CUP: Darrell Waltrip’s Long Ride Ends In Hall

Sprint Cup

CUP: Darrell Waltrip’s Long Ride Ends In Hall

Darrell Waltrip was a revolutionary of sorts as he made a name for himself at NASCAR’s highest levels…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 16, 2012 Charlotte, NC

First In A Series

Forty years ago, when Darrell Waltrip stepped into NASCAR’s top series as a raw-boned kid from Kentucky, he did not project the lovable, sometimes goofy persona millions of racing fans now see on motorsports television.

Waltrip was an upstart, a fast-talking, hyper-active driver who knew exactly where he was going, thought he knew how to get there and wasn’t going to let anyone – including the giants of the sport – stand in his way.

He barked at crew chiefs. He rattled team owners. He irritated veteran drivers.

NASCAR had never seen anything quite like him, and it would be a while before they would again. He talked big, raced hard, ran through – and sometimes over – the competition, and steadily built himself a place at the sport’s top level.

He drove on to win 84 races, three Cup championships, almost $20 million and established himself as one of a handful of drivers who might be considered among the top five of all time.

Those accomplishments will be saluted at the highest level Friday night when Waltrip joins Cale Yarborough, Glen Wood, Dale Inman and the late Richie Evans as inductees in the third class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Charlotte, NC. SPEED will broadcast the induction Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. (ET).

Waltrip’s ride through the sport – particularly in the 1980s – made it clear that he would be a virtual lock for any motorsports hall of fame for which he might be eligible. Friday he marches into perhaps the biggest.

It all began for Waltrip at the Cup level at Talladega Superspeedway in 1972 as he hauled a No. 95 Mercury – sponsored by Terminal Transport, a company operated by his father-in-law – from his home in Owensboro, KY to Alabama to try to run with the big boys. He had been burning up short tracks in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Alabama hardly noticed his arrival.

“Stevie (his wife) and I and my little dog Charlie Brown got up in the cab of my old International Maxwell House Coffee truck – that was what on the side of the truck,” Waltrip remembered later. “I had bought it used in Owensboro. It was an old International truck. It was almost as pretty as the car.

“The car was two-tone brown, Terminal Transport, No. 95. … I went to Western Auto and bought some jackstands and some tools. I had eight tires and wheels and some jackstands and a little box of tools. It looked like I was going fishing.

“[I had] a pair of Hush Puppies I drove in and a uniform Goodyear had given me and a helmet I think Marty Robbins had given me. That was my famous start into Winston Cup racing.”

Darrell Waltrip stands with his Championship-winning No. 11 Mountain Dew Buick during the kick off of the final 50 days before the opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. (Photo: Getty Images)

Waltrip limped into the garage area during the race with a blown engine and finished 38th. Not an auspicious start.

Three years later, Waltrip had his first Cup win – at Nashville, TN. The victory came in his own car, but Waltrip’s talents earned the notice of team owner Bill Gardner, and Waltrip soon was driving the No. 88 Gatorade-sponsored cars owned by DiGard Racing.

Thus began a tenuous relationship that found Waltrip, even as he was winning races, in battles with various team members, including Gardner. Crew chiefs wandered in and out of the DiGard facility in Charlotte, NC as Waltrip notched 26 wins with the team.

Waltrip’s key car during that period was a Chevrolet Monte Carlo nicknamed “Bertha,” a dependable and versatile race car that produced for Waltrip from the half-mile of Bristol Motor Speedway to the high banks of Talladega.

“She was the battleship,” Waltrip said. “We’d crash her, wreck her, then fix her and go racing again. She was a great race car, and we ran her to death.”

As Waltrip raced through the 1970s, he naturally took aim at the Cup championship, a title that barely eluded him in 1979, when he lost the championship by only 11 points to Richard Petty.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Hembree

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