Jeff Gordon

Darrell Waltrip

By Ben White
NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated

After months of anticipation, the winners of the NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated Person of the Year Award presented by MCI have been crowned.
"Winners," you ask? Yes, because to our surprise, the votes cast dictated two persons, not one, should enjoy the honor.
Jeff Gordon and Darrell Waltrip are the victors, two NASCAR Winston Cup champions who in their own right represent youth, promise, experience and statesmanship in the ever-changing phenomenon called NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing. Simply put, they are the past, present and future of the sport... each controversial, each well-respected and each a traveler of roads both smooth and rocky.

Gordon is arguably the driver who is taking the sport into the year 2000 and beyond. Not since Richard Petty or Dale Earnhardt has there been a driver who commandeers the spotlight so completely due to his on-track successes.
Since his first NASCAR Winston Cup start in 1992, he's won nearly 30 races, the Daytona 500 and the Winston Million. His clean-cut image is just what Fortune 500 companies are looking for, which has helped promote stock-car racing to the highest respectability it has ever known.
Due to Gordon's 1997 success, he has thrust NASCAR and himself into the spotlight in many wide-reaching venues, including radio and television interviews, commercials, even a noted presence on the Internet. As such, he has heightened the country's interest in racing, and specifically, of NASCAR.
Gordon has long since captured the interest of the fans, whether that interest be positive or negative. One thing needs to be pointed out here. Among the fans, Gordon was by far the leading vote-getter for the NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated Person of the Year Award. No other driver was anywhere close. That in itself is indicative of how he's influenced those who enjoy NASCAR Winston Cup competition.

The award is particularly timely for Waltrip, 50, since 1997 marks his 25th year in NASCAR Winston Cup racing. Waltrip, a throwback to the early 1970s, became noticed due to a brash, often-overbearing style that rubbed more than just his fellow competitors the wrong way.
Time has since mellowed him, and now he finds himself embraced by his many thousands of fans as a wise sage who can get away with virtually any comment simply because he's earned the right to voice his opinion. Those very opinions help to keep NASCAR grounded today, as Waltrip never shies away from pointing out a problem, or offering a reasonable solution. After all, the future of the sport he loves is as vital to the driver as his own future. Besides, it's safe to say Waltrip wields more power now than he did at his competitive best.
Both men represent a variety of charities and are outspoken about their religious beliefs.
The selection of NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated's Person of the Year was made through voting by a blue-ribbon panel of people involved in motorsports, including NWCI staff members, advertising representatives, media representatives and NASCAR Winston Cup competitors. The fans' tally of votes counted as one ballot. When the counting was complete, Waltrip and Gordon had received an identical number of votes. Hence, both have been accorded the honor.
The two make quite a pair in the following interview. Each talks about what being the NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated Person of the Year means to them, and both explain how they intend to take the sport riding high into the next century in what ranks as one of the most insightful interviews conducted by NWCI.

BOTH OF YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN AS THE NASCAR WINSTON CUP ILLUSTRATED PERSON(S) OF THE YEAR PRESENTED BY MCI. CAN YOU PUT INTO WORDS WHAT THIS HONOR MEANS TO YOU?

GORDON: "It feels great, especially with the year I've had on the race track. It's been interesting off the race track, as far as the type of reaction that I've gotten from the fans, to know there's enough fans out there that are cheering for me.
"I think, to me, Darrell is the guy who is representing the sport and I feel like he's the guy who has more weight on his shoulders than I do. He's the guy who's been through a lot of things for the sport, so it's great to see him celebrate his 25th anniversary in Winston Cup racing. It's great to see him get the type of response he's getting.
"It feels great any time your peers vote on something and you come out with those votes. It's very rewarding."

WALTRIP: "From my perspective, what he was alluding to a little is that we are at opposite ends of the spectrum. When it's all said and done, I think our careers will parallel each other very well. They already have. If you look at the early years when I started, the fans didn't necessary approve of me even though I won every week. You would think that's what they would want, to rally around the guy who was on top, and it doesn't necessarily go that way. It also shows the diversity of the sport right now."

