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Final trip for Waltrip will be on Sunday

By KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 16, 2000

His Victory Tour 2000 was best summed up on a steamy Friday afternoon at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Darrell Waltrip stood beside his No. 66 Ford, beaming.

He'd qualified 24th for the Pennzoil 400, which meant he wouldn't have to spend the next day fretting about a starting spot.

This is how the driver with the third-most wins in NASCAR history (84) and a three-time Winston Cup champion has ended his illustrious career.

"I've really struggled with this team," said Waltrip, who finished 36th Sunday. "We've worked hard but haven't gotten any results. I was hoping to have a lot more success the last couple years. We just could never get it all together."

Waltrip, winless since 1992 and 36th in the points standings, is assured a spot in the NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway thanks to his qualifying effort at Homestead.

It will be his 809th, and final, Winston Cup start before he moves to the broadcast booth next season.

"It's going to be emotional," Waltrip said. "I'm going to fire up the engine for the last time and that's my last race. It will be hard. I don't know how I'll feel. I've just got to get there and get it done."

The 53-year-old from Owensboro, Ky., hopes fans will remember him for the way he dominated the sport in the 1980s, the way he helped push NASCAR into the mainstream with his outgoing personality and the fun he had doing it.

"I stand here today and I haven't had a very good last couple of years and I look around and think, "Golly, this is awful,' " Waltrip said.

"When I will appreciate my career and my numbers and my success is when I'm gone from here, when I'm up in the television booth or in a year or two from now when people start to look back at what you've accomplished. Then, I'll realize that I had a pretty awesome career."

WHAT NOW?: For the first time in months, the pressure is off Bobby Labonte.

"We can get back to racing now," said Labonte, who clinched the Winston Cup championship Sunday.

Without having to worry about gaining or losing points in the standings, Labonte's team can use the NAPA 500 as a test session. He finished .010 seconds behind Dale Earnhardt in the spring race at the 1.54-mile track and has won there four times since 1996.

"We're going to Atlanta and race hard like we've been wanting to do for the past few months," crew chief Jimmy Makar said. "We've got some things that we've been wanting to do that we haven't been able to do because it's been a little bit on the edge. We've just been afraid to do it until now."

LAST CHANCE: Ricky Rudd has one more race to cap a resurgent season.

Rudd, 32nd in the standings as an owner/driver at this point last year, is sixth going into the NAPA 500.

The driver of the No. 28 Ford remains the only driver in the top 10 in the standings without a victory and is winless in the past 73 races.

Rudd holds the NASCAR record for at least one win in 16 seasons.

"Even when I was winning races every year, we might be hot for one race and then be cold for 15-20, and then be hot again," Rudd said before the Pennzoil 400. "This team is on every week and we have a good chance to run good or win at any given race track, so I'm more excited about the progress the team has made since the start of the year to get to this point than I am disappointed with not having a win yet."

PIT NOTES: The NAPA 500 will mark Bill Elliott's final as an owner/driver. Winless in five-plus seasons as an owner, he will move to a Dodge team owned by Ray Evernham Motorsports next season. ... Bobby Hamilton Jr., who competed in his first career Winston Cup race, will drive the No. 01 Chevrolet in the NAPA 500. He replaces Ted Musgrave, who has driven for Team Sabco/Chip Ganassi Racing since Kenny Irwin's death and has failed to qualify for two of the past three races.

-- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.

Winston Cup

WHAT: NAPA AutoCare 500.

WHEN/WHERE/TV: Friday, first-round qualifying, 3 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 11 a.m.; Sunday, race (12:30 p.m., ESPN); Hampton, Ga.

1999 WINNER: Bobby Labonte.

FAST FACTS: Events at Atlanta have been won from the pole 13 times. ... Dale Earnhardt leads drivers with nine wins at AMS. ... Earnhardt and Labonte are the only drivers without a DNF this season.

POINTS STANDINGS: 1. Labonte, 4,970; 2. Jeff Burton, 4,709; 3. Earnhardt, 4,690; 4. Dale Jarrett, 4,561; 5. Tony Stewart, 4,521; 6. Ricky Rudd, 4,484; 7. Rusty Wallace, 4,398; 8. Mark Martin, 4,362; 9. Jeff Gordon, 4,196; 10. Ward Burton, 3,982.

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