immediate response was ‘No, I’ve got to go to a meeting right now.’ He got up and walked into the back of the hauler. I walked away and about three minutes later walked back by the hauler only to see Waltrip, again, sitting in the director’s chair with the water bottle in hand. Five minutes later, when I walked by again, there he was, sitting in the director’s chair, water bottle in hand. Pressing meeting eh Mr. Waltrip?
The next year I ran into Waltrip in the garage again on Friday afternoon. This time he was standing in the lane between the garage stalls and the haulers getting interviewed by a crew from a local TV station. Waltrip was having a blast chatting up the young blonde reporter interviewing him, putting his arm around her and flirting like a school boy at recess. It was hilarious to watch. A few other print reporters circled around ready to ask some questions. But the moment young Ms. Blonde’s camera man shut off so did Waltrip. One of the reporters asked if Waltrip could answer a few questions, ‘No’ he said, ‘Gotta get to a meeting.’
Five minutes later guess where Mr. Flirty was? Sitting in the director’s chair, bottle of water in hand, taking care of that “meeting.”
Bet those meetings with Toyota officials have been a whole bunch of fun lately for Waltrip.
Karma stinks huh Michael?
Written by Shawn Courchesne , The Backstretch