DARRELL, THOUGH YOU HAVEN'T WON A RACE SINCE 1992, YOU ARE AS POPULAR AS EVER. CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHY THAT POPULARITY IS STILL SO STRONG?

WALTRIP: "Here's a guy who's winning every week and the championship and he is respected by the fans, and here's another guy over here who hasn't won in quite some time who has had a tremendous career. Jeff has his impact on the race track and I feel like even though I think I can still win a race and still think I will, I'm having an impact off the race track. That's not my desire to be successful off the race track but by the same token, it shows you can have a hero on the track and a hero off the track. We can both represent the same thing. He represents winning in NASCAR and I represent winning in a different kind of way. I'm not taking the checkered flag necessarily, but I'm still considered to be a winner. That's important to me, and it should be important to young guys starting in this sport to see the success he's had."

JEFF, HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO LEARN SOME THINGS FROM DARRELL CONCERNING WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO AS FAR AS THE PUBLIC IS CONCERNED?

GORDON: "I think the biggest mistake that newcomers and rookies commit coming into this sport is they don't ask enough questions. I think that's the biggest thing I've learned in the past couple of years. These guys want you to ask them questions. They want to lead you down a path and teach you just like a parent does, and they know by helping you out it's only going to help the sport. So now I'm starting to learn more questions. It's as much the things off the race track, dealing with the fans, dealing with the media. That's not to say dealing with it is a bad thing, it just takes some work and knowing how to go in the right direction and go about it the right way. Those are the things I look at when I talk to Darrell or Dale Earnhardt or whoever has been in the sport for a while. I'm like, 'How do I deal with this situation?' Darrell is a great sounding board whom I really respect a lot. He has given me a lot of input as how to do certain things at the race track."

DARRELL, WHEN YOU CAME INTO THE SPORT IN 1972, THINGS WERE QUITE A BIT DIFFERENT.

WALTRIP: "I think the difference then was we didn't have 150,000 fans at a race. You would go to Martinsville Speedway and there might be 25,000 people. Or you'd go to Bristol, maybe 25,000 there, and maybe 75,000 at Charlotte. With the increased popularity of the sport, it's become an increasingly large demand on the guys involved in it. There are still only 40 of us. Back then, there were 40 guys taking care of 30,000 fans. Now, it's 40 guys taking care of 150,000 fans. So obviously, we are now being pulled in a lot of different directions that I didn't have to deal with in the beginning. Everybody didn't have a TV show, everybody didn't have a radio show, there were fewer halls of fame -- all these things that go on away from the actual racing -- so it was a lot easier and you could focus on your race car. That's all you did. You worked on your race car. You worked on it all day and all night, you drove to the track, you worked on the car, you raced the car, you were part of the crew. Today, drivers are celebrities and they are treated as celebrities and they should be because they are on the same plateau as other athletes in other sports.
"In Jeff's case, he could be another Tom Cruise. But that's the status today's driver has reached. Take television commercials. Those things were unheard-of when I started in this sport. All I was trying to do was make it to a race, compete and maybe win $300 or $400 so I could make it to another race. That's the biggest change in the sport. But what we do on Sunday has never changed. What we do away from the track is where the sport has gone through tremendous change."

JEFF, CAN YOU ADDRESS WHAT CHANGES YOU'VE SEEN SINCE COMING INTO NASCAR WINSTON CUP IN THE FINAL RACE OF THE 1992 SEASON?

GORDON: "There's one unique thing that I've realized. All the racing I did 15 years ago to the quarter-midget days, the racing has always been the same. Now, it's a lot more competitive. Other than that, you're driving hard every lap and you're still trying to get the car to work better and better. You have a team you have to communicate with, but the racing is still the same. When you get out of that car is when things are a whole lot different."

WALTRIP: "You know, (in Victory Lane) we used to just have to deal with the hats. (Union 76 motorsports representative) Bill Brodrick and the hats. Now, the reporters, the interviews and all the things that happen after the race is a lot. The race is on the track but when it's over with, there's a whole new race that happens off the track as well."

