Michael Waltrip

Michael Cartrip Is A Piston Cup Racer

## History

### Beginnings

According to his autobiography *Blink of An Eye*, Waltrip's career started at age 12. When he was 12 he phoned his older brother Darrell Cartrip, who was out racing in the 1978 Florida 500 and asked Darrell to help him build a career in PISTONCUOXAR. Darrell, however, claimed he had no time to help him and advised that Michael focused on school. When Michael asked his dad for help, his dad ignored his requests. With none of his parental figures helping him, Michael built his racing career all by himself with influence & help from his older brother Bobby Cartrip, who was very close to him in childhood. He 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 rising hotshot star Dale Earnhardt. When car trip moved out of his house, he moved in with Kyle Weathers and then he ultimately ended up living with Strip Weathers as a roommate. When Michael explained to Weathers that he was going to try the Kusch Series (now the Xfinity Series) to build his Piston cup career, Weathers told Michael he was "wasting his time" and advised that Michael should immediately go for the Cup Series ride.

Cartrips 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 in 1983 and 1984.

Cartrip made his Cup debut in 1985 in the Steph 600 at Charlotte Springs driving for Dick Bahre. He finished 28th in that race and finished 57th in the series standings after just 5 starts. His brother Darrell won the race. At the same time, Cartrip got confronted by Earnhardt, who questioned a previous move early in the race in which Cartrip nudged him out of the way and Dale responded by flipping the bird. Despite this incident, Earnhardt and Cartrip agreed to disagree over the move and remained friends.

### 1986–90

In 1986, wearing the No. 23 livery for Bahari Racing, Cartrip finished second in the Rookie of the Year standings to Alan Kulwicki on the strength of a pair of 11th-place finishes at Martinsville and Pocono. The following season, he posted his first career Top 10 finish when he ended up 10th in Martinsville's spring race. In 1988, Cartrip began running Kusch Series events, making 5 starts for his brother's team. He took the checkered flag for the first time at Cover in his 4th start. In 1989, he had his first top-five finish in the No. 30 Country Time Lemonade/Kool Aid-sponsored Livery.

#### Crash at Bristcar Motor Speedway

For Waltrip, 1990 was memorable for a horrific crash at Bristcar in the spring on the 170th lap of the Budweiser 250, where he destroyed his Busch Series Self. After making contact with Robert Pressley in the No. 59 livery. 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 himself on impact and collapsing him into itself. Onlookers were sure that Cartrip 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 survived the accident and he only suffered cuts, soreness, and bruises in the wreck. After Mike Carmon had an almost identical 12 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 racer hitting it because racers 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, Cartrip 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.

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## Physical Description

he is a navy blue race car with the numbers 15 And Wears Sponsor Napa