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'Jaws' chews on track again

Broadcaster and former driving champ Darrell Waltrip returns behind the wheel just for today. ... so he says.

By JOANNE KORTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 13, 2002

MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- There is extra pep in the step of excitable three-time Winston Cup champion turned television commentator Darrell Waltrip, hard as that is to imagine.

He is a driver again.

For one day.

Waltrip, who retired after the 2000 season, will compete in the Advance Auto Parts 250 Craftsman Truck race today at Martinsville Speedway. When it's over, he'll practice in a Winston Cup car.

Oh, man!

"It's a fun race to run," said Waltrip, 55, who qualified 18th on the .526-mile track. "You're not running 200 miles an hour. You get out there and slip and slide and bang into each other. If you spin someone out, usually, that's all there is to it. You crank it up and take off again."

Waltrip is subbing in the No. 17 Dodge truck and the No. 14 Pontiac car for Stacy Compton, who will be in Nashville, Tenn., for today's Busch Grand National race. Waltrip and former crew chief Jeff Hammond received permission from Fox to miss the BGN broadcast.

"I'll be the official interpreter," said Hammond, Waltrip's crew chief for two Winston Cup championships. "He's got all these strange ways of saying things -- hippity-hopping and turkey walking -- so somebody's got to tell the crew what he really means."

Waltrip, nicknamed Jaws early in his career for his outspoken nature, has become a cult hero in the broadcast booth with his homespun style and propensity to sing during telecasts: "You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel.. . ."

But viewers don't need to worry. Waltrip insists this spin behind the wheel is not a career shift, just a little research. Plenty has changed since Waltrip retired after 29 years of Winston Cup racing.

He never raced on the harder tire compound that has given veteran drivers fits since it was introduced last season. He never wore a head and neck restraint device, mandated in the wake of Dale Earnhardt's fatal accident at the 2001 Daytona 500. And he never raced against rising star Kevin Harvick, who took over Earnhardt's Winston Cup ride.

Today is his chance.

Waltrip will see how long his tires last and decide to change two or four. He will strap on the Hutchens device, which allows more mobility for short-track racing than the HANS. He will trade paint with Harvick, who bought a truck team this season as a stress-free diversion.

"I don't think I'll ever get to this point, but I don't want anybody to say, 'How would he know?' " Waltrip said of his role as analyst. "If I don't know, I'll make it up -- you'll never know I don't know. I just needed some fresh information for our telecasts and the truck series is a good place for me to be fairly competitive and learn a few things."

Waltrip won 84 Winston Cup races, 11 at Martinsville. To meet the physical demands of short-track racing, he has worked out at the gym and tried to watch his weight the past few weeks.

"Everybody says, 'You're going to fall out of the seat halfway through the race.' And I might, I might," Waltrip said. "But so far, so good. I've been on a crash course to try to get myself in relatively good shape."

NASCAR treated Waltrip like any other driver. It asked him to take a physical and eye exam and submit a resume to get his license. Waltrip passed, though the best he could come up with for a resume was a press kit. Getting consent from his wife, Stevie, was a little tougher.

Stevie was with Waltrip during the lean years that came early and late in his career. When he retired, Waltrip was struggling to qualify for races and rarely was competitive. She likes him spending Sunday in the safety of the broadcast booth.

Will she give in again?

"No, I don't think the redhead will go for that," Waltrip said. "Stevie said one race. I talked her into a truck race, and here at Martinsville that's a pretty good selling job. We'll see how it goes. I guess if I had a good day it might make a difference, but not much ... to her."

And to Waltrip? Will the thrill of driver introductions and the feel of the throttle leave him hungry for more? Waltrip says no. Hammond says baloney.

"That's one lie I'm not going to back him up on, because I know better than that," Hammond said. "If he had an opportunity, he'd run more races. But he also realizes it's like quicksand -- it'll suck you back in. Next thing you know, you'll be running 30 races a year and you're out of retirement. That's not what he wants and that's not going to happen."

One race will have to suffice.

"I said I had no high expectations, that I just want to come in and have fun," Waltrip said. "All I want to do is be competitive. If I could be in the first five or six, that would thrill me to death."

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