Darrell Waltrip
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Darrell Waltrip (born February 5, 1947 in Owensboro, Kentucky) is a NASCAR driver, active from 1972 to 2000, who won three Nextel Cup titles (1981, 1982, 1985), the 1989 Daytona 500, 1992 Southern 500, and is the undisputed Memorial Day major race record holder, having won an unprecedented five Coca-Cola 600 titles. His 84 Winston Cup race wins are the most by any driver in NASCAR's modern (post-1971) schedule format. His family, including his wife, the former Stephanie Rader, and daughters Jessica Leigh and Sarah Kaitlin, reside in Franklin, Tennessee.
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"Jaws"
An early racer in Kentucky, Waltrip's success led to him moving to Nashville, Tennessee, to race at the Music City Motorplex at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. There, he would aggressively promote the week's race when he appeared on a local television program promoting the speedway's races, and was not afraid to frequent the show when other competitors refused. Some of the notorious trash-talking on air included making fun of drivers such as Coo Coo Marlin (whose son Sterling, later raced at the circuit and is a two-time Daytona 500 winner), James "Flookie" Buford, whose nickname he would mock on air (James and son Joe Buford were both track champions — Joe Buford would beat Waltrip's record of 55 wins at the MCM), and was known for a swagger similar to the swagger of another famous Kentuckian at the time, Muhammad Ali.
While some fans didn't like it, it pleased track management that he was helping sell tickets, leading to extra paychecks from track operators for his promotional skills. He also embraced WSM radio host Ralph Emery during his early years, forming a bond which would be influential during his career, as Waltrip would later substitute for Emery in the 1980's on Emery's television show.
As he moved into the Cup level in the 1970's, his aggressive driving and outspoken style earned him the nickname "Jaws", a reference to the 1975 film about a killer shark. The nickname was given to Waltrip by rival Cale Yarborough in an interview after Waltrip crashed Yarborough out of a race. Waltrip himself preferred the nicknames "D.W." or "D-Dubya" but he did acknowledge Yarborough by displaying an inflatable toy shark in his pit at the next race. The nickname stuck after Waltrip made a now famous comment about one time rival Dale Earnhardt, in which he stated that he could say whatever he wanted about Dale and his team in the news because they "wouldn't be able to read it anyway".
At the heights of his NASCAR success in the early 1980s fans often booed Waltrip, but his wit and endearing silliness gradually won over the hearts of most of his critics. Once, as a crowd booed him in Victory Lane, Waltrip silenced the hostile audience by challenging them to "Boo if you love D.W." He also was able to please his sponsor, Mountain Dew, by noticing, "They were saying Dew!", making his sponsor stand up and be noticed.
Waltrip becomes a fan favorite
Waltrip's success with car owner Robert Glen Johnson, Jr. led to success with three national championships, but concerns grew inside his friends. Cortez Cooper, his pastor, became concerned about his involvement with Budweiser as a sponsor, and after parents complained of how he was helping create a bond of alcohol, fast cars, and success, he seriously considered changing teams, moving after the 1986 season to Hendrick Motorsports, with Procter & Gamble detergent Tide as his sponsor.
During 1986, Waltrip and Hendrick began their partnership in establishing a Honda and later (in 1994), a Volvo dealership in Franklin, Tennessee, both aligned with the Hendrick Automotive Group.
The image the sponsor wanted of the driver was a perfect fit, as Tide was perceived as a sponsor who could wash away Waltrip's dirty image. It worked.
By the time he won the 1989 Daytona 500, fans loudly cheered the child-like exuberance of his post-victory celebration as he was being interviewed by CBS pit reporter Mike Joy, shouting "I won the Daytona 500! I won the Daytona 500!" accompanied by a now-infamous "Ickey Shuffle" dance in Victory Lane.
The scene of his victory would be a lasting image of the race for many years, until his arch-rival Dale Earnhardt won the 500 in 1998.
Of all of Waltrip's 84 victories, it was his only NNCS victory at Daytona International Speedway, let alone the only Daytona 500, NASCAR's premier event. He won his fifth Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway that May, establishing a record, and preparing himself for a win in the one remaining major which had eluded him since his first race, the Heinz Southern 500 in Florence, SC, and a one million dollar bonus for winning three of the sport's four majors -- the Daytona 500, the Aaron's 499, Coca-Cola 600, and the Mountain Dew Southern 500 -- in a single season.
The pressure of both the bonus and Career Grand Slam (at Talladega, he had won the 1977 and 1982 Winston 500, which were his first and fourth career wins in majors) affected Waltrip badly, and he hit the wall early in the race and was never a contender.
