I’ve been watching races all week and I can’t, for the life of me, figure out at what point during this race I saw it.
He proved driving the dei car he still had it at the end of the 90s so a full decade in a decent level ride maybe 10+ more wins reaching 100 wins maybe. I think this ending era in his career is why a lot don't include him in the goat conversation.
Just thought it was interesting that for most of the last decade of his career, he was sponsored in some form by these two dying retailers that later merged together.
Can anybody else think of any other drivers with multiple ties like this?
- 1991-1997
- Sponsored by Western Auto and Parts America
- Subsidiary of Sears
- 1996-1997
- Truck team sponsored by DieHard Batteries
- Owned by Sears
- 1998
- Sponsored by Hechinger/Builder's Square
- Owned by Kmart
- 1999-2000
- Sponsored by Big Kmart
Darrell Waltrip was the face of NASCAR for nearly a decade.
From 1980-1989 DW won an unfathomable 57 races, in an era where the season was almost exclusively under 30 races a year, three championships in 1981, 1982, and 1985, two second place points finishes in 1983 and 1986, and closed the decade out with a win in the Daytona 500 in 1989.
One interesting part about DW's dominance in the 1980's is that he did it with three different car owners. In 1980 Waltrip drove for DiGard, and left under acrimonious circumstances to drive for Junior Johnson from 1981 to 1986, and from 1987 to the end of the 1980's he drove for the up-and-coming Hendrick Motorsports.
Simply put, DW was the man of the 1980's.
But while NASCAR was hitting new peak after new peak in the 1990's, the career of Darrell Waltrip began to hit new low after new low.
In 1990 DW was good, if not great. His only second place run entering the Pepsi 400 that year had come in the infamous North Wilkesboro race, where NASCAR made the questionable call to have Brett Bodine as the leader over DW.
However 1990 would take a turn for the worse as in practice for his 500th start at the Pepsi 400, DW spun in oil but amazingly sustained no damage. That was until Dave Marcis spun in the same oil and laid into DW's prone car with devastating impact.
DW would sustain a broken arm, broken leg, and a concussion. Despite being credited with a 20th place run the next week at Pocono, DW gave way to Jimmy Horton after one lap, and missed the next five races entirely.
However the single reason that I believe DW's career would begin the downward spiral came in 1991, even thought we just didn't know it at the time.
DW became an owner-driver in 1991, driving that beautiful Western Auto Chevrolet, and even in the first two years as an owner-driver DW still found success.
Two wins in 1991, despite the horrifying flip at Daytona, and three more in 1992 yielded two top-10 points finishes. Incredibly impressive for any owner-driver.
DW took a step-back in 1993, going winless and falling down to 13th in points. DW would however move back up to ninth in 1994 before the noticeable slide came in 1995.
In 1995, DW posted the worst full season points finish of his career, to that point, finishing a disappointing 19th. DW fell even further in 1996 and 1997 falling to 29th and 26th in the final standings, posting a combined one top-5 and six top-10's, and the first DNQ of his 25 year career at Charlotte in 1997.
Prior to
... keep reading on reddit ➡Skip to 55 seconds in to the link below and you’ll hear Waltrip refer to the Fruit of the Loom sponsored car as having a “cornucopia of damage” https://youtu.be/xk1OFCV5Ylw
https://preview.redd.it/qh3tn8cp6of61.jpg?width=625&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6e8198342b1c797b8c347c3a23a2ab7860f339ec
I say DW! Change my mind.
[ Removed by reddit in response to a copyright notice. ]
That means he’s on a better pace than 7 of the guys on the all-time top 10 win list.
Edit: screwed up, included Kyle Busch in the title, please ignore
Edit 2: to clarify, this was not an indication that I believe Blaney is better than any of these drivers. I am aware of extenuating circumstances that provide a deeper context to the stats. This was simply a statistic I found interesting.
- So, Jayski's archives have rumors that Dale was looking to buy a team at the end of 1998, to sign DW to a 2 to 3 year contract, starting in 1999.
- The archives list the #96 American Equipment Racing team that David Green drove for. Caterpillar was moving to Bill Davis Racing, and the team didn't have a sponsor set for '99, and closed.
- I asked Buz McCall, who I am Facebook friends with, about this. He said he never even heard from Dale.
- Jayski's archives also mentioned that Dale was talking to Tim Beverley about buying the #35 (which WAS DW's original team), but Beverley wasn't looking to sell.
- DW mentioned on the Dale Jr Download that the sponsor was going to be NAPA, however, NAPA wasn't ready to jump from Trucks to Cup just yet.
So, let's say Dale does buy the #96, renumbers it to #17 (Matt Kenseth sticks with #60) and NAPA comes aboard for 1999.
How long do you think the contract is for (standard used to be 3 years back then?
What happens to Hornaday & Michael Waltrip?
What are your favourite calls from ol’ DW
