Waltrip in the wrong place at Daytona this time

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Unbendingly patient, aggressive only when he had to be, nobody mastered the devilish details of the Daytona 500 better than Michael Waltrip over the past three years.

On Sunday, though, the two-time champion misplaced his knack for being in the right place at the right time on NASCAR's most famous track. He was the most notable victim of an ugly crash that knocked him out of the race before the halfway point.

Waltrip finished 38th, completing just 70 of 200 laps of the race won by teammate, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

"I guess you take the good with the bad," Waltrip said. "Daytona's just a tough race."

He was the second car hit in a three-wide chain reaction that started when Johnny Sauter nudged Brian Vickers. Vickers moved into Waltrip, sending him into the wall, then back down the track, where his No. 15 car got hit in the side by Robby Gordon, then went careening through the infield, parts of the vehicle breaking off as it rolled to a smoky stop.

It took emergency crews about 10 minutes to flip Waltrip's car right-side up, and extract him from the car -- a harrowing wait that Waltrip didn't think needed to last so long.

"I couldn't see where they were doing a whole lot of good to get me out," Waltrip said after leaving the infield care center a while later. "I was trying my best to explain to them what needed to happen. And what did they eventually do? They flipped it over and I got out. I hope that was a lesson learned."

Thus added another strange chapter to Waltrip's well-documented and strange history at Daytona.

Three years ago, Waltrip earned his first career victory, crossing the finish line moments after his friend and boss, Dale Earnhardt, died in a crash near turn four. It was, to say the least, a muted celebration.

Last year, Waltrip won again, but in a race abbreviated to 227 miles when a rainstorm hit. The race was declared official while Waltrip was sitting in the bleachers with his wife. Again, he was denied a true celebration in Victory Lane, although he insisted he felt every bit the champion.

There's no need for that argument this time.

Waltrip tried not to place blame for the accident, but he was clearly annoyed that Vickers, a rookie, had chosen to take a position between himself and Sauter to run three-wide.

"It was a little impatient and immature, but he saw other people doing it," Waltrip said.

Said Vickers: "I thought everyone was doing a good job. It all broke loose. This is my first time at Daytona, and I got the full skinny."

Waltrip is racing in the Busch series race Monday -- postponed from Saturday because of rain -- so he still has a chance to salvage something from the week.

But the Busch series certainly isn't the Daytona 500, and Waltrip has to wait another year to contend in a race he clearly knows how to win.

"I wasn't going to cut anyone off, I wasn't going to squeeze in a hole," he said. "I was taking my time, looking forward to sorting it out."

It's a strategy that had worked before, just not this time at Daytona.