Historical Motorsports Stories writes:

"Darrell Waltrip's Career Revival At DEI"

Posted by nascarman on April 11, 2019

Viewed 5202 times Tweet Darrell Waltrip hit a low point in his career in March 1998. Without a sponsor, the team he owned was about to collapse. At 51 years old, Darrell's career about to end.



Yet suddenly, he was saved by an old rival. Darrell was picked as a substitute driver for the newly-formed Dale Earnhardt Incorporated while Steve Park recovered from injuries. In his time driving the car, Darrell revived his career and helped shape DEI.





(Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)



Prior to the 1998 season, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated had run only 7 races in Cup. They began theor first full-time year with Steve Park driving the number 1 car sponsored by Pennzoil. But Park's season began with difficulties. Ignition problems in the Daytona 500 and a wreck at Rockingham kept them 34th in points after two races. Then they failed to qualify at Las Vegas.



The season got even worse at Atlanta. During Friday practice, Park blew a tire and hit the wall nearly head-on. He was airlifted to the hospital with a broken right femur, broken left shoulder blade, collarbone, and two broken front teeth.



Needing a substitute driver, Dale Earnhardt quickly got Phil Parsons to drive the car at Atlanta. With no practice laps, Parsons failed to qualify. In a 2019 interview with KeepIt35, Kevin Lepage revealed that Earnhardt offered him the ride but Lepage turned him down. At Darlington a week later, Ron Hornaday failed to qualify the car. With their driver injured and the team failing to qualify for three races in a row, DEI was becoming a nightmare.



At the same time, Darrell Waltrip's career was coming to an end because of money problems. Before 1998 started, Waltrip signed a new sponsor: Speedblock. It was a new company that had developed a method of quickly making concrete blocks. They quickly stopped paying. After Darlington, Waltrip was completely out of money. The timing couldn't have been better for an unusual pairing.



Ten years earlier, the thought of Darrell Waltrip driving a car for Dale Earnhardt was ludicrous, but in 1998 it made perfect sense. With a past champion's provisional, Waltrip guaranteed the car would make the races. He'd also bring years of experience to develop the young team that a rookie driver couldn't. It was divine intervention.



"I try never to bring my faith up, but I cannot help but explain something to you guys and maybe you can understand it and maybe you can't," Waltrip said after his introduction. "But if you've ever thought about if there is a God and if he answers prayers, think through this scenario with me for a moment. I found out before I went to Atlanta that we were going to have to pull Speedblock off the side of my car. Steve Park gets hurt (at Atlanta), so there's Earnhardt and he's in a bind. Here's Darrell over here and he's in a bind. But we're not even thinking about each other at that point.



"I have a bible study group that meets here at my house every Tuesday morning. About 75 guys meet down here every week. I came back from Atlanta and told the guys what was going on. A lot of the men automatically said what 'you need to do is park your car and go drive for Earnhardt.' I said, 'Oh, yeah. Right. I'm going to go drive for Dale Earnhardt. That'll never happen. Not in my wildest dreams.' Those men prayed for me that morning. We prayed about the situation... Then I get a call from my brother Michael. He's down in the Bahamas with Earnhardt. He asked me what my answer would be if Dale Earnhardt called and asked me if I would drive his car."



"I'm so excited about the opportunity to drive the Pennzoil car," Waltrip said. "That's a sponsor that I talked to last year about sponoring my team this year, but Dale just had a lot more to offer than I did, and now he has even more to offer (with DW driving). I can get in the car and do the job he needs me to do for the next few weeks."



Darrell's debut for the team at Bristol resulted in a 23rd place finish. In his fifth race, Waltrip finished 5th at California. At Pocono in June, Darrell led 10 laps late in the race and finished 6th. Afterwards, a choked-up Waltrip reflected on his stunning return to prominence.



"They didn't put quite enough dirt over me," he said. "I kicked it off and crawled back out. I've been in holes before and I'm crawling out of a pretty deep one right now. Damn, this is good.



"It brings tears to my eyes to be able to get back out there and compete like this. I never thought I'd see it, I thought I was done. But I'm doing pretty good right now."





(George Tiedemann /Sports Illustrated/Getty Image)



In the three months between Talladega in April and Pocono in July, Waltrip finished outside of the top-20 only once. It was a tremendous feat for a team in their first year and a complete career revival for Darrell. While it was just a substitute role, DEI tried hard to keep Waltrip permanently in the #1 car and start a second team for Steve Park.



"We explored a variety of opportunities for Steve in the past two weeks, but all of us finally decided that we need to stay focused on a one-car team," said Ty Norris, DEI's Director of Motorsports. "As much as we would like to, we just can't run two cars. It's just asking too much from a first-year team just hitting its stride." When Waltrip entered the car, he was 40th in points. When he left it, Darrell had climbed to 22nd.



"It's a shame this isn't going to keep going for the year,'' Waltrip said. "I think I could get myself in the top 10 in points and I know that we could get a victory. I wish I had the opportunity to prove myself right or not. But, we don't. That's the only downside or regret.''



At 51 years old, most assumed Waltrip's career was over. In the three months that Darrell drove the #1 car, he scored the second most points by a Chevrolet driver, behind only Jeff Gordon. For a team in their first year, Waltrip outscored teams from Hendrick Motorsports, Richard Childress Racing, and even his boss Dale Earnhardt.



"All I ever wanted in this substitution deal was for this team to say it is a better team than it was before 'DW' came here,'' he said. "I think I have accomplished that."



But the success was only temporary for both. After Darrell left, DEI wouldn't get another top-10 until June 1999. And Waltrip was never able to get a car that strong again. After struggling in a new Travis Carter-owned team for two years, Darrell retired at the end of 2000.



Darrell's time at DEI gave the team necessary guidance to grow. He stepped in at a low point for the team and gave it immediate success. It also gave Darrell one last resurgence to prove he could drive no matter what age he was.





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