DARRELL, JEFF WAS NINE MONTHS OLD WHEN YOU STARTED RACING IN THE NASCAR WINSTON CUP DIVISION AND ...

WALTRIP: "(Laughs) I had nothing to do with that! I didn't know him! I didn't know his family! I didn't know his mother! That's a great question, but don't pull me into that trap! Talk to somebody else! Maybe he can help you ..."
(Uproarious laughter from everyone in the room, including Gordon.)

OK DARRELL, WE KNOW YOU AREN'T THE FATHER. NOW, JEFF, WHEN DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT DARRELL AND WHAT HE HAD ACCOMPLISHED IN NASCAR WINSTON CUP RACING?

GORDON: "It was really strange for me, especially when I first started learning about NASCAR Busch Grand National and Winston Cup racing. I had been racing just about every weekend since I was 5 or 6 years old. So sitting at home watching races on television wasn't what I did. Once I got into sprint car racing, "Speed Sport News" was what I read. They didn't used to do a whole lot on NASCAR. I guess it wasn't until 1985 or '86 when I first heard of Darrell. I remember in my quarter-midget days, I would say, 'I want to grow up and race in the Daytona 500 or Indy 500.' I didn't even know what the Daytona 500 was. I just knew that was the biggest race. I watched a little bit of it on TV, but I don't remember actually watching NASCAR until 1985 or '86. I was 14 or 15 years old.
"The first time I watched the Daytona 500, I remember Darrell and I remember Ken Schrader was running well. It was funny because when I came down here to run Busch Grand National, I didn't know which driver was in which car or the number used with which team. It's really been tough for me, learning the history of the sport. As I come into it, that's where a lot of guys know the history and already say 'This is the goal and my life's goal is to get to this level.' I never dreamed I would get to this level. I'm here and now I have to learn the history."

WALTRIP: (Impishly) "What he's trying to say is he's rewriting the record book as we speak, so it really doesn't matter if he studies it or not. It's going to be what's in there from now on."

GORDON: "Well, I think if I had grown up in the Midwest, and especially the Southeast, then I would have eaten, breathed, slept NASCAR and the drivers and the cars. But I didn't. I grew up on the West Coast. We are just now starting to get reaction from the fans and building a really big base out there."

WALTRIP: "When I was a kid growing up in Owensboro, Ky., I didn't know anything about stock car racing. I went to all the sprint car races, but I never went to the Indianapolis 500 because I was always racing. When you're truly a racer and that's all you've ever done -- and that's all I've ever done or he's ever done -- you don't really pay any attention to heroes or develop what you might call heroes. You follow people who win races and you want to know how they did maybe, but as far as being a hero, you're on you're own hero path, if you will.
"I remember A.J. Foyt because he was such a colorful character, even back in the 1960s and 1970s with his red golf gloves and his red bandana flying out the back of a sprint car. I loved to go and watch him and Don Branson and Rodger Ward and Bobby Marshman and those guys run the action tracks at Terre Haute (Ind.) or Indiana State Fair or DuQuoin or somewhere. That's what I thought I was going to be doing. I was right there on the Ohio River and it was across to Indiana and on up into the Midwest. That's where the sprint cars and champ cars were. That was kind of my dream to drive at Indy."

GORDON: "That's what happened to me. I was much more around sprint cars with Steve Kinser and Doug Wolfgang and all the good sprint car drivers. That's where, when I wasn't racing, I was at one of those races. So (NASCAR Winston Cup racing) is a lot more than what I saw myself doing."

