All Star Moments: 1996 – Mikey Wins
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| Michael Waltrip celebrates in Victory Lane |
| Charlotte Motor Speedway |
For the better part of 30 years, the NASCAR Sprint All Star Race has been a showcase of the best NASCAR has to offer – the best drivers, the best out crews, the best teams – battling it out for the privilege of being the best of the best.
Making into the field for the race meant you were a star in the sport – among the best 20 stock car drivers in the country, but winning the All Star Race made you a legend.
And for drivers who never thought they'd even have a shot at making the All Star Race, winning in the all-star event changed their careers forever.
For Michael Waltrip, known best as the little brother of three-time Cup Champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip, taking the checkered flag in the 1996 event then known as "The Winston Select" was a dream come true; an amazing come-from-behind victory that could only have been possible in the All Star Race.
A middle-of-the-pack driver for much of his career, Waltrip had already raised the bar for futility since coming into the Cup Series in 1986, going more than 11 years – 309 career starts – without a single points-paying victory. His biggest claim to fame besides being Darrell Waltrip's little brother, was walking away from a crash at Bristol Motor Speedway in 1990 that literally tore his car in half.
[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"] Since 1990, Waltrip had enjoyed some of the best success of his career driving for Bahari Racing, scoring his first career pole position as well five top-five finishes during the 1990 season. In 1991, he won his first Cup event, the Winston Open – a preliminary race run prior to The Winston where the winner advances to the all-star event.
Although Waltrip was a long shot to even be eligible for the All Star Race let alone win one, he was no stranger to the event,having made the show three times previously- winning the Winston Open in 1991 – finishing sixth in The Winston- and again in 1992.
For the 1993 edition of the race, only 15 cars made up the field for The Winston, so the top five finishers from the Winston Open transferred to the big show to pad the field to 20 entries. Waltrip finished fourth in the Open, and wound up crashing out in The Winston, finishing 18th.
His two Winston Open wins were the only Cup victories of Waltrip's career up to that points, and both were non-points events.
At the start of the 1996 season, Waltrip was in his first season driving the iconic no. 21 Ford for legendary Wood Brothers race team, who were searching for their first victory since 1992.
Waltrip's initial success with the Wood Brothers was fleeting. After a 10th-place showing in the season-opening Daytona 500, Waltrip had tallied just one top-five finish and was 14th in points heading in the all-star race weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Waltrip was among 31 entries for the "Winston Select Open" held on May 18, 1996 just a few hours before the main event. He qualified 6thfor the 50-lap event, and quickly moved into the top five with Johnny Benson dogging him for the fifth and final transfer spot. Benson would eventually fall back out of contention as Waltrip crossed the line fifth behind race lead Jimmy Spencer to transfer to his fourth All Star Race.
Waltrip would start dead last in the opening 30-lap segment but would work his way to finish tenth behind segment winner Dale Jarrett. During the intermission, the field was inverted, giving the front row to Harry Gant and Darrell Waltrip while Michael Waltrip restarted 10th.
In the second segment, Waltrip worked the low side of the track and powered his way into the top five, finishing the 30-lap segment in fourth behind Dale Earnhardt, who fought his way back from the ninth spot to beat Terry Labonte for the segment victory.
In the final 10-lap segment, Earnhardt and Labonte battled side by side for the first lap with Michael Waltrip running third.
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| Waltrip passes Earnhardt and Labonte to take the lead |
Coming into turns one and two on the second lap, Earnhardt drifted high into Labonte, knocking Labonte from the top spot and allowing Michael Waltrip to sneak by in the inside to take the lead.
Michael Waltrip quickly pulled away as Rusty Wallace moved into second but wasn't able to make up any ground on the no. 21 Ford. The remaining eight laps went caution free as Michael Waltrip went on to win the race by nearly half-a-straightaway, becoming the first driver to transfer into the All Star Race and win it.
"That pass is probably one of my favorite single memories of racing because of the importance of it and who I passed," Waltrip said. "Then I ran like seven or eight of the most intense laps of my career because I had Rusty Wallace chasing me down and I had to be perfect. I had to drive out the windshield and not worry about what was going on in my mirror."
Waltrip's $211,000 bonus was the Wood Brothers largest payday at the time, and would go down as the teams only win in the All Star Race to date.
Although Waltrip was the first to accomplish the feat, he wasn't the last. In 2002, rookie Ryan Newman finished third in the preliminary race and went on to win the All Star Race, while Kasey Kahne won the 2008 event after winning the fan vote and transferring into the main event.
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| Waltrip's victory in the 1996 All Star Race was the Wood Brothers biggest payday at the time |
| Charlotte Motor Speedway |
Waltrip was never able to secure another win during his tenure for the Wood Brothers, who would later go to victory lane with Elliott Sadler at Bristol in 2001 and Trevor Bayne at Daytona in 2011.
Waltrip himself would finally get in first official Cup victory by winning the 2001 Daytona 500 driving a car owned by Dale Earnhardt, who would tragically lose his life in a crash on the final lap, protecting Waltrip's lead. Waltrip would later go onto form his own race team, Michael Waltrip Racing, helping to bring Toyota into NASCAR.
For that fleeting moment, though, in May 1996, Michael Waltrip had gone from a middle-of-the-pack long-shot driver to a superstar driver in just a single night, with a single victory -an All Star victory.
"It's really fun to say you've won the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race," said Waltrip, reminiscing his All Star win. "Whether people are in NASCAR or not they understand what a big night an All-Star event is. I like to walk by my trophy and remember that special feeling of accomplishment. It was the first big race I'd won in Cup. That makes it even more special. To be able to be called a former All-Star winner 20 years later, it's still a great sound."
Special thanks to Jonathan Coleman and the PR Staff at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and to Brandon Reed for their contributions to this article.
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