Michael Waltrip is one of a few well known race car drivers who owns and drives his own vehicle in NASCAR. Michael Waltrip is also a team owner and owns the Michael Waltrip Racing team. The 44 year old Michael Waltrip was born in Kentucky in 1963 and is the younger brother of retired NASCAR Champion, Darrell Waltrip. The younger Waltrip is the man behind the #55 Toyota Camry and recently placed 44th in the 2007 NASCAR Nextel Cup standings.
The Michael Waltrip Racing team was actually formed only recently and is surrounded by controversies at this early stage. The team has had such problems as failing to qualify for certain races due to illegal uses of certain fuel additives and this kind of a problem produced quite a huge mess in the plans of the team. The Michael Waltrip Racing team had penalty points deducted from their racer points and owner points, had members of the team suspended indefinitely and had huge fines imposed on them along with such race penalties.
Aside from these team controversies, the team owner also gave the press a few field days with his behavior and some of the events that came to pass while his racing team was still trying to get itself on its feet. Michael Waltrip was in a car accident due to his falling asleep behind the wheel of his non-racing vehicle and was charged with reckless driving for the incident. Another controversy that involved Michael Waltrip was the one where he lost his temper and punched a fellow driver in the face. This did not happen only once but twice and with different drivers. These hot-headed episodes all happened before the racing team was put up and hopefully such temper tantrums won't destroy the team he invested in.
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