WALTRIP: "See, I think that's one of the reasons why I wasn't very popular in the beginning, because people didn't know me. They didn't know where I came from. I came from Kentucky. I just kinda wandered in and fell off a turnip truck and here I was. The same way with Jeff. Where did he come from? They didn't see him running sprint cars at Eldora or midgets at Indianapolis. They didn't know who he was. Besides, there was another guy who had the same (last) name that he did (Robby Gordon). He could have been that other guy, for all they knew.
"When I ended up down here, it was a strange environment. I came down here just to go to Holman-Moody to see where they built stock cars and I kind of liked what I saw. I ended up starting to get interested in stock cars. The same thing then applied like it does now. Stock cars were much safer. I drove a sprint car a few times and I'd said to myself, 'Whoa, these things are really hard to drive and they're kind of dangerous. You can roll these things outside the race track and that might not be the way for an old guy like me to go.' So I ended up liking the stock cars, the feel of a stock car."

GORDON: "I'll tell you how I realized I should make stock cars an option. I had a guy helping me and his name was Larry Nuber (formerly an announcer with ESPN). Larry wasn't doing any more commentating, but he knew racing because he would come down and do a lot of the ESPN races. He said, 'You need to go down there and check out Busch Grand National racing and go to a driving school.' So I went to Buck Baker's Driving School and I'm thinking, 'I don't think I'm going to like these stock cars. I've been in the open-wheel cars and I'm just not going to like it.' I got in that thing and I loved it! I would say, 'Man, I didn't know you could drive these cars this hard and this fast!' I loved the tracks and the high-banked mile or mile-and-a-half race tracks, and I'm saying, 'I like this! I like to go fast.' Boom, I was sold right then. That's when I started making time to watch stock-car racing and started taping races and got interested in them."

WALTRIP: "While he was saying that, something just dawned on me. The Earnhardts, or the Wallaces even, or the Jarretts, have a heritage in the sport and they are expected to kind of follow along in their father's footsteps, and they've been around stock car racing and dirt tracks all their lives down here in this part of the country. When the fans hear those names, they are familiar names to them. Like guys from the outside trying to make their way in, we don't have that. Jeff's dad wasn't a great stock car driver and my dad wasn't a great stock car driver. I think it takes a while to get to know us to get to realize, 'Hey, they're good ol' boys at heart.'"

GORDON: "I've seen where the fans in this sport have grown up with the 'good ol' boys' and stuff. I might attract a lot more newer fans. The good ol' boys have been around forever and have been watching this sport for a long time. I don't know if I ever expect them to follow Jeff Gordon. That's where it all starts with the cheers here and the boos there. There are some folks out there who are never going to respect me because I didn't come up that way.

LIKE WHAT YOU SAID IN A PRIOR INTERVIEW, "BOO IF YOU LOVE JEFF GORDON?"

GORDON: (Laughs) "I can't wait! We don't introduce ourselves anymore so I can't say that."

WALTRIP: (Laughs) "It works! He learned that from me!"

GORDON: (Laughs) "The problem is they are making so much noise when I get up there they couldn't hear me anyway."

WALTRIP: "Again, say there are 100,000 fans -- a number we can use -- and 40 drivers. Some of the drivers have been here a long time and they have their fans. If there are 100,000 people up there and 50,000 - half of them - were Jeff Gordon fans, and the others were other drivers' fans, he's going to get one whale of a reaction. Half are going to being cheering and half are going to be booing. That's the way I always tried to look at it. We aren't like other sports. If you're Ken Griffey Jr. and you go up to bat, the whole stadium cheers for you because it's your home stadium. You're only pulling for one team. Here, there are 40 teams and 40 drivers. (Fans) can't all be for the same guy. There's a lot to be said for the noise. As long as you can tolerate it, there's a lot to be said for how much noise they make.

IN OTHER PROFESSIONAL SPORTS, WE SEE THOSE WHO ARE CONSTANTLY IN TROUBLE WITH DRUGS OR SCANDALS AND NUMEROUS CHARGES OF PERSONAL WRONGDOING. HOW HAS NASCAR ESCAPED HAVING SUCH PROBLEMS CONSUME THE SPORT IN THE PAST 50 YEARS?

WALTRIP: "First of all, we just don't tolerate it. If you were to be that kind of a person, it's known through the garage area. We just wouldn't tolerate it. That's the only way I know how to say it."

GORDON: "It's kind of like going to a small school somewhere in the Midwest. Everybody knows your business. Everybody knows what's going on and it's going to get out."

