NASCAR cameramen have one of the riskiest jobs in the sports business. Only a few weeks ago, we saw Shane van Gisbergen coming dangerously close to hitting the cameraman at Chicago. Unfortunately, this is nothing new in the world of NASCAR.
Michael Waltrip also had a close call with a cameraman early in his career. The two-time Daytona 500 winner spun out at Indianapolis Raceway Park and nearly struck a member of the broadcast team.
Looking Back at Michael Waltrip’s Terrifying Near-Miss With NASCAR Cameraman
Waltrip was involved in some nasty crashes throughout his career. The one we will discuss today is not the most devastating one he suffered, but it could have been a lot worse.
These days, drivers perfect their craft in the Truck and Xfinity Series before making the jump to the Cup Series. Waltrip, however, made his NASCAR debut in the premier division of the sport. He made his Busch Series debut, the predecessor of the Xfinity Series, in 1988.
The Kentucky man enjoyed far more success in the Busch Series than in Cup. He finished his career with only four Cup wins, and his first win came 16 years after his first race. In the Busch Series, however, he racked up 11 wins in 279 starts.
On July 31, 1993, he started the Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park for Bahari’ Racing in the team’s No.30 Pontiac. He couldn’t finish the race, and narrowly avoided what could have been a serious accident.
A collision with Jeff Burton sent Waltrip spinning into the infield, where he narrowly missed hitting a cameraman. While the cameraman escaped unscathed, he was sprayed with dirt from Waltrip’s spinning tires.
When Bristol Nearly Took Out Waltrip
The abovementioned incident was nothing compared to whatWaltrip endured four years earlier. At Bristol, he emerged from a car that had been ripped in half. It was nothing short of a miracle that he survived the brutal crash.
Coming out of Turn 2, Waltrip’s Pontiac clipped a metal gate, swinging it open just enough for the car to crash head-on into the abutment on the passenger side.
The impact shredded the vehicle, sending debris flying across the track. Miraculously, trailing cars had just enough distance to dodge the wreck and avoid a pile-up.
“I’m like, ‘I’m fine. What’s wrong with you all?’,” Waltrip recalled the crash later. “They said, ‘Do you see your feet?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, they’re still on me.’ They’re like, ‘Your feet are on the track and your steering wheel isn’t there anymore.’ I was like, ‘I’m not hurt.’”
“When I got to the hotel that night and watched the replay on the news, I understood what all the fuss was about. It was unbelievable I was able to walk away.”
Waltrip later earned two victories at Bristol, in 1993 and 2003. After his ’93 win, he honored 1992 Cup Series champion Alan Kulwicki with a “Polish victory lap.”