Michael Waltrip's Year Gets Worse

Michael Waltrip hasn't qualified for a race since the Daytona 500 (and even then he was docked 100 points for rules violations), his two other teams have struggled to make races, and Michael's year just got worse:

The two-time Daytona 500 champion was charged early Saturday morning with reckless driving and failure to report an accident after hitting a telephone pole and rolling his car on Molly's Backbone Road in Catawba County.

"I am really embarrassed about the accident, but I feel fortunate that I wasn't hurt," Waltrip said in a statement released by Michael Waltrip Racing. "For 25 years I have had a great driving record. I consider myself to be a courteous and safe driver on public roads.

"I never expected to fall asleep behind the wheel of a car."

Team officials said alcohol was not a factor and that alcohol was not mentioned on the ticket. They added that there has been no backlash from Waltrip's primary sponsor, NAPA, which has watched its driver fail to qualify for the past five Cup races....

The Highway Patrol told WSOC-TV in Charlotte that Waltrip was driving about 70 mph in a 50-mph zone when he went off the right side of the road on a curve around 1:50 a.m. on Saturday.

The car then traveled back across the pavement and slid off the left side of the road before striking a utility pole as it overturned and then came to a rest on its side.

A witness told state troopers that Waltrip crawled out of the car and left the scene. Police arrived to find an empty vehicle with blood in it. They went to Waltrip's home at 2:30 a.m., but nobody answered the door.

"He left the scene," Sgt. Brian Sharpe of the State Highway Patrol in Catawba County said. "We got the plate number, realized it was him and tried to locate him."

According to WSOC-TV, Waltrip was found at his home by a trooper at around 8 a.m. with scratches on his face and deep cuts on his finger.

He told the trooper that he fell asleep at the wheel driving from Charlotte to his home in Sherrills Ford, N.C.

All Michael has to do now is call somebody a "nappy-headed ho" and his year will be complete.