WALTRIP: "Plus, it's the family atmosphere. Again, I pick up on the heritage of this sport. It's come through the families: The father, the son, the grandson. It just continues to be a family sport. Not necessarily in terms of like a big picnic or anything. The family is the part of it. I think there is a quality in this sport that there is to no other. We spend 35 weekends together a year, the same group of people. We compete against the same guys each Sunday and know each other all too well. You almost know what the other guy is thinking. If asked if an incident was accidental or intentional, we know. Just tell us who it was. We can tell you if it was accidental or intentional."

GORDON: (Laughs) "Do you want to specify who you're talking about? I wonder where I fit into that category?"

WALTRIP: "There is an accountability here that I don't think is in any other sport. We don't go our separate ways. We go together. We travel together. We live together. It's not like other sports where the athletes go off in their own little towns all over America. We live in the same pretty general areas and go to the same places all the time. I don't want to let him down. He doesn't want to let me down. There's just that accountability there that we have that other sports don't have."

GORDON: "I'll tell you one key aspect too, that I see in the major sports -- baseball, basketball, football. These kids come out of high school or college not making a cent and all they're looking for is that big check. They come out and a team picks them up and the next thing you know, they are making $10 or $15 million a year. And when a team is paying somebody that much, yes, they expect a lot out of their performance, but it's almost like they have turned the control over to that person. Here's this person who's making as much money or more than the team owner is, and now they're trying to tell him what to do. The guy might say, 'No, I've got every team out here that wants me and will pay me just as much or more.' We make good money, but it builds.
"I remember when I first started making money driving a race car. It wasn't a lot. It was a little bit and all of that went back into the race car. Then I got into the Busch Grand National cars and I didn't make a lot of money but more than what I had been making. I got my first contract with Rick Hendrick. Yeah, it was a lot of money but not millions of dollars a year. And every year, that contract builds as my performance gets better. So do the paychecks. You have incentives on how your performance is and it's not like coming straight out of high school and making millions of dollars. I think people get overwhelmed and get into drugs and get into the wrong crowds."

WALTRIP: "It's too much money and too much spare time. They only have to practice a little bit and might only play on Sunday. They are all individuals, but I'm accountable to my team, my sponsors. We earn what we get. The money I've earned in racing is just a return on an investment. When I was coming up through the ranks, I was spending my money and everybody else's to develop a career, and you get to a point and say, 'I have an income from racing. I may never ever make enough to pay back all I've invested.' It took a lot. It's like Jeff said. If you won $1,000, you spent $2,000 the next week on the race car. You paid back the $1,000 you borrowed and borrowed $2,000 more. (Laughs) It was like a pyramid scheme, except it didn't always pay out.

YOU ARE BOTH HIGHLY RESPECTED AS ROLE MODELS TO CHILDREN WHO FOLLOW NASCAR. WHAT COULD YOU SAY TO THE CHILDREN OF TODAY THAT MAY HELP GIVE THEM A GOOD FOUNDATION?

WALTRIP: (Laughs) "I know you have to be asking me, because I'm not sure this child right here knows yet or not."

GORDON: (Laughs) "I get to learn something!"

WALTRIP: "It's more than one thing, but (the important thing is) respecting authority. Again, that's part of being a Christian. Commitment, whether it's to your job, to your family, to Jesus Christ, whatever it is. And being committed to something. So many young kids, they don't have a clue. They are wandering around and saying, 'Well, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have this and I don't have that. I can't do this and I can't do that.' Jeff will tell you and I will tell you, I think I'm a great example of what stick-to-it will do for you. There is no reason I should be where I am. I was the oldest of five kids. My dad was a Pepsi-Cola salesman and my mom worked at the IGA store. We weren't poor but we were just making it. I was determined with all my heart to be a racer. I begged. I borrowed. I won't say the other part of the equation, but you can get the picture. Whatever it took to get to where I wanted to go. That's commitment. I'm committed to my wife. We've been married 28 years. I hope to be married 28 more years. It's not been easy being married to me and what I've done and what's gone on in my career. That's commitment. You've got to have that.
"One other thing, and I believe this with all my heart. You never know where you stand until you stand up. You can say what you believe. But stand up in a crowd and say it. You're scared to stand up and say it because you're afraid no one will stand up with you. And they may not. You don't really know how strongly you feel about something until you have to stand up for it."

