Darrell Waltrip Popular Books

Darrell Waltrip Biography & Facts

Darrell Lee Waltrip (born February 5, 1947) is an American motorsports analyst, author as well as a former national television broadcaster and stock car driver. He raced from 1972 to 2000 in the NASCAR Cup Series (known as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series during his time as a driver), most notably driving the No. 11 Chevrolet for Junior Johnson. Waltrip is a three-time Cup Series champion (1981, 1982, 1985). Posting a modern NASCAR series record of 22 top five finishes in 1983 and 21 top five finishes both in 1981 and 1986, Waltrip won 84 NASCAR Cup Series races throughout his career, including the 1989 Daytona 500, a record five in the Coca-Cola 600 (formerly the World 600) (1978, 1979, 1985, 1988, 1989), and a track and Series record for any driver at Bristol Motor Speedway with 12 (seven consecutive from 1981 to 1984). Those victories tie him with Bobby Allison for fourth on the NASCAR's all-time wins list in the Cup Series and place him second to Jeff Gordon for the most wins in NASCAR's modern era. He is ranked fifth for all-time pole positions with 59, including all-time modern era highs with 35 on short tracks and eight on road courses. Competing in 809 Cup starts over four decades and 29 years (1972–2000), he has scored 271 Top 5s and 390 Top 10s. Winning nearly $19.9 million in posted earnings, he became the first NASCAR driver to be awarded over $10 million in career race winnings. Waltrip has additionally won 13 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series races, seven American Speed Association (ASA) races, three IROC races, two Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) races, two NASCAR All-American Challenge Series events, two All Pro Racing Association races, and a USAC race. He competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona. He also holds the all-time track record 67 wins at the Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee, including NASCAR, USAC, ASA, and local Late Model Sportsman NASCAR sanctioned series races. He still holds many NASCAR records, more than two decades after his retirement as an active driver. He has also won many awards in NASCAR. That includes two for NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award (1989, 1990), three for "American Driver of the Year" (1979, 1981, 1982), and "NASCAR's Driver of the Decade" for the 1980s, as well as three for "National Motorsports Press Association Driver of the Year" (1977, 1981, and 1982), two for "Auto Racing Digest Driver of the Year" (1981 and 1982), the first "Tennessee Professional Athlete of the Year" (1979), one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers in 1998, and the Bill France "Award of Excellence" in 2000. He has been inducted into numerous halls of fame, including the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America for 2003 the International Motorsports Hall of Fame for 2005. After being nominated for the inaugural 2010 and 2011 classes, he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame's 2012 class. Waltrip served as a color analyst for Fox Sports alongside Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds, and Jeff Gordon, a columnist at Foxsports.com, and an author. He is the older brother of former NASCAR driver and the now defunct MWR team owner Michael Waltrip. Waltrip retired from the commentary box at the conclusion of Fox's broadcast schedule for the 2019 NASCAR season in June 2019. Early years Waltrip was born on February 4, 1947, in Owensboro, Kentucky. Starting his driving career in Go-karts at age 12, Waltrip entered his first stock car race just four years later. Waltrip and his father built a 1936 Chevrolet coupe and headed to a local dirt track near their Owensboro home. The first night out was far from a success as the youngster, barely old enough to drive on the street, slammed the wall and heavily damaged the coupe. Waltrip soon left the dirt and found his niche on asphalt where the smoothness he learned in the karts proved a valuable asset. Waltrip was a 1965 graduate of Daviess County High School in Owensboro. He was an early racer at the Kentucky Motor Speedway (an asphalt track in Whitesville) and Ellis Raceway, a dirt track on US Highway 60 west in Daviess County (Ellis Raceway is now closed), driving a car called "Big 100" built by Harry Pedley, owner of Pedley's Garage, on West Second Street, in Owensboro and sponsored by R.C. Bratcher Radiator and Welding Co. His success gained the attention of Nashville owner/driver P. B. Crowell, who urged Waltrip to move to the area to race at the Fairgrounds Speedway, at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds in Nashville, where he would win two track championships, in 1970, and 1973. Waltrip drove the No. 48 P. B. Crowell owned Ford sponsored by American Home, in Nashville, where he aggressively promoted the week's race when he appeared on a local television program promoting the speedway's races, and was not afraid to embrace the local media when other competitors were reluctant to do so. Some of the notorious "on air" trash-talking included making fun of some of the other local drivers such as Coo Coo Marlin (whose son Sterling later raced at the circuit and is a two-time Daytona 500 winner) and James "Flookie" Buford, whose nickname he would mock on air. It pleased track management that he was helping sell tickets, leading to packed grandstands and extra paychecks from track operators for his promotional skills. He became friends with WSM radio host Ralph Emery in his early years, forming a bond which would be influential throughout his career, as Waltrip would appear frequently on Emery's early morning television show on local Nashville television station, WSMV, and later substitute for Emery in the 1980s on Emery's television show, Nashville Now on the former TNN cable network (now the Paramount Network). Waltrip would use the success he enjoyed at the Music City Motorplex, and his notoriety and public speaking skills that he acquired from television appearances in Nashville, as a springboard into NASCAR's big leagues. He became a Christian in 1983 but it was years later before God came first in his life. One of the charities he supports is the Motor Racing Outreach (MRO) providing spiritual support to racers and their families. NASCAR career Early years in NASCAR: 1972–1975 Waltrip started in NASCAR Winston Cup Series (Winston Cup), NASCAR's top racing series at age 25, (25 years, 3 months, 2 days), on May 7, 1972, at the 1972 Winston 500, at Talladega, Alabama, the series' fastest and longest track at 2.66 miles, (4.281 kilometers), driving a 1969 Mercury Cyclone he purchased from Holman-Moody, originally the Ford Fairlane driven by Mario Andretti to victory in the 1967 Daytona 500. Waltrip finished 38th in his first Winston Cup race after retiring on lap 69 due to engine failure. Waltrip paid $12,500 for the car, a spare engine and some spare parts and drove it in 5 cup series events until mid-1973. The car was converted from the Ford Fairlane Andretti drove, to a 1969 Mercury Cyclone as driven by Waltrip, and later converted to a 1971 Mercury Cyclone. The car was sponsored by Terminal Transport of.... Discover the Darrell Waltrip popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Darrell Waltrip books.