He drove from the late 1960s until 2000, and ever since he stepped out of the stock car, he has been in the announcer’s booth working for Fox Sports as an analyst and commentator, but it appears that it is now the time for Darrell Waltrip, the man from Owensboro, Kentucky with the ever-positive attitude and good old boy charm, to hang up his hat. In an announcement that came yesterday, Waltrip has announced that his final race will be the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 23rd, 2019. In a statement, Waltrip said, “I have been blessed to work with the best team in the sport for the past 19 years, but I’m 72 and have been racing in some form for more than 50 years. I’m still healthy, happy and now a granddad, so it’s time to spend more time at home with my family, although I will greatly miss my Fox family.”
Waltrip has a solid career run-down over those fifty years. He hit the big leagues in 1972 at the Winston 500 at Talladega, took the championship three times (1981, 1982 and 1985) and ran races in the Xfinity series (formerly Grand National series) and the Truck series. He ran his own team as an owner/driver for a few years in the 1990s, and went through one of the nastier crashes in NASCAR history at the Pepsi 400 in Daytona in 1991. But it might have been Waltrip’s first race as an announcer that truly defined Waltrip’s career…nevermind that it was his first announcing gig, but he got to see his brother Michael win the Daytona 500 in 2001, and had to deal with the death of Dale Earnhardt in the exact same race. That is a hell of a rollercoaster for a first time on the mic, on the screen. That would be enough for most people to walk away at that point, but D.W. has stuck out nearly two decades of announcement with enthusiasm that you can’t fake, a passion that can only come through a love of the sport and everybody who you know within the ranks.
It is going to be a lot less colorful in the announcer’s booth once D.W. leaves the building.
Old school cheatin’ Bird shot in the frame rail D.W. Talented ? Sure, but not above the dirty tick. His announcing has been over the top from day 1 and I can’t count the number of people who have told me “ Why is he still on TV?” Now who will be Kyle Busch’s biggest fan, cheerleader and apologist on the air? Hopefully no one and we can get good coverage without the “Fan Boy” fawning that DW has been doing for years. I hope enjoys his retirement as much as I do.
Who will inherit \” Boogity boogity…\”? Cheating in NASCAR…who would dare! Cheating is institutionalized… It\’s who gets the better motors, tires, fuel systems, favorable tech inspections, on and on. The problem is NASCAR can\’t fill seats, not who is their spokes persons.
He has been a cheerleader for Toyota ever since his cheating brother got backing from Toyota.
Good freaking riddance !!
I would rather DW stays and his brother Mikey goes. Besides, he only works something like 6 months out of the year now? Wish I could say the same.
I’m with you.
The pit walk with Mike is simply unfit for human consumption!
Thats about the best news I have heard today! Now I won’t have to mute the start of any race if I watch one.
He’s ok, just old, his brother Mikey is a grade A weirdo though. Get rid of him
Tall deck block at the 1989 Daytona win. I was there as an engine builder for another team and saw it at post race tech with a couple other builders.
We all knew packaging in the longest rod you could fit helped the plate motors.
We just accepted that\’s the way it was back then and nothing would have been done about it.
Of course none of us were squeaky clean either and I\’d bet Darrel did not know about it.
Tall deck block at the 1989 Daytona win. I was there as an engine builder for another team and saw it at post race tech with a couple other builders.
We all knew packaging in the longest rod you could fit helped the plate motors.
We just accepted that’s the way it was back then and nothing would have been done about it.
Of course none of us were squeaky clean either and I’d bet Darrel did not know about it.
I’ll be the contrarian and say that I’ll miss him. He was a great racer and a great announcer. He’s one of the last links to NASCAR’s greatest era, when racers were great personalities who could tell great tales about “that time in Richmond when…”.
I no longer watch the Toyota Series NASCAR races because they are 35%
advertising.
Occasionally I watch the last 10 laps…unless Kyle Bush is leading. If so,
I switch back to the Urinary-Tact Infection Channel.
One more great one riding off into the sunset !! Good for Darrell for going out on his own terms !! Will definitely be missed !!