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Darrell Waltrip
On his 17th trip to the Daytona 500, Darrell Waltrip drove the No. 17 Chevrolet into Victory Lane and celebrated his win in 1989 with an impromptu dance and helmet spike. But from the time he first set eyes on Daytona, Ol’ D.W. was a force with which to be reckoned.
From 1984 until his long-awaited win, Waltrip finished third three consecutive times and never worse than 11th. He scored a total of nine top-10 finishes in his 28 attempts.
As a brash 26-year-old, fresh from the Tennessee short-track circuit, Waltrip showed up with his own Mercury — a hand-medown car driven to victory by Mario Andretti in 1967 — for the 1973 Daytona 500, started 11th and finished 12th in his rookie race. He did even better the next season, leading a lap and winding up seventh, one lap down to eventual winner Richard Petty. Axle issues put a premature end to his chances in the 1975 event, and despite starting fourth in his first 500 with the DiGard team in 1976, a blown engine saddled Waltrip with a 32nd-place finish.
But for the rest of the decade, Waltrip would be a factor in the 500. He finished seventh in 1977 and led 12 laps in 1978 before a crash involving himself, Petty and David Pearson put him out of contention.
As coincidence would have it, Petty and Waltrip would once again find themselves racing each other in the closing laps of the 1979 Daytona 500. They were running fourth and fifth behind third-place A.J. Foyt, nearly a straightaway behind leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough. But when Allison and Yarborough crashed, Foyt hesitated just enough to let both drivers by. Petty was able to hold off Waltrip at the line for the win.
Waltrip then went through an unexpected Daytona slump.
During the next three seasons, he failed to finish better than 20th in the 500, which included a nasty accident in the 1983 race.But good luck returned in 1984, as Waltrip led 37 consecutive laps — taking the white flag as the leader of the race — before Yarborough made a last-lap pass for the win, with Dale Earnhardt getting by for second.
Waltrip finished third behind Bill Elliott and Lake Speed in 1985, and record another third-place finish in 1986, trailing Geoffrey Bodine and Terry Labonte at the stripe. Switching to Rick Hendrick’s operation, he dropped to eighth in 1987 and a frustrating 11th in 1988 — when his engine went sour while leading.
Even Waltrip wondered if he’d ever win at Daytona.
But after qualifying on the front row for the 1989 Daytona 500, good fortune seemed to smile on Waltrip all day. He somehow dodged a 10-car pileup early in the event, then conserved enough fuel to make the final 56 laps on one tank — with the fuel gauge reading zero — to end his Daytona drought by some 6 seconds over Ken Schrader.
“I’ve won the Daytona 500! I’ve won the Daytona 500!” Waltrip shouted to a nationwide television audience. “This is Daytona, isn’t it? Don’t lie to me! I’m not dreaming, am I?”
The closest Waltrip would come to a repeat performance was his 10th-place finish in 1997, as an owner/driver once again. His final Daytona 500 start came in 2000, when he finished 32nd in Travis Carter’s Ford.
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