To borrow a line from an old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” That pretty much describes Michael Waltrip’s career as a NASCAR team owner.
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After surviving and bouncing back from a scandal in the 2007 Daytona 500, when an illegal substance was found in the manifold of Waltrip’s Toyota, his team — Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR) — went on to win several races over the next six years.
Only to have one of the most egregious scandals that has ever rocked NASCAR – and once again involved MWR – take place on Sept. 7, 2013, in the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond International Raceway, the final race before the then-Sprint Cup playoffs.
The scandal quickly became known as “Spingate,” as Clint Bowyer’s seemingly normal-looking spin late in the race (eight laps to go in regulation time) quickly led NASCAR to level allegations against MWR for race-fixing, handed down several suspensions, issued the biggest fine in NASCAR history ($300,000) and the disqualification from the playoffs that year for the driver Bowyer’s spin was meant to help get into the playoffs, namely, Martin Truex Jr.
Bowyer claimed he had a flat tire that led to the spin, but NASCAR wasn’t having it, especially when officials heard in-car audio between Bowyer and crew chief Brian Pattie.
Pattie told Bowyer, “Is your arm starting to hurt? Must be hot in there,” which NASCAR perceived to be a signal to intentionally spin to help out teammate Truex.
Spingate led to the immediate withdrawal of NAPA as MWR’s primary sponsor and near-immediate dissolutions of other sponsorships, including Aaron’s Rentals, that were the lifeblood that kept MWR running.
While MWR took its lumps and tried to muster on for two more years, Spingate was just too much to come back from, unlike the 2007 episode, and Michael Waltrip Racing ultimately closed following the 2015 season.
First Came the Scandal of 2007
Here’s how Waltrip summarized the incidents that ultimately led to the end of MWR, as told by Waltrip to Kevin Harvick on Thursday’s edition of “Happy Hour:”
“We had a lot of success and everything was going along exactly like I hoped it would until they started the 2007 Cup season,” Waltrip somberly told Harvick. “We brought three Toyotas to run the 500, and I was so proud of what we built.
“We get there, and one of the crew guys and a buddy of his rubbed something in the intake manifold before qualifying. We couldn’t qualify, made the race, ran 30th. … I went and got in my bus, locked the door, and wouldn’t let anybody come near me because I was distraught, my baby, what I had built.
“10 years in the making, we had this huge, huge controversy deeming us (as) cheaters. That was really hard for me.
“There were 51 full-time, funded Cup teams for 43 spots, and we missed most of the races in 2007. Luckily, our relationship with (MWR’s two primary sponsors) NAPA and Aaron’s, they stuck with us and we were able to claw through 2007, made races in ’08, won races in ’09, and Clint (Bowyer) raced for a championship in ’12.”
And Then Came ‘Spingate’
After spending several years bringing MWR back to respectability after the 2007 cheating episode at Daytona, then came Richmond 2013.
“Just when you thought you had it all figured out and you’ve put together something that’s going to be special and you’re going to be one of the franchises that’s going to win a lot of races, that fiasco in Richmond went down,” Waltrip told Harvick.
“(NASCAR Chairman) Brian France came down on us real hard. Our sponsors left, and my partner, Rob (Kauffman), said we can’t continue on like this, and so the team closed down. That’s probably the most disappointing thing that’s happened in my career because I couldn’t overcome it.
“You lose 462 races and you win (Waltrip finally earned his first career Cup win in the 2001 Daytona 500, the same race his boss, Dale Earnhardt, was killed in a last-lap crash) and you overcome it. You don’t run well, you get better, you overcome it.”
But there would be no overcoming Spingate, no matter how hard he tried or how many sponsors he tried to reassure, and as Waltrip lamented to Harvick, he ultimately ‘lost (MWR) and it’s done and that’s hard to take.’
Even though it’s been nearly 12 years since the Richmond debacle – and Waltrip has gone on to success as a broadcaster – when he told the story to Harvick, it was still very clear the wounds remain as deep as they did back then … and likely will continue to remain as deep for the rest of his life.
