Darrell Waltrip will be enshrined in the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Jan. 20. (Photo: Getty Images)
NASCAR HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE WALTRIP STOLE HEARTS ON THE TRACK AND IN THE TELEVISION BOOTH
FOX SPORTS BOSS HILL RECALLS DW’S INSTANT ADAPTATION TO TV SIDE OF THE SPORT; HAMMOND REFLECTS ON HIS ANYTHING-BUT-QUICK ADJUSTMENT TO DW’S DRIVING STYLE AND PERSONALITY IN DUO’S EARLY DAYS TOGETHER
When NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France called Darrell Waltrip’s name last October as a newly-elected member of the 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame class, the three-time champion exuberantly bounded onto the stage, grabbed France’s face and kissed his cheek.
A surprise to those in attendance? Hardly.
Waltrip had made his passionate yearning to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame no secret, and anyone witness to the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion’s long and storied NASCAR career is well aware of his trademark flair for the dramatic, both on and off the race track.
SPEED reflects on Waltrip’s legendary career on the track and in the FOX Sports and SPEED television booth in a one-hour biography special premiering Friday, Jan. 6 at 8 p.m. ET. Waltrip tells his own story in the NASCAR Media Group-produced special, from his early days at the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway to being dubbed “Jaws” to his success with Junior Johnson and his transition into the television booth for FOX Sports and SPEED. The special also incorporates interviews with Rick Hendrick, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty, Buddy Baker and Bill Gardner. Waltrip will be inducted into the third class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Jan. 20 (airs on SPEED Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. ET) alongside Cale Yarborough, Dale Inman, Glen Wood and the late Richie Evans.
It was Waltrip’s flamboyant, over-the-top personality that won him legions of diehard fans and passionate “haters,” and the same personality traits set Waltrip off on the wrong foot with his new crew at Junior Johnson’s team in early 1981. Waltrip replaced fellow 2012 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee and three-time champion Cale Yarborough when the latter left to pursue a part-time schedule at the conclusion of the 1980 season.
“I was very young and very passionate about working for Junior Johnson and Cale Yarborough,” Hammond, who served as the jackman for Yarborough’s three title seasons, said about Waltrip succeeding Yarborough. “Each and every week, standing in our way was Darrell Waltrip. It was definitely a love/hate relationship because I loved Cale and hated Darrell. He was our rival. He was that Hollywood, flamboyant, pretty boy that you loved to beat. When I found out he was coming to drive for us, it was a tough transition for me. When you become friends with and admire a driver like Cale, you don’t just replace him. It was a very awkward transition to begin with, at least for me personally.”
Early in their relationship, Waltrip and Hammond were like oil and water because Hammond didn’t buy into Waltrip’s bombastic, over-the-top personality and unconventional driving style.
“I bumped heads with him and he could see that,” said Hammond, who led DW to victory in the 1989 Daytona 500 and now serves as an analyst for FOX and SPEED. “I was young and didn’t understand how to adapt to his style of racing. I always questioned, ‘Why are we doing this? We didn’t do that with Cale. We did that with Cale and it didn’t work.’ Darrell had a philosophy, a feel unlike Cale. So, it was a big challenge to change my mindset from one to the other.”
But when they finally worked out the kinks and Hammond was named Waltrip’s crew chief in 1982, they were a formidable force that teamed up for two NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championships and 43 wins, including the 1989 Daytona 500, making the pair one of the most successful driver/crew chief combinations in history.
Waltrip’s propensity for “jacking his jaw” and effortlessly entertaining simply by opening his mouth have been credited with helping drive NASCAR more mainstream. He was able to captivate a corporate boardroom of potential sponsors, as well as the thousands of fans he mesmerized and some he annoyed.
“Darrell helped make a transformation in our sport with his ability to speak, his wittiness and his informative approach because he always had something insightful and controversial to say, and he could do it very eloquently,” Hammond said. “He was able to bring Fortune 500 companies into our sport and give them a reason to be here. He was the first driver to go to New York as a champion. He left his mark up there and set the standard for champions to follow.”
Waltrip finally hung up his helmet and driving gloves in 2000 after 29 seasons as a Cup Series driver and 84 victories, which ties him with Bobby Allison for fourth-most wins of all time. But DW didn’t retire his personality and popularity with the fans.
