Waltrip walking away from NASCAR
The Associated Press
NASCAR veteran Michael Waltrip (with daughter Macy above) will step aside as a regular Cup driver this season.
Published: February 13, 2010
DAYTONA BEACH - Bet you didn't know this about Michael Waltrip:Only Richard Petty has made more combined starts in NASCAR's three national divisions.
There is a lot that Waltrip has not done as a driver, but if he wasn't any good, Dale Earnhardt Sr. wouldn't have hired him twice.
Now, the two-time Daytona 500 winner whose engaging personality and dry wit have charmed TV audiences and corporate CEOs, is transitioning.
He's stepping back for the betterment of his race team, Michael Waltrip Racing, meaning that Sunday's Daytona 500 could be his last start as a regular driver.
"I've exceeded what 99 percent of what kids that want to be race car drivers ever could have hoped to accomplish," Waltrip said.
Retirement is a fluid term in NASCAR. Mark Martin gave up on the idea and plans to race until he's 90. Bill Elliott retired in 2003, and he'll start 40th Sunday.
But Waltrip knew that to keep sponsor NAPA Auto Parts, he had to start delivering victories. So he gave up the car to free agent signee Martin Truex Jr.
He will spend more time trying to ensure that drivers Truex, David Reutimann of Zephyrhills and Marcos Ambrose have the resources to make a run at the Chase.
If somebody will foot the bill, Waltrip will race at Talladega again in April.
"That had to be the hardest decision in the world, because he didn't give up his ride," Martin said. "It's hard enough to get squeezed out. It even takes a bigger man to say, 'Let me get somebody in here and let me continue to elevate this company I'm trying to build.'"
Waltrip is 4-for-759 in Cup-level races. Aside from a win in the non-points All-Star race at Charlotte, his victories have come on the two tracks where restrictor plates create a special brand of racing.
But Waltrip won the Daytona 500 twice, and that gave him credibility and a platform.
He used it to enhance his profile as a racing analyst on Speed and to cross into the mainstream with clever commercials made with brother Darrell Waltrip and Reutimann.
There's also a new racing show on Showtime, "Inside NASCAR."
As a team owner, Waltrip has started to surprise. He has been sandbagging with his "I'm not very smart" mantra, but word is, Rick Hendrick actually looked over his shoulder once.
That hardly seemed likely in the beginning, when a cheating scandal and woeful performance threatened the viability of MWR. But Waltrip held onto his sponsors and attracted a partner in billionaire Robert Kauffman.
At a team dinner the other night, "Mr. Kauffman" talked like an excited teenager about the fun he had racing a Ferrari with Waltrip and Ambrose in the recent 24 Hours of Dubai.
There's a happy symmetry at MWR.
"I love what he's done," Darrell Waltrip said of his brother. "Two years ago, I thought, man, what has he gotten himself into? And it's really taken a toll on him personally. ... But he had weathered the storm."
Daytona has taken Michael Waltrip to his greatest heights and deepest despair. His 2001 victory came while Earnhardt, his friend and the man who finally gave him a shot in good equipment, was killed in a fourth-turn crash.
Nine years after that fateful day, Waltrip treasures his successes.
"I think I won about $3 million or so winning two Daytona 500s," he said. "I don't have any of that anymore, but I know where those two trophies are."
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