Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Nobody had ever lost 462 races and then just won. But Dale Earnhardt Sr. had told me I had the ability, and that day, I knew I would.
You will rarely get introduced as the two-time Pocono champion. You will certainly be introduced as the two-time Daytona 500 champion.
Obviously you can make a pretty good living these days as a crew member or a crew chief or as a driver. But the technology is expensive.
I know y'all have probably heard I lost a few races in a row before I won one, but I never gave up. Never believed I wasn't good enough.
The thing that warms my heart is people. I have just met so many kind folks that want to just pat you on the back and say, 'We love you.'
Anytime you're pushing the envelope as hard as you can to be successful at anything at life it's easy to go from hero to zero in a second.
I am just so proud to be able to take my NAPA car, my NAPA Toyota, to the West Coast and race in front of the fans in Southern California.
I don't believe in luck. Like I didn't win a lot of races for awhile, and it's because I didn't put myself in position to win enough of them.
There's been bumps in the road and serious challenges along the way, but my love for NASCAR and my zest for life is what's most important to me.
I've got my hands in every aspect of the NASCAR world, not only as the part time race car driver but as the full time TV guy and race team owner.
Physically helping me with advice and direction and a job was Richard Petty. He did a lot for me at a young age, when I needed help and direction.
It's easy to get bogged down in all the negativity that when you see people smile and pat you on the back and say, 'We're going to get through this,' it means a lot.
Great news for Pres Obama. He watched football all weekend and tomorrow he will receive the Heisman trophy. Next week he's going to watch NASCAR. Move over, Jimmie Johnson!
You know, it's funny: Over my career, I didn't win as much as I hoped, but I can look like Flavor Flav if I want to put on all my rings that I've won for different reasons.
I'm a Christian guy. I believe that we're going to heaven, and I believe when Dale Jr. and I drove off from Turn 4 at Daytona, I think that Dale Sr. had a smile on his face.
The racing team is the most important thing in the world to me. It's where all my eggs are fully in that basket. I go dance and do TV to try to make that world more important.
It's my opinion tracks got too wide. You put 43 cars on the track, and if the turns are too wide like they are at some tracks, you sort of lose perspective of what's going on.
People are obviously capable of handling the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But I don't know how many people have had to experience them within seconds of each other.
I would probably build somewhere between a half-mile and three-quarter-mile track. It would be sort of like Indianapolis Raceway Park. When I was a kid, that was my favorite track.
When you're not successful, people look at the driver and say, 'what's wrong with him?' and sometimes the drivers look back and wonder 'what makes you think you're not the problem?'
The chances of me getting into the Hall of Fame as a racer are slim to none. But as an owner I have a chance to do something special, mostly because I learned a lot of secrets from Dale.
I think I'm someone who is pretty happy with themselves and pretty content where they are in life. I want to share my happiness and hopefully enrich people's lives that I come into contact with.
I really love the camaraderie you can share amongst some buddies, and the ability to laugh, enjoy the afternoon, enjoy the day. Golf brings all of that together and that's something I really enjoy.
Talladega is one of the macho tracks on the circuit and when I was a kid, I remember everyone wanting to go watch this race because the cars go so fast on the circuit; there were so many great battles.
When 'Michael Waltrip Racing' and 'competitive juices' are discussed, naturally the subject of jet fuel arises. I'm here to tell you that I can be competitive without jet fuel; that stuff tastes awful.
The Daytona 500 is what it is because of the tradition and history of this great event. People have been coming out in February since 1950 to watch this great race. It would be hard to ever change that.
I love NASCAR. I love the sport. I love the people. I believe I love it more than I ever have because of the people that have gone out of their way to tell me that they appreciate who I am and who MWR is.
I always thought if you run a Marathon in less than 4 hours, there is a tick of athletic accomplishment in that. Anything over that is just an old guy with a hard head who isn't going to stop until he's done.
Everyone who has ever aspired to be a stock car driver wants to win the Daytona 500. If someone says that it's better to win somewhere else, then that tells me one thing for sure - they've never won at Daytona.
