NASCAR is famous for two things, really: fistfights and crashes. Fisticuffs were the reason why NASCAR even got national attention, when a large snowed-in audience got to watch Bobby and Donnie Allison take on Cale Yarborough, but the crashes were something else entirely. Fights are one thing, but man and metal in a collision at speeds at or near 200 miles an hour aren’t going to be a “walk it off” kind of deal. Even with the kind of roll caging that is installed into the cars, a good crash will ring your bell like you wouldn’t believe.
This is 1990 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The car you are watching is #30, the Kool-Aid-sponsored Pontiac Grand Prix of Michael Waltrip. During the Budwieser 250 Grand National race, Waltrip mixed it up with #59, Robert Pressley, on lap 170. This got Waltrip’s car loose enough that it plowed straight on through a catch fence and into the concrete wall of the track at a speed estimated to be somewhere around 110-120 miles an hour. The impact, twenty-five years later, is as stunning as it was the day it occurred: the Grand Prix basically explodes into three main pieces. The right-front suspension and some of the cage stayed right at the abutment. The powertrain, a good portion of the floor, and more suspension components went flying down the track, and in a mangled mass that wound up near the bottom of the turn was Michael Waltrip, knocked out for a few seconds and with a couple of bruises, but otherwise no worse for the wear. To him, he was just puzzled, wondering where the rest of the car went. To outsiders, however, the guess was the he was either grievously injured or dead. Watch what happened for yourself, because words only go so far to explain the violence of this crash:
wow…..never seen that footage before… that is just nuts. How in hell does a person survive that?? they should build regular road cars as strong… you’d reduce the road toll by 90 %
I remember watching that race live and thought for sure he was gone after that crash. Amazing he was OK.
That must have only been tacked together?