Grant Jedlinsky | The Roanoke Times

Meet Michael Waltrip

2007 NASCAR Preview

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• Dustin Long's High Fives
• 43 Questions for the 2007 NASCAR season
• Michael Waltrip: Joker or genius?
• Fans guide
• Dustin Long's Baker's dozen

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Michael Waltrip spoke, and the crowd laughed.

Every time.

Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya -- drivers with better resumes -- joined Waltrip on stage, but it was the guy with four victories in 675 NASCAR Nextel Cup starts who owned the crowd at Daytona International Speedway's fan fest last month.

They roared when Waltrip said he'd be a country singer if he couldn't race.

They chuckled when Waltrip said his first job started at 7 a.m., so he turned to racing.

They howled when Waltrip defended the Car of Tomorrow, saying, "It's just a race car. It's not like you're going to go to bed with it.''

He's had NASCAR fans laughing for years. Whether it was in TV commercials where he spoofed his brother, Darrell, or when he popped out of the roof hatch after his 2003 Talladega victory or during the give-and-take with cohorts on "Inside Nextel Cup,'' no comment is too corny, no idea is too far-fetched.

"You just know when he comes up with something that it could sound really far out there ... but we've learned to take his idea and not just say that's crazy,'' said wife Buffy, whom Waltrip proposed to in Bristol's Victory Lane after a 1993 Busch Series win.

Yep, that's Michael Waltrip: racing's funny man, celebrated by fans and cherished by sponsors. There's more to Waltrip, though, than the goofy driver. He understood TV's influence when others didn't. His antics turned him into a celebrity when his driving couldn't.

No joker would attempt what Waltrip will do this season. The driver who needed 463 starts to win a Cup race becomes the first person in decades to debut a three-car Cup team. He also helps bring Toyota to NASCAR's top series in a year of change that includes the Car of Tomorrow's debut, ESPN's return, and an expanded Chase for the Nextel Cup.

Along with Toyota, Waltrip corralled UPS, Burger King, Domino's and NAPA into backing his team when all he had to show were plans and passion. He convinced former Cup champion Dale Jarrett to join this unproven team. Waltrip chased his dreams as many doubted he could field competitive cars.

Maybe Waltrip is smarter than he reveals.

"It's unfair to all of a sudden say, 'Wow, you might be smart,' " he said in a mocking deep voice. "You all didn't see it then. It's OK that you don't see it now.''

He's too busy to worry about critics. A race shop, converted from a 12-screen movie theatre, nears completion. Cars must be built and refined. Crews assembled and organized.

"Who knows how it will turn out?'' Waltrip said before returning to character. "Maybe I'm dumber than everybody else.''

Writing down his goals

Michael Waltrip became a Cup car owner because he was fat.

In the mid-1990s, Waltrip weighed 245 pounds, about 35 more than the optimal weight for a 6-foot-5 man. He'd always struggled with his weight. That changed when he began to chart his progress running about a dozen years ago.

He persisted as his notebook displayed his results. He lost five pounds. Then 10. Then more. He weighed 200 pounds when he ran his first marathon in 2000. He ran the Boston Marathon later that year.

Waltrip wanted to run 26.2 miles in less than four hours. He recorded his effort and broke the barrier at the 2005 Las Vegas Marathon where he raised $1 million for the Petty family's Victory Junction Gang Camp.

"Defining goals meant seeing them in black and white ...,'' Waltrip said, "they became more real if I wrote them down.''

He wrote about more than running and his weight. He detailed races, his race car, people he met and circumstances he faced. He saw where he had been and where he wanted to go.

Richard Labbe recalled seeing Waltrip often writing in notebooks as they flew home from test sessions. Labbe -- Waltrip's crew chief when they won the 2003 Daytona 500 -- said Waltrip would enter his office at Dale Earnhardt Inc., with an idea about the car and show what he wrote or drew.

Waltrip's musings are in notebooks, not a computer. He jokes that typing was the only high school class he failed.

Buffy Waltrip said the family knows not to take a scrap of paper from any of her husband's notebooks.

"One tablet might have race stuff,'' she said. "One tablet might have notes for meetings. They're like his tools.''

Those notebooks shepherded Waltrip through the ordeal of starting a Cup team. He signed Toyota, wooed sponsors, expanded from a part-time Busch team, added about 150 employees, built a race shop, tested his cars, and prepared for this season.

As he talks about his writing, Waltrip glanced at a reporter's notebook.

"You write much better than me,'' he said, "but I can read what I write a lot better.''

Loveable personality

Debbie Hayes' favorite driver is Dale Earnhardt Jr., but she also cheers for Waltrip.

"Mikey is the greatest,'' said Hayes, a former Roanoke, Va., resident, who lives in Daytona Beach, Fla. ""He's the people's racer.''

Waltrip bridges the barrier between athlete and fan through his often-humorous TV shows, interviews and commercials. They convey personality, something some fans say stock-car racing lacks.

He combines on-camera charisma and wit with a sprinkle of aw-shucks. The act is exaggerated. Doesn't matter. Only 13 drivers in NASCAR's history have competed in more races than Waltrip. Ken Schrader (four career victories) is the only one among that group to have as few wins as Waltrip.

