In less than two weeks – September 18, 2005, to be exact – NASCAR will “celebrate” (and we say that very loosely) the 20th anniversary of one of the wildest confrontations that the sport has ever seen take place at New Hampshire International Speedway (now New Hampshire Motor Speedway).
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NASCAR has seen countless episodes of road rage or drivers pushing the car in front of them out of the way to take the checkered flag – Dale Earnhardt was arguably the best at the bump and run – but this one in the Sylvania 300 NASCAR Cup race was one for the history books.
Michael Waltrip and Robby Gordon had been jousting with each other for position for several laps. Gordon got into Waltrip, which Gordon later claimed at the time was an accident, and Waltrip retaliated, intentionally wrecking Gordon’s car by sending him head-on into the retaining wall.
As Waltrip went by Gordon’s mangled on the following lap, Gordon tried to retaliate by throwing his car into reverse – but missed Waltrip, who likely had a smile on his face.
But Gordon wasn’t through. On Waltrip’s next go-round on the one-mile flat track, Gordon walked into the middle of the backstretch, causing several cars to dodge and avoid him – thankfully, the race was under caution, keeping cars slowed down – then took off his helmet and threw it at Waltrip’s car.
It was an awkward throw from a guy who previously played a lot of baseball growing up, and it bounced off the door of Waltrip’s car.
Before he did the dastardly deed, Gordon was foolish enough to say over his team radio, “NASCAR, I hope you’re listening. I will pay Michael Waltrip back.”
At just about the same time, Waltrip came over his team radio and quipped, “Well that was just rude. It was his fault.”
When asked how he reacted to and tried to avoid Gordon’s wayward throw, Waltrip later told the TV broadcast, “I ain’t no fool. I never had that happen to be before. So I decided I would just mash the gas and duck and hope for the best.”
But their war of words wasn’t over yet.
Gordon’s Mistake No. 2: Calling Out Waltrip On The Air — and Another Fine
Interviewed afterward on the broadcast, Gordon torched Waltrip: “You know Michael, everyone thinks Michael is this good guy. He’s not the good guy like he acts he is. The caution was out and he wrecked me and he’s a piece of sh*t.”
Not only was Gordon, who was a driver-owner, out a six-figure race car from the crash, he subsequently was fined $35,000 for throwing his helmet (as well as under a caution period), plus another $10,000 for his chiding NASCAR over his team radio (although some reports claim Gordon’s total penalty was as much as $60,000).
Wait, there’s more: Gordon was also placed on suspension for the remainder of the season and was docked 50 championship points, but that didn’t mean much as he finished the season 37th.
Earlier this year, Waltrip was asked if he recalled much about the incident. His memory was crystal clear, as if it happened just a day or two previously, rather than 20 years earlier.
“We were racing hard and Robby kind of ran me up the racetrack and it made me mad,” Waltrip recalled. “And so, as we came off the corner, after he used me up, I crashed him. Rightfully so, he was pissed because he owned his car and it was his money that I wrecked.
“I was wrong, I shouldn’t have reacted like that. While he used me up, he didn’t wreck me. I got real mad and I wrecked him. And so he threw his helmet at me. That was my fault.”
With the wreck knocking his car out of commission, Gordon ultimately finished 37th, Waltrip finished 15th, and Ryan Newman won.
Gordon Mistake No. 3: Second Verse, Same As the First, Nearly 2 Years Later
While Gordon was conciliatory in his apology to both Waltrip and NASCAR, the lesson he learned was short-lived: less than two years later, he intentionally wrecked Marcos Ambrose in a Busch Series race in Montreal, depriving Ambrose of his first NASCAR win.
In an even more humorous incident than the episode with Waltrip, Gordon “celebrated” what he said was his win rightly so in that race, even trying to drive into victory lane, but was stopped by NASCAR officials.
The only problem with Gordon’s jubilation for having “won” was that NASCAR ruled his last two laps didn’t count because of the Ambrose wreck, costing Gordon what would have been an assured second place finish, then relegated to 13th, and then even had that finish disqualified.
In a sense, it was second verse, same as the first for Gordon, as just like New Hampshire, he was again fined $35,000 and placed on probation for the remainder of the season.
