Trucks will keep Waltrip on track

Thursday, Oct. 31, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

After Richard Petty retired in 1992 as a driver on the NASCAR circuit, Darrell Waltrip assumed the mantle as the sport's elder statesman.

Now, at the age of 49, Waltrip is hinting that next year may be his last as a full-time driver on the Winston Cup Series. But don't expect ol' D.W. to drop completely out of sight; he said he plans to maintain a presence in the sport as a car owner and a part-time driver in the Craftsman Truck Series.

Like many Winston Cup drivers who are nearing retirement, Waltrip has taken to the trucks as a means to stay competitive with young up-and-coming drivers.

"Next year I'm going to run all the (Winston Cup) races again and then in '98, I don't know what I'm going to do just yet, I haven't made up my mind," said Waltrip, who is among five former Daytona 500 champions who will compete in the Carquest 420K truck race Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. "The trucks will probably be a part of it. They're fun to drive; it's been a real hoot, a real kick in the butt to drive one of them."

Waltrip said the trucks are a perfect avenue for a stock-car driver to ease into retirement.

"I'm just a steppingstone away from retirement, as a matter of fact," said Waltrip, who owns both his Winston Cup and Craftsman Truck Series teams. "I will never quit racing, I'll always race some. I may cut way back and may not race every week, but I'll always be out there racing a little bit ... so trucks are certainly a good venue for that."

Waltrip ran four Craftsman Truck races last year in his Sears DieHard Chevrolet and has run four this year -- posting three top-10 finishes in his past three starts. Waltrip said it was important on two counts for him to come to Las Vegas this weekend for the inaugural Carquest 420K.

"The biggest thing is my sponsor, Sears and DieHard, have a big week planned out there ... and they're the series sponsor, so that was part of it," Waltrip said.

The other part is the $791,714 purse being offered at the final stop on the 1996 Craftsman Truck Series, which will reward the winner with a first-place check of $80,000.

"Good grief, you can win about 90 grand and it pays $10,000 just to start the thing," Waltrip said with amazement. "If you're going to come all the way from the East out here to run, it's got to be something pretty sizable and that's sizable -- I mean, that's Winston Cup purse money."

Waltrip said he also was curious to race on the new LVMS 1.5-mile tri-oval after hearing reports from his teammates when they were here testing earlier this month.

"It sounds like a real exciting place to go," Waltrip said of the country's newest track. "Everybody likes the track; nobody's complaining about the track.

"I watched the IRL race from there and it's obviously a very fast race track. The trucks are running 170 miles per hour there, so it'll be very fast. That's as fast as you may want to go in a pickup truck -- in fact, that might be faster than you want to go in a truck."

Although Waltrip has yet to drive his truck on a track as big -- or as fast -- as Las Vegas, he said he isn't worried about making the adjustment.

"I have not driven one on a track quite that big, but in Phoenix and tracks similar, they are really comfortable to drive," Waltrip said. "I've had more fun running that truck than anything I've done in a pretty good while."

So much fun, in fact, that Waltrip has gotten in the Halloween spirit and nicknamed the orange-and-black truck he will be driving here "The Pumpkin."

"I've got The Pumpkin all shined up and ready to go," the affable Waltrip said with a laugh. "My truck is real bright day-glow orange, and we call it 'The Pumpkin' because it looks like the Great Pumpkin, so it's a great weekend to be racing it."

Waltrip is hoping the truck's color scheme will bring him some luck in Las Vegas -- something he hasn't had much of this year with his Western Auto Parts Winston Cup ride. In fact, until his strong 10th-place finish in last weekend's Dura-Lube 500K at Phoenix International Raceway, Waltrip had only one top-10 showing this year in 31 Winston Cup starts.

"It's been a real consistent performer -- it's been better than the car has, as a matter of fact," Waltrip said of his truck. "I told them if they were having a car race in Vegas, I'd go home."

Truck notes

The Imperial Palace race and sports book has posted odds on Sunday's Carquest 420K and has tabbed defending NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series champion Mike Skinner as a 3-1 favorite to win the race. Ron Hornaday Jr., who can lock up this year's series championship by finishing in 18th place or better, is listed at 4-1 and last week's winner, Jack Sprague, is 5-1. Las Vegans Chris Trickle and George Tallas both are 100-1 long shots. Other notable drivers and their odds: A.J. Foyt 40-1; Ernie Irvan 7-1; Darrell Waltrip 25-1; Michael Waltrip 30-1; Robby Gordon 20-1; Geoff Bodine 20-1; and Harry Gant 35-1.