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Home | NASCAR driver | Darrell Waltrip
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In addition to NASCAR's top racing series, he has won 13 NASCAR Busch Grand National Series races, 7 American Speed Association (ASA) races, 3 IROC races, 2 Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) races, 2 NASCAR All-American Challenge Series events, 2 All Pro Racing Association races, 2 NASCAR All-American Challenge Series events, a USAC race, and has competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona, a 24-hour sports car endurance race. Waltrip also holds the all-time track record with 67 wins at the Music City Motorplex, formerly Fairgrounds Speedway, in Nashville, Tennessee, counting NASCAR, USAC, ASA, and local track races. Waltrip also became the first NASCAR driver to win $10 million (February 18, 1990). He is a 2-time winner of NASCAR's Most Popular Driver Award, (1989, 1990), was "American Driver of the Year", (1979, 1981, 1982), and was "NASCAR's Driver of the Decade", (1980s). In addition, he was the "National Motorsports Press Association Driver of the Year", (1977, 1981, 1982), the "Auto Racing Digest Driver of the Year", (1981, 1982) and the first "Tennessee Professional Athlete of the Year", (1979). He is a 2003 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee and a 2005 International Motorsports Hall of Fame inductee, and was announced in July, 2009, as one of the initial 25 nominees for the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame induction class of 2010. Waltrip was named one of NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers (1998), and was awarded the Bill France "Award of Excellence", in 2000. On July 1, 2010, Waltrip was again nominated for the 2011 induction class of the NASCAR Hall of Fame. On July 14th, 2011, it was announced that Waltrip, in only his third year of eligibility, will be inducted as one of the five members of the class of 2012, one of only nine top series Nascar drivers to be inducted to the NASCAR Hall of Fame thus far. Waltrip currently owns Honda, Volvo and Subaru auto dealerships in Franklin, Tennessee, and is a lead television analyst and race commentator with Fox Broadcasting Company and Speed TV, a columnist at Foxsports.com and an author. He is the older brother of NASCAR driver and MWR team owner Michael Waltrip. He is married, has two daughters, and resides in Franklin, Tennessee. Waltrip began his professional driving career on the high banks of the Nashville Speedway. He began racing as a youth racing go-carts and then cars at the Ellis Racetrack (dirt) on US Hwy 60 W between Owensboro and Henderson, Kentucky and began his first asphalt track racing at the Kentucky Motor Speedway in Whitesville, Kentucky. Brash and outspoken, Waltrip soon dominated the local track with his driving skill and off track commentary. While some fans did not like it, 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 also embraced WSM radio host Ralph Emery during his early years, forming a bond which would be influential throughout his career. 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 (later, Spike TV). 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. |