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Sprint Cup
CUP: Waltrip Reflects On Phoenix Incident
The owner of the Clint Bowyer car that was wrecked by Jeff Gordon talks with Adam Alexander on ‘NASCAR’s Race Hub.’
Team owner Michael Waltrip speaks about how emotions can take over during the pressure of a competitive event. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Michael Waltrip, owner of Michael Waltrip Racing and the No. 15 Toyota of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Clint Bowyer, further reflected on the incident from this past weekend’s race at Phoenix International Raceway.
The now well-documented accident between Bowyer and four-time champion Jeff Gordon resulted in multiple penalties and lingering consternation. Waltrip spoke with NASCAR Race Hub’s Adam Alexander on his thoughts three days after.
Adam Alexander: Your thoughts on how things happened and transpired, and what was said, and maybe how you feel now.
Michael Waltrip: I was in shock, really, when it happened. I could not believe that Jeff (Gordon) did that because we are racing for a championship. We’re thinking, we can go to Miami with the chance to win a championship. To have that taken away, it was just really hard to accept. I probably won’t ever understand how a champion could affect the championship battle.
Alexander: Have you been able to put in perspective it all, now that you have had a few days (to think about) what happened? There was a lot of emotion that came out on Sunday. Do you feel any different about it now, than you did then?
Waltrip: You can certainly do things better if you look back and figure out the mistakes you made. I wish we would have been able to contain our boys; they just let their emotion get the best of them. In sports, though, you have bench-clearing brawls occasionally, and that was one of those. No one was hurt. It’s kind of code among the drivers – if I (get) hit (by) you, I’ll hit you back – then we’re even. Clint bumped Jeff, and Jeff tried to wreck him in turn three, wrecked himself; and then waited for him. Then of course, the rest is history as they say.
Alexander: Was the emotion on Sunday all about that it wrecked the championship?
Waltrip: Yeah, definitely. We had put ourselves in a position to be champions. For a young organization to taste that, it was pretty awesome to feel. If you just listen to the radio and hear how intense it is, and if you think about it, we’ve really never had anything to fight for here. Heck, you get a chance for a championship; that was uncharted territory for us. We hadn’t been there before, so we didn’t have the managers – me – we didn’t have a ‘don’t go fight’ policy. I thought you knew better than that, but we had never really stated that. I learned another thing too that jack men and tire changers; we see their athleticism when they go over the wall. Well, when they took off running, I took off running with them, when I got there, they were already engaged. They were faster than me. It all happened so quickly. We obviously met about what happened and understand that that’s not acceptable behavior, and it won’t happen again.
Alexander: The penalties that came out by NASCAR. You feel good about that? Are they fair?
Waltrip: I think so. The penalty that they issued to us (crew chief Brian Pattie) I think was fair. Brian has to have control of his team, and temporarily, we lost that control. I accept that penalty. What they did on the other side seems appropriate. I might have fined him (Jeff) twice as many points, and not parked him though… I’m a big NASCAR fan, a fan of the sport, so I want Jeff Gordon racing. He’s a four-time champion. I like Jeff Gordon on the race track – most of the time.
I think I see it from many different angles because I get to do a little TV, I get to drive every now and then, and when I look at something, I don’t take off one hat and put on another. I think I look at things subjectively. I think I have an unbiased opinion on who does what, and how it all works, but there are obviously some folks at mom’s home in the basement on Twitter that think they know more about it than I do, or you do. But that’s part of it as well.
The now well-documented accident between Bowyer and four-time champion Jeff Gordon resulted in multiple penalties and lingering consternation. Waltrip spoke with NASCAR Race Hub’s Adam Alexander on his thoughts three days after.
Adam Alexander: Your thoughts on how things happened and transpired, and what was said, and maybe how you feel now.
Michael Waltrip: I was in shock, really, when it happened. I could not believe that Jeff (Gordon) did that because we are racing for a championship. We’re thinking, we can go to Miami with the chance to win a championship. To have that taken away, it was just really hard to accept. I probably won’t ever understand how a champion could affect the championship battle.
Alexander: Have you been able to put in perspective it all, now that you have had a few days (to think about) what happened? There was a lot of emotion that came out on Sunday. Do you feel any different about it now, than you did then?
Waltrip: You can certainly do things better if you look back and figure out the mistakes you made. I wish we would have been able to contain our boys; they just let their emotion get the best of them. In sports, though, you have bench-clearing brawls occasionally, and that was one of those. No one was hurt. It’s kind of code among the drivers – if I (get) hit (by) you, I’ll hit you back – then we’re even. Clint bumped Jeff, and Jeff tried to wreck him in turn three, wrecked himself; and then waited for him. Then of course, the rest is history as they say.
Alexander: Was the emotion on Sunday all about that it wrecked the championship?
Waltrip: Yeah, definitely. We had put ourselves in a position to be champions. For a young organization to taste that, it was pretty awesome to feel. If you just listen to the radio and hear how intense it is, and if you think about it, we’ve really never had anything to fight for here. Heck, you get a chance for a championship; that was uncharted territory for us. We hadn’t been there before, so we didn’t have the managers – me – we didn’t have a ‘don’t go fight’ policy. I thought you knew better than that, but we had never really stated that. I learned another thing too that jack men and tire changers; we see their athleticism when they go over the wall. Well, when they took off running, I took off running with them, when I got there, they were already engaged. They were faster than me. It all happened so quickly. We obviously met about what happened and understand that that’s not acceptable behavior, and it won’t happen again.
Alexander: The penalties that came out by NASCAR. You feel good about that? Are they fair?
Waltrip: I think so. The penalty that they issued to us (crew chief Brian Pattie) I think was fair. Brian has to have control of his team, and temporarily, we lost that control. I accept that penalty. What they did on the other side seems appropriate. I might have fined him (Jeff) twice as many points, and not parked him though… I’m a big NASCAR fan, a fan of the sport, so I want Jeff Gordon racing. He’s a four-time champion. I like Jeff Gordon on the race track – most of the time.
I think I see it from many different angles because I get to do a little TV, I get to drive every now and then, and when I look at something, I don’t take off one hat and put on another. I think I look at things subjectively. I think I have an unbiased opinion on who does what, and how it all works, but there are obviously some folks at mom’s home in the basement on Twitter that think they know more about it than I do, or you do. But that’s part of it as well.
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