In 1991, Waltrip formed his own team, "Darrell Waltrip Motorsports", but when he began struggling years later, he soon realized that he had made a mistake. The final blow came in 1998, when sponsor Speedblock failed to pay the bills, and Waltrip sold his team.
In July 1990, Waltrip would be seriously injured in a crash in practice for the Pepsi 400, ironically just a day before he was to celebrate his 500th start.
His final career win came in 1992, ironically in NASCAR's Florentine classic at Darlington, SC in the Mountain Dew Southern 500, his only win in NASCAR's fourth major, and making him the fourth (of six) drivers to clinch a Career Grand Slam by winning each of the four majors. Overall, he had nine wins in majors.
(After the Ferko lawsuit, NASCAR was forced to eliminate the Grand Slam by taking the Southern 500 off the schedule under terms of the lawsuit, which awarded Texas Motor Speedway a second race. Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff Gordon are the other drivers to win all four majors in their career.)
Waltrip was trailing Davey Allison with weather threatening late in the race. Allison, who had won the Daytona 500 and Winston 500 that season, and had won a year previously the Coca-Cola 600, was looking at winning the Mountain Dew Southern 500 and becoming the fourth driver to win a career Grand Slam, and a one million dollar bonus for winning three majors in a year. Allison's crew chief Larry McReynolds sent a runner to inspect the weather radar, and the runner informed him it looked good because of green on the map, and so Allison pitted on Lap 293, with just 74 laps (100 miles) remaining in the event. Waltrip took the lead, and when the rains came, NASCAR stopped the race on Lap 298, and it never finished. Despite never taking the checkered flag for the Southern 500, Waltrip had won the race as a rain-shortened event, and finished his career Grand Slam.
McReynolds scolded his runner afterwards. Ironically, Joy, McReynolds and Waltrip are broadcast partners today on Fox.
Waltrip is currently 3rd on the all time winners list for NASCAR behind Richard Petty with 200 wins, and David Pearson with 105. Waltrip however, is recognized as the post-1971 era leader in wins. (In 1971, NASCAR reduced the schedule where there could only be one race scheduled in any given week, unlike the past, where two or three races, including midweek races, could be held. Also races were set for a minimum of 250 miles, later cut to 300 kilometers.)
Presently
After his 2000 retirement, he signed with Fox to be one of two analysts on the network's NASCAR telecasts.
Waltrip's controversial style led to controversy early in his broadcasting career. A week after Dale Earnhardt was killed at Daytona, Waltrip interviewed NASCAR President Mike Helton for a pre-race segment during the broadcast at Rockingham, NC. The former driver knew four deaths in the past ten months caused by basal skull fractures was too much, and was asking why. Helton's responses irritated Waltrip, who was referred by one magazine as "acting a lot more like the next Mike Wallace (of 60 Minutes) than the next John Madden."
He then pushed for mandatory head-and-neck restraints, and two weeks later, demonstrated the device during the broadcast in Atlanta Motor Speedway, explaining the device. Seven months later, NASCAR mandated the devices after a crash during an ARCA Re/Max Series race held after qualifying for the UAW-GM Quality 500 killed a driver.
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As the cars take the green flag to start each race, Waltrip shouts "Boogity Boogity Boogity!", a meaningless phrase that has become his trademark in recent years. (The phrase appears in the 1960 doo wop parody "Who Put The Bomp" by Barry Mann.)
His younger brother Michael Waltrip is currently a top NASCAR driver, and winner of the Daytona 500 in 2001 (the race in which Dale Earnhardt was killed in a crash) and 2003. He and Earnhardt were close friends, and the finish of the 2001 race was an obviously emotional one for him, as he was torn between joy over seeing his brother take the flag and concern over Earnhardt's condition.
He currently appears in advertisements for Toyota (which he fields trucks in the Craftsman Truck Series, where driver David Reutimann won in August 2005) and for Aaron's alongside his brother, Michael.
He was voted one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998 and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2005.
Books
Waltrip has also been successful in the publishing field.
In 1994, he was featured as the cover story in Guideposts, which was also featured during his final race in 2000.
In 2003, he signed a deal with Pearson plc's Penguin imprint to release his autobiography, written with Jade Gurss.
The biography, DW: A Lifetime Going Around in Circles was a New York Times best-seller when released around the 2004 Daytona 500.
In May 2004, Waltrip became the second sports figure to be featured in former NBA player and basketball coach Jay Carty's One-on-One series of devotional books. Darrell Waltrip One-on-One: The Faith that Took Him to the Finish Line is a sixty-day devotional book featuring Waltrip's stories and how they can relate to faith, and Carty's devotionals. (The series also features John Wooden and Mike Singletary.)