“He carried that over into his television career and I think that’s what David Hill and everybody in the sport recognized,” Hammond continued. “He’s the John Madden of his sport. He’s the Curt Gowdy -- that kind of guy everyone turns on the TV to watch because he is knowledgeable and has the inside story.”
FOX Sports Media Group Chairman David Hill says he knew he had a hit on his hands with Waltrip from their very first dinner meeting during which they discussed partnering for the 2001 NASCAR on FOX season.
“I knew it was going to work as soon as I sat down with him that night in New York,” Hill said. “He had this incredible knowledge of the sport. He had knowledge of the strategy of the sport, but more than anything, he had this boyish enthusiasm for NASCAR. When you look at people who have a boyish enthusiasm for the sport and great communication skills, the ones who immediately come to mind are those like John Madden in football and Tim McCarver in baseball. From that very first night, I knew DW was going to be one of the greats. He had the ability to look within the sport and communicate to the world what was going on.”
Waltrip’s aptitude for conveying the events in the 2001 Daytona 500, FOX’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race broadcast, helped carry the network through what became the sport’s darkest day following Dale Earnhardt’s death on the final lap.
“Darrell was just awash with emotion (when brother Michael won the race) and that telecast was one of the most incredible periods in anything I’ve ever done,” Hill recalled. “Having FOX’s very first NASCAR race start the season, and it be NASCAR’s ‘Super Bowl,’ turns the butterflies in your stomach into buzzards. Darrell handled it so well, and with the realization that it wasn’t just an accident with Dale Earnhardt – that it was a fatality – he went from rookie to experienced pro in a period of three hours. I’ve never seen anything like it. By the end of that day and when we went into the race at Rockingham the next week, he was a pro. Most guys who come out of their respective sport and into the broadcast booth take a while to become seasoned and fully professional. For Darrell, it happened almost instantaneously.
“In the last 10 years, whatever Darrell was to NASCAR as a driver, he’s far more important as a broadcaster because he crystallizes the appeal and the magnetism of the sport like no one else,” Hill continued. “I hear people all the time say they wish FOX would broadcast races all year long, but it’s not because of us. It’s because of Darrell. People enjoy hearing DW call races, and that goes back to his enthusiasm, knowledge, strategy and love of the sport. It’s as simple as that. When we completed our first production meeting before our first Daytona 500 in 2001, I said, ‘Now is the time for you guys to be missionaries for NASCAR. That’s the way you need to express it.’ And that’s what Darrell did and continues to do – he has become a missionary for the sport.”
About SPEED™
SPEED, anchored by its popular and wide-ranging coverage of NASCAR, is the nation’s first and only cable television network dedicated to automotive and motorcycle racing, performance and lifestyle. Now available in nearly 84 million homes in North America, SPEED, a member of the FOX Sports Media Group, is among the industry leaders in interactive TV, video on demand, mobile initiatives and broadband services, including SPEED2, a groundbreaking new broadband network featuring live, streaming and on-demand events complementing offerings of the linear network. For more information, please visit SPEED.com, the online motor sports authority.
About FOX Sports Media Group
FOX Sports Media Group (FSMG) is the umbrella entity representing News Corporation’s wide array of multi-platform US-based sports assets under Chairman & CEO David Hill. Built with brands that are capable of reaching more than 100 million viewers in a single weekend, FSMG includes ownership and interests in linear television networks, digital and mobile programming, broadband platforms, multiple web sites, joint-venture businesses and several licensing partnerships. FSMG now includes FOX Sports, the sports television arm of the FOX Broadcasting Company; Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, their affiliated regional web sites and FSN national programming; SPEED and SPEED2; Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Soccer Plus; FUEL TV; and Fox College Sports. In addition, FSMG also includes FOX Sports Interactive Media, which comprises FOXSports.com on MSN, whatifsports.com and scout.com, reaching nearly 30 million unique visitors monthly. Also included are Fox’s interests in joint-venture businesses FOX Deportes, Big Ten Network and STATS, LLC, as well as licensing agreements that establish the FOX Sports Radio Network, FOX Sports Skybox restaurants and FOX Sports Grills.
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