Darrell Waltrip was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame last night the highest honor for any race driver and he credited his success to ”all the people around me. Other people are responsible for what I’ve been able to accomplish,” he said, ”starting with my parents. My mom and dad were hard-working people. We had a lot of hard times, but we didn’t cry much. We laughed a lot.” Waltrip, 58, said his wife Stevie, ”the first person who believed in me,” was ”responsible for a lot of my success.” Team owner Junior Johnson was ”in the right place at the right time” to help guide him to three points titles. ”Our sport’s not about cars,” Waltrip said. ”It’s about people, and I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by great people all of my life.” Waltrip, who moved to Franklin from Owensboro, Ky., in the late 1960s to pursue his racing career, won 84 races, tied with Bobby Allison for third all-time. He retired from full-time driving after the 2000 season and became a racing commentator for Fox Sports. Waltrip will be calling this weekend’s races at Talladega Superspeedway.
Waltrip was introduced last night by his younger brother Michael, who said, ”He’s a wonderful person, a great role model on and off the track. He broke the mold on what a race driver was supposed to be about.” Last night’s other inductees were legendary Formula One driver Nigel Mansell; Bob Glidden, the National Hot Road Association’s winningest driver and 10-time champion; Joe Amato, the NHRA’s all-time Top Fuel winner; and Chris Hanauer, considered the all-time greatest hydroplane racer.(Tennessean)(4-29-2005)