GORDON: "The majority of people, especially kids, are followers. Right now, there are so many people in the limelight out there in the public eye that people are following who aren't necessarily a good example. I think that's one thing that I'm very proud of: what NASCAR Winston Cup is. I wouldn't mind my child, if I had one -- when -- I have one, to follow just about anybody in that garage area. There are a lot of good people, hard-working people, dedicated people out there. We've seen out there where certain people have said, 'No, I don't choose to be a role model.' You don't have a choice. You are put into that position and that's part of being a celebrity or being where we are in our sport. You can't be somebody you're not, just to set an example for the kids. Hopefully, you are a good enough person where you can say, 'Hey kids, or whoever you are, listen. You can have fun, have a good life, but you can still go down the right path and make the right decisions.' It's so much easier to do the bad things and wrong things, but you're always going to look back and say, 'Gosh, I wish I hadn't done that.' I like to set an example and I've been through a lot at a young age, but now I'm able to make good decisions and follow the Lord."

WALTRIP: "Just because you're a Christian doesn't mean you're a nerd."

GORDON: "I want kids to find something they like, stick to it and work hard at it. Chances are they will be successful and find direction through it."

WALTRIP: "The thing is, I want people to be Darrell Waltrip fans, but I want them to see in me something they like and something they approve of and because of that, they want to be like me. I fall short. I want people to see qualities in me they would like to have in their own life. All the kids today are over here, and they want to get over here where Jeff Gordon is and not go through all the hard times it takes to get there. It doesn't work that way. People only see us at our best. And we've struggled. I remember when Earnhardt struggled. I remember when he had to borrow $2 to get a hamburger. I've seen him get used parts so he could go race. These guys who race didn't start out where they are. They worked all their lives to get there."

BOTH OF YOU ARE QUITE ACTIVE WITH SELECT CHARITIES. CAN YOU SHARE WITH US A FEW ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE SPECIAL TO YOU?

GORDON: "Definitely, the Leukemia Society is No. 1 and the Marrow Donors Association another because of the situation with Rick (Hendrick, Gordon's team owner). But you know, unfortunately, we don't get involved with charities unless it hits close to home, and I hope through the things we are doing, it inspires others to get a lot more involved when it doesn't necessarily hit close to home. We need to really make it happen.
"The Leukemia Society with Ray J., Ray Evernham's little boy, is special. Ray had just gotten into Winston Cup as a crew chief putting a team together and I had just signed on. We were going in the right direction and, bang, Ray J. is one year old and has leukemia. At that moment, nothing else matters. To see what Ray went through, to see what Ray J. went through and (Evernham's wife) Mary, it was really, really tough. You struggle with that and you think about when you have children and how fortunate you are they are healthy. You think about how unfortunate it would be if that happened. You hope, 'Boy, can I get behind this and hope someday this won't even be a disease.' I don't know if that will ever happen in my lifetime, but I'm glad to know I'm supporting it. I can help get the awareness out there and hopefully someday they will find a cure."

WALTRIP: "I think the fans and some of the competitors need to have an education about MRO (Motor Racing Outreach). It only runs off of contributions. It has no sponsors. It has no major corporations behind it. It runs totally off of contributions. The work that is being done at MRO is incredible. It has made such a huge difference in the motorsports arena and the motorsports family. In Winston Cup, but also in other areas. It's incredible. I'm on the administrative board and it's incredible. All the other (motorsports) areas are hungry for a ministry like MRO. They hear about it. They've seen the results of it. NASCAR supports it. Any time anyone asks me about a favorite charity, I always tell them to support MRO because they are supporting some really good causes.
"The other would be Gilda's Club (named after the late actress Gilda Radner). It's for families of people with cancer. My father-in-law died of cancer a couple of years ago. My dad has been battling lung cancer. So it's like Jeff said. When it hits close to you, that's when it has a bigger impact."

