tool name
closeWaltrip gives his side of story
DAVID POOLE, dpoole@charlotteobserver.com
Wednesday, Apr. 11, 2007
Michael Waltrip remembers turning onto a road leading toward his house early Saturday morning and thinking how glad he was to be almost home.
“Then, the first thing I remember after that was hearing gravel beating on the car,” Waltrip said Wednesday of the incident in which he was cited for reckless driving and for failing to notify authorities in a timely manner. “When I woke up or snapped out of it or whatever, the car was sideways and I didn’t know what I was going to hit.”
What he hit was a utility pole alongside Molly’s Backbone Road near Sherrill’s Ford, causing the Nextel Cup driver and team owner to roll over in his 2006 Toyota Land Cruiser.
Waltrip said he feels very fortunate he wasn’t injured beyond cuts, scrapes and scratches, but it was what he did – or didn’t do – afterward that has him in a jam.
Saying he didn’t know that even though his vehicle was the only one involved he was still required him to report the incident and remain at the scene until law enforcement arrived, Waltrip walked less than a mile to his home after climbing out of the wreckage.
“I got out and someone had pulled up and said she would call 911,” said Waltrip, who said he was in his way home from Charlotte when the wreck occurred. “I said that I was fine, and I just decided to go home and then figure out what to do.”
The crash was reported, however, and trooper B.L. Buchanan arrived at the scene shortly before 2 a.m. Buchanan said the witness recognized Waltrip. Buchanan knew Waltrip lived nearby and went to Waltrip’s home around 2:30 but got no response at the door. He went back to the wreck, had the vehicle towed and went off duty at 5 a.m.
Waltrip said he went to the pool house to take a shower after the wreck and didn’t know the trooper had come to the house that night. Waltrip’s wife, Buffy, in Charleston for the weekend, was called about the incident and called Waltrip Saturday morning to tell him he needed to contact Buchanan when the trooper came back on duty at 8 p.m.
Buchanan said he was unable to make any determination about whether alcohol was involved because of the lapse of time between the wreck and when he talked to Waltrip. “That’s why the law requires you to remain there at the scene,” he said.
But Waltrip insists that he did not go home to avoid being tested for intoxication.
“Alcohol was not a factor at all in my accident,” he said. “I didn’t go home to avoid anything. I just went there trying to figure out what to do.”
It has been a difficult start to 2007 for Waltrip, whose Michael Waltrip Racing team fields three cars in the Nextel Cup Series. The No. 55 team, for which Waltrip also drives as well as owns, was penalized heavily for rules violations found before Daytona 500 qualifying. Waltrip said he considered withdrawing from the qualifying races, but earned his way into the 500. Since then, however, he has failed to qualify for another Cup race.
“At Daytona I was a sad little beaten up puppy,” he said of the penalties stemming from the presence of a foreign substance in the intake manifold of his car’s engine. “I couldn’t understand how I happened.
“But in this incident, I just feel stupid. I feel like an idiot because this one is all me.”