Waltrip On # 3

Former champ reflects on effects of Earnhardt's death By DARRELL WALTRIP

For The Associated Press Editor's note: Three-time Winston Cup champion Darrell Waltrip, now a Fox Sports TV announcer, was a longtime competitor and friend of Dale Earnhardt. In this column, Waltrip reflects on Earnhardt's life, his death, its aftermath and the effect on the sport.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. - Lately, I've been thinking about Dale Earnhardt and how long I knew him and what he meant to the sport. I knew him before he ever got into Winston Cup racing, before anybody had heard of him.

One of the things I caught myself chuckling about was, What if Dale Earnhardt had never spun anybody out? What if he had never bumped into anybody? What if he had never created all those situations he could create with his aggressive driving?

But that's who he was. How he drove is how he lived. I can still see him walking up the driveway to his father-in-law's shop, carrying a little old trophy in one hand and a fifth of Jack Daniels in the other.

He had that little mustache and high-water blue jeans and a pair of Hush Puppies. He had just come from Greenville, S.C., where he had won a feature race on a Friday night.

We were in there working on a Winston Cup car, getting ready to go to the next race, and when he came in there you'd have thought he won the Daytona 500. He was so proud of that trophy because he had run Butch Lindley up into the wall and turned him over on the last lap to win the race.

He didn't have anything when he started. Most everything he had, he had to borrow or beg to get. People wanted to help Dale once they got to know him because he was so driven. I think he was as successful as he was because he was not afraid to work. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty. He didn't care what it took.

When he died, it was the end of an era that we'll never have again. It ended a time in NASCAR when the drivers were pioneers.

There were the early guys, the Junior Johnsons and the Joe Weatherlys and Curtis Turners, who basically raced to stay out of jail. They took the cars they had used to run moonshine and figured out they could race them on the weekend and make some extra money. But then there was the era with Richard Petty, David Pearson, Cale Yarborough and others.

About this time, in the late 1970s, Dale Earnhardt appeared on the scene. His style was a reflection of what the sport was like, when drivers let their cars do their talking.

In the early years of his career, he was very confident on the track but very insecure off it. That driving style continued to serve him well, but it was obvious that his off-track persona evolved into the star he became.

When he died, we lost our connection to the past. We moved on to the next generation, to drivers such as Jeff Gordon. I think when Dale died, a part of all of us died, and I think that's why so many people mourned.

I watched that wreck and thought, "That could have been me." I'm sure Richard and some of the others thought the same thing.

That's the reality of that wreck for guys that are still around from those earlier times. He was a world-class driver with all the success one could ever hope for, and he was killed doing what we all loved to do.

It represents more than just a race driver getting killed in a race car. Now there's a void that will never be filled again. It also was the end of a style of racing we'll never see again.

Dale's death changed everything in our sport. We all came away in disbelief, and that led to self-examination.

Every participant in our sport is important, but when you have a seven-time champion that's meant as much to the sport as Dale did, you can't continue as if nothing happened.

NASCAR was required to take a step back to fairly and objectively assess where they were and where they needed to go for the good of the competitors and everyone involved in the sport. When they went into the investigation, they did the best they thought they could in presenting a case about what happened and how it happened and what the effects were. That's the first time anything like that has happened in this sport.

Out of it came some good things. NASCAR realized they would have to change the way they do business.

I know Dale did things differently than other drivers, and rightfully so. His ways had served him well over 25 years. Dale did a lot of things that people didn't agree with, like his helmet, his goggles, his seat belts and everything that dealt with the inside of the car. But, if you didn't agree with Dale, you were wrong. Not him. He was cut out of the same mold as NASCAR. They told you what they wanted you to know, which left you with lots of questions but not many answers.

I think out of his accident and out of the investigation that ensued came a new NASCAR. They came up with policies that will help all of us in the future.

With the new TV contract, more people are watching us than every before. People also are asking harder questions, and we can't just give them the standard answers. We've got to be able to stand up in front of a TV camera and tell people what the facts are, not what they think people want to hear.

The other part of the equation, though, is the reality of the loss of a Dale Earnhardt. And that brings us to the question of who is going to fill those shoes.

Dale was around a long time. He'd seen it all, done it all. He had the credentials, the clout, the connections. Nobody else has got all of that. Nobody's got even half.

It's going to take time for somebody to grow into that role because somebody's got to be around long enough to gain the respect of the drivers, the fans, NASCAR and everybody included. You can't have one aspect of that and expect to be Dale Earnhardt. He had it all, and he earned it. Nobody gave it to him.

We certainly have plenty of talent. Gordon is a great ambassador, a great spokesman for our sport. He's very articulate and he's a good-looking guy. He's got great credentials and is a four-time champion. He represents our sport in a way that, at this time, I think needs to be represented in the 21st century.

Now, do we have drivers with the charisma and the resolve that Dale Earnhardt had? I'm not sure. There are a few guys that maybe will grow into that role. Tony Stewart is certainly a fiery kid and he's got a lot of talent, as do Kevin Harvick and Dale Earnhardt Jr., but do they have what Dale Earnhardt had? Not yet.

It kind of reminds me a lot of myself when I first started with all the mouthing and complaining that I did. People didn't like that and they didn't respect that until I was the champion. Every time I won the championship, I gained more credibility. When you are the champion, people expect you to step up and be a leader. Then it's up to you to lead by example.

I believe that we will continue to refine the sport in a lot of different ways and perspectives, working on how to make the races safer and more entertaining. We've always had exciting racing and that hasn't changed through the years. We still have good guys and bad guys. Five-hundred-mile races are still unpredictable. It's still "green, white, checkered" and you never know who will win.

The question is: How do we capitalize on the momentum that we have in the marketplace and with new fans? A larger TV audience and these young drivers are creating excitement in our sport. We need to manage our sport with unquestionable integrity and professionalism. We can never be satisfied with second place. Dale Earnhardt never was.

It hurt me to hear people talk about races being fixed. We never want anyone to think that you can manipulate the outcome of a race. And we never want to be compared to events that can be. We should all strive to make our sport the leader, never the follower. That was one of the things that bothered me about NASCAR not being more aggressive on some of our safety issues, like the head and neck restraints.

Now, following the pit-road accident in Homestead, Fla., everyone going over the pit wall next year will have to wear fire suits and helmets. Even the NASCAR officials going over the pit wall must wear helmets. Safety is a moving target. There is no way to anticipate all the things that could go wrong.

We can never let mediocrity dictate what we're going to do. We've always got to be aggressive and push to make things better, safer and have a better show. We've got a great opportunity here with the TV package to continue to grow the sport.

The future of our sport is very bright with all this young talent. What could be a better scenario?