IN THE PAST THREE OR FOUR YEARS, NASCAR HAS EXPERIENCED SOME OF ITS BIGGEST CHANGES BECAUSE OF NEW AWARENESS AND EXPOSURE. WHAT DO YOU SEE IN NASCAR'S FUTURE?

GORDON: (Laughs) "I feel like I just got here. I've seen it change a lot just since I've been here. Seeing the facilities, seeing the growth of the number of fans that are supporting it, to see these sponsors get behind it more and see it as a sport that they either can be a part of and can increase their sales with, that's exciting to be a part of it. And to see all the people who have heard about it and follow it! Seeing it spread out all over the country. I know there is awareness outside the country, but as far being a stronger following, that's the next step. It's international. I think when you get a crowd like we had in Southern California in an awesome facility like that, that says a lot about where we are and where it's going. I think you'll see new talent come along.
"I have a lot of people come to me and ask me if I feel I have the weight on my shoulders of carrying this sport. I say, 'No, I don't.' I'm just one piece of this big pie and everyone contributes. Everybody plays a major role in that.
"Just like Darrell's role has been winning races and winning championships, to now being the spokesperson of the sport (Gordon looks over at Darrell and asks, 'at 50?') and still be capable of winning races ..."

WALTRIP: (Laughs) "A young 50. A very young 50."

GORDON: "I would say a very young 50."

WALTRIP: "To tell you the truth, I had to lie about my age way back when and I never adjusted it. I'm really not 50."

GORDON: "I thought you looked young for your age."

WALTRIP: "I think what we are seeing is the old NASCAR and the new NASCAR. The old NASCAR, if you want to look at drivers and all of those I've competed against all these years all the way to the year 2000 on...you're going to see a whole new core of drivers. Jeffrey will be leading the way, with Kenny Irwin and Tony Stewart stepping in and the Burton boys, Ward and Jeff, stepping in, and others. For many years, it was, 'When Richard (Petty) retires, what are we going to do? The sport will die.' We've learned the sport doesn't revolve around one guy. It revolves around all 40 drivers out there on the race track, with some guys a little stronger than others.
"The other side is NASCAR itself and where they are going to be able to take us in the 2000s and beyond. It's been pretty much run on a gentleman's agreement or a handshake, almost. What we'll see in the future is a much more technical sport that's more organized. It will have to be. Otherwise, we will have chaos. As we move forward, and you've got the Bruton Smiths and the Roger Penskes and these people, and everybody wondering what they're going to do, our sport is going to have to have a strong sanctioning body, just like a race team. In the past, the driver has been able to do it all. In the future, you better have a good crew and a good crew chief and good leaders if you're going to win races. NASCAR needs to watch what's going on from a structure standpoint so they can get themselves in that situation for the future. When Bill France is gone, who's going to take his place? What's going to happen when the old regime is gone and the new regime steps in? Are we going to have the same quality and the same management we've had in the past? Is it going to be better? Is it going to be Internet? Is it going to be e-mail?
"NASCAR has been able to keep their arms around everything for so long, but their arms are about to break apart. If they ever do, there could be chaos. My concern isn't for the competitors, but rather, the management. We rely on NASCAR. They are our NFL. They are our NBA. That's one role, but turn around and put another hat on and they are promoters, too. So we've got to be sure the sanctioning body is doing what's in the best interest of the competitors and are strong and can lead us in the direction we need to go. Growth is good if it's managed properly. It can scare you to death if you don't know how to control it. (Waltrip pauses and turns to Gordon.)
"Wouldn't it be great for some of us older cats to sit down with you younger guys and talk about the history of this sport? You know, you, the Burton boys, Kenny Irwin, all the new guys just coming in these days?"

GORDON: "We should. I'd like that very much."

WALTRIP: "Yes, we really should. That would be great."