Born on the 5th February 1947 Darrell Waltrip’s very successful racing career spanned over an incredible forty years, starting at the age of 12 years of age by driving go-karts. During the next four years, together with his father, they built a 1936 Chevrolet Coupe that Darrell drove in a stock car race at a local dirt tract near their home in Owensboro, Kentucky. The first race proved unsuccessful because he slammed the wall and badly damaged the coupe but he soon found asphalt where he was able to put his experience with go-karting to good use. By the late 1960’s his success was noticed by P.B. Crowell, an owner/driver from Nashville who suggested that Darrell move to Nashville and drive at the Music City Motorplex at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. He did this and won two track championships, 1970 and 1973 and so started his professional career as a race car driver.

Darrell Waltrip, after his 5th place finish in the Atlanta 500, November 4, 1979. (Wiki Commons - Bill Ferguson)

Over a period of twenty nine years (1972 -2000) Darrell won a total of eighty four races, was three times champion with the NASCAR Cup Series (1981, 1982 and 1985), five times winning the Coca-Cola 600, (1978, 1979, 1985, 1988 and 1989) and winner of 59 Cup series pole positions to give only the tip of his achievements.

As a race car driver he was extremely popular, twice winning NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award, three times he was "American Driver of the Year" and was NASCAR’s "Driver of the Decade", was nominated for the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame induction class in 2010 and was named as one of NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers. This list is not exhausted.

While racing in Franklin Darrell, who was articulate and not afraid of the media, would appear on the local television to promote the current weeks racing, often making fun of the other drivers. The interviews did not always go down well with the fans but the management saw it as a way of selling more tickets and Darrell receiving extra pay for his promotional skills. He also worked with WSM radio host, Ralph Emery and this was to prove beneficial to him as he was later to substitute for Ralph in the 1980’s on his television show, Nashville Now. The experience and notoriety he gained during this period was to help him into NASCAR’s big leagues. During his time on the radio and television, and due to his aggressive driving, he was nicknamed "Jaws". Many commentators and sport columnists said that "you either love him or hate him" because of his "take no prisoners" and "win at all costs" aggressive attitude towards driving and his criticism of NASCAR together with defeating the more established drivers on the track. It was during the Daytona 500 warm up (that he was expected to win) in February 1983 Darrell was involved in a bad accident, fortunately only suffering concussion, but this was like a wake up call. After the accident Darrell spent many years trying hard to repair the relationship with both fans and fellow drivers and in 1989 and 1990 he was voted "Most Popular Driver" by NASCAR fans.

It seems that Darrell epitomised the perfect example of what NASCAR desired in their drivers: - Articulate, able to speak with the media, good looking and had the driving skills that could take him to the top of his profession.

Now Darrell is a television race commentator with Fox Broadcasting and with Speed TV and is a columnist in Foxsports.com. He is an author and currently lives in Franklin, Tennessee with his wife, Stevie and two daughters.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This web page may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This page is operated under the assumption that the pictures on this page represent a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Any text or images that you feel need to be removed please contact me.

Darrell Waltrip - Wikipedia Smoke wants to do it his way - Fox Sports

Comments

Be the first person to comment on this item

You must Login to comment on this item.