You can't take your win for granted. Your next win might be your last win or you might never get to your next win, so I can't imagine not being overcome with joy by winning and never taking winning for granted.
NAPA has been with me from winning two Daytona 500s, to missing races with a new start-up team, and back to victory lane again. The relationship grew far past that of just a sponsor, but more of a partner and a friend.
I think people - especially folks who haven't seen a lot of NASCAR - they get this idea that we're just going around in circles. And that's so far from the truth. You're running as hard as you can to get all you can every lap.
Everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing is working hard to deliver great results to our owners, employees and sponsors. All organizations have a lot at stake each week as we are all measured by our performance and finishing position.
Lying in bed, I determined that since I'm a Christian, I believe we all have our days - our days are numbered. I figured it was Dale's day to die, and I was the best person to win the race and be able to honor him in the victory.
I just was fortunate enough to be talented at what I was watching my brother do. It's great that it worked out that way; I might have been wasting a lot of time saying that's what I want to be, but when I got behind the wheel I had the ability.
When there are challenges like there were up to and after Daytona in 2001, you remind yourself it will one day make sense why everything happens the way it does. You may not figure it out now on this earth, but in heaven, it will all make sense.
Well, when you think of Dale Earnhardt, you think of determination. You think of grit. Just a blue-collar, working-class guy that got out there and fought for the checkered flag and fought hard for it. And I got so much out of him. He inspired me.
I don't understand why everybody can't remember how exciting the Daytona 500 has been over the years when Richard Petty and David Pearson and Darrell Waltrip ran just the three of them racing for the win. Why do you have to have 40 cars in a pack to say it's exciting?
There's a Bible verse that says if you believe, you will be in the presence of the Lord in the blink of an eye. And I know Dale was a believer, and that means that he saw his son and his friend going to win the Daytona 500, and he was in heaven all within the blink of an eye.
I just don't think human beings are designed to have that big of a swing of emotions. I mean, I'm standing in Victory Lane literally seconds after Dale Earnhardt died. Dale Earnhardt was not only my car owner that day, my first victory in 463 tries, but he was my dear friend, too.
If you look up the definition of stand-up comedy, it's funny on purpose. A little bit of pressure there. It's basically acting. You're telling stories and acting them out for people. The more you make it seem real, really a person doing it, then it seems to me the better it works.
Well, my favorite memory of a president was in 1984. I was in the grandstands at Daytona, and maybe I was 20 years old. So just sort of down in Daytona, having a good time for the 500 - or for the 400 in July. And Air Force One lands on the back straightaway. It was President Reagan.
Whether you're Michael Waltrip or Jeff Gordon or Richard Petty, you can't be the Daytona 500 champion without it having an impact on people around you. When I say that, I mean the race fans. They want to congratulate you for winning the biggest race of the year. It has changed people's perception of me.
I built my team with Dale in mind. He lives with me. He's part of who I am because I just appreciated who he was and how he went about things. People worked on his cars at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated before I got there. When Dale would walk by you could just tell people were thinking, 'these are Dale Earnhardt's cars.'
When you have turnover, somebody not work out, they'd leave, it really affects a young organization because you don't have your process down pat. You got people coming and going who are affecting your direction. It's just really hard to start from scratch and quickly put your direction in place and be able to stick to it.
The one feeling that settled in and stayed there for a long while, and I still deal with, is guilt. I was there. I was a part of it. Why does it have to be like this? Was I responsible? Was I the reason Dale was in that position? I'd ask myself that question and look around at people and wonder if they were thinking that, too.
And Dale Jr., Dale's son, and Dale and I all raced to the checkered - were racing toward the checkered, which would have been the greatest race in NASCAR history, I'm convinced of it, had we have made it that last quarter of a mile. But instead it became the worst race in NASCAR history when Dale crashed and died on turn four.
Dale was just trying to get third. Maybe he was thinking that he could get a run on everyone coming out of Turn 4. But the race was over. Junior and I had pulled away, so there was no need to block. That always hurt me when people said he was blocking for me, because it almost felt like it was my fault that he died. But I don't think that anymore.