Waltrip also has never finished in the top 10 in Cup points; has not placed in the top 10 in his last 54 Cup starts; and is not guaranteed a spot in the season's first five races because he placed outside the top 35 in car owner points last year. His few successes feature two Daytona 500 wins, including the 2001 race where Dale Earnhardt died.

Janelle Bryant, a 71-year-old Florida transplant who favors Ryan Newman, is blunt about Waltrip the racer.

"I don't like him,'' she said. "I've never really seen him do much.''

But Waltrip the person?

"I love the guy,'' Bryant said. "Personality-wise, I don't think you can get any better.''

Credit TV's power.

Waltrip reached fans this off-season with an ESPN2 show that documented his team's growth. Waltrip's "energy and aura'' attracts people and got the network interested in such a program, said Joe Marcello, an ESPN associate program manager.

"Inside Nextel Cup'' host Dave Despain noted that Waltrip mastered TV nuances on that Speed Channel show and elsewhere. Despain said Waltrip understands when to say something and how to say it, whether with a wink, smile or nod that entertains and engages.

People notice.

Waltrip rates among the top five NASCAR drivers in the Davie-Brown Index, which determines a celebrity's ability to persuade consumers to buy products they represent. He is 87th among 350 sports celebrities, putting him in the same group as NFL quarterback Tom Brady and golfer Phil Mickelson. Waltrip ranks 34th among sports celebrities in consumer trust.

It's easy to trust someone you know. Or at least fans think they know.

Wants to be different

A burnout car. Michael Waltrip wants fans to do doughnuts in the parking lot outside his Cornelius, N.C., race shop.

This from a guy who turned a skate board park into his fab shop and a movie theatre into his race shop.

The burnout car is a new idea. Waltrip said he'd attach it to a metal pole so the car revolves around the pole. He wants video on the windows that mimic the blurred image of fans a winning driver sees when he spins his car in circles.

Waltrip stops. His race shop is near a residential area and several businesses. That noise won't work. Pop, another idea comes.

Tires squealing and a screaming engine noises will blast from speakers inside the helmet worn as the fan spins a car quieted by a muffler. Problem solved.

"The burnout car will go down,'' Waltrip said. ""It's going to happen.''

Whatever he does, he wants to be different. It's a mantra. His innovative thinking helps him stand out even when he blends in on the track.

Waltrip took a different approach when he announced rookie David Reutimann would be the team's third driver. Waltrip didn't hold the news conference at the race shop or a track where he could have a large media contingent. He shared the moment with 300 friends and family of Reutimann -- and a smaller media gathering -- in Reutimann's backyard in the Tampa, Fla., suburb of Zephyrhills.

Martha Tomasflynn, a senior Burger King official, recalled the reaction when Waltrip told them his plans.

"We're all going to Zephyrhills?'' she said. "We did. It was like one big family affair.''

Waltrip wanted fans and families to share in his team. It's why he's built a race shop that will have more than a gift shop and a couple of viewing points.

His facility will feature a 100-seat movie theatre, a restaurant and a retail shop with artificial grass to make it look like the souvenir trailer lots at tracks. Fans can see parts of the shop for free or buy a ticket for a behind-the-scenes tour. TV monitors will detail the car-building process and provide an interactive element. No other Cup team offers such amenities.

As he gave a tour of his unfinished shop, someone stopped and said, "Quite a setup.''

"Cool, isn't it?'' Waltrip said. And he smiled.

Proving Dad wrong

The story goes that Michael Waltrip's father complained to a friend about his son. "There's a lot of quit in that boy,'' Waltrip's father said.

Ty Norris heard that tale years later. Waltrip told him the story.

"Michael wouldn't remember that story if he wasn't out to try to prove that wasn't right,'' said Norris, a friend and business partner.

Norris paused.

"He has no quit.''

Waltrip's desire pushed him when he went years without winning a Cup race. It will help carry him past the critics. Many in the garage question if Toyota can win this season because it's new and its teams are winless in the last four years.

Friends and competitors wonder how Waltrip will do as a driver/owner. Robby Gordon and Kyle Petty each struggle to be competitive as driver/owners. Bill Elliott, Ricky Rudd and Darrell Waltrip had some success before they fell behind multi-car teams. Unable to keep pace, Elliott, Rudd and Waltrip sold their teams.

"This business is not easy when it's going well,'' said car owner Eddie Wood, a friend of Waltrip's.

It's tough to challenge Roush Racing, Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing -- teams that have combined to win the last seven Cup titles -- when they've each competed for at least 15 years. Waltrip's team ran its first Cup race seven months ago.

Ray Evernham relates to Waltrip's challenge. Evernham started a two-car team when Dodge entered the series in 2001. Elliott finished 15th in the points that year and won a race near the season's end. Rookie Casey Atwood was 25th.

Such history and Waltrip's past suggest he won't do well. The genius that got Waltrip this far might require the fool to play a greater role until this team can challenge for victories.

"I certainly would not in any way sell Michael short in terms of what he's done so far,'' Despain said. "It was a real smart play on his part to put together the package he has put together.

"I would go out on a limb and make a prediction that in five years time that team will be a lot like Michael. It will not be a team that has won a lot of races, will not be a team that has won a championship but will be a team that everybody knows and everybody likes.''