It Happens To The Best Of Us
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 12:19pm CDT
By Luke, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
OK, so you’ve read the headlines about Mikey’s little incident by now. Unless of course, as Marc says, you’ve been vacationing with Martha. So we won’t delve into the specifics, or why it took so long for the Highway Patrol to show back up after trying the first time. Another story, another time.
The question is, what does this mean for Michael personally, and what does this mean for Michael Waltrip Racing.
This will depend on where you sit, and a personal reflection or opinion. You should make your own determination on it.
If you hate Toyota, Waltrip, both, or more then you’re going to be more harsh in your opinion. You’ll criticize his actions, and rip the reports apart to find fault and point fingers.
From the other standpoint, you almost empathize with the guy and see this as adding insult to injury. No pun intended, granted the injuries [reported] were very minor. You’ll most likely feel for Michael, and wonder (again) just how much worse it can get.
Then, you may share our opinion of it.
Let’s look at the situation. Here you have a guy that’s started up his own three car team, has big time sponsors, a former Cup Champion on your driver payroll, the so-called “flagship” team for a new manufacturer (like them or not), and yet hardly a thing to show for it.
You have a driver and “CEO” that’s probably been putting in 16 to 18 hour days and then some for a long time trying to make things work and get better. While there have been some positives, they do fail to outweigh the negatives.
So what could this latest “incident” be caused by? Sure, there are the literal actions which lead to the accident. However, the real contributing factor started long ago and finally culminated into a resulting sleep depraved person who nodded off at the wheel.
Accidents happen to the best of us. If you say one hasn’t happened to you, I’ll call shenanigans.
The problem and difference is, when it happened to you you probably weren’t of a “celebrity” status and it wasn’t blasted all over the media. If it can happen to Brian France, it can happen to anybody. There are no favorites in this game.
The question is, why run home vice calling the fuzz? Well, there may be several answers to that. I’ll go with the no harm, no foul method, and add in the “fear” of it being blown out of proportion. If it were me, and living out where I do, had a similar thing happened I probably would have finished walking down the section to the house too. That’s just how things happen out in the country. Unless you damage someone else’s stuff, of course. The you get the truck, tractor, or whatever and drag it home and call a body shop the next day.
Is it technically the right thing to do? By definition probably not. But it happens, and more times than you’ll ever find out about too.
So the next thing you have to look at, is that being a person of “celebrity” status and a role model position as well, did he do the right thing? Had the authorities been called immediately upon arriving at the premises, perhaps. Taking a short stroll, as compared to the usual marathon distance or even a 5k, may have given him the time to personally reflect on the stupidity of the actions leading up to the incident. Granted, I’m sure that Nextel phone wasn’t far away, but could the reason for not calling have been born out of fear? The fear of exactly what is happening now across the media. Welcome to the Shriner’s MWR Traveling Circus, Act III.
But does this hurt or tarnish Michael, or MWR? Some will try to, some will try salvage operations, and some will simply go, “Damn, talk about bad luck!”
To be honest, I believe that the only effect of this is a personal one. It’s not related to the team or business. It’s him personally, and personally facing an embarrassing moment and another kick from the President of the Luck Bank when Michael is down. Trying to avoid that, he made a personal error, because potentially the reward outweighed the risk.
Granted, we don’t have all the facts yet. We may never have them to pick apart and analyze. However, before placing personal judgment, how about taking that walk from the scene to the house in his shoes first.
Filed Under: Drivers, Michael Waltrip, Nascar, Nextel Cup
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