Darrell Waltrip - Early Years

Early Years

Waltrip was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, February 5, 1947. Starting his driving career in Go-karts at age 12, Waltrip entered his first stock car race just four short years later. Waltrip and his father built a 1936 Chevrolet coupe and headed to a local dirt track near their Owensboro, Kentucky, home. The first night out was far from a success as the youngster, barely old enough to drive on the street, Waltrip slammed the wall and heavily damaged the coupe. Waltrip soon left the dirt and found his niche on asphalt where the smoothness he learned in the karts proved a valuable asset. He was an early racer at the Kentucky Motor Speedway (an asphalt track in Whitesville) and Ellis Raceway, a dirt track on US Highway 60 west in Daviess County, (now closed), near his Owensboro home, driving a car called 'Big 100' built by Harry Pedley, owner of Pedley's Garage, on West Second Street, in Owensboro and sponsored by R.C. Bratcher Radiator and Welding Co., also in Owensboro, and both businesses are still in business today. Waltrip's success gained the attention of Nashville owner/driver P. B. Crowell, who urged Waltrip to move to the area to race at the Music City Motorplex, at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds in Nashville, where he would win two track championships, in 1970, and 1973.

Waltrip drove the #48 P. B. Crowell owned Ford sponsored by Harpeth Ford, in Franklin, Tennessee. There, he would aggressively promote the week's race when he appeared on a local television program promoting the speedway's races, and was not afraid to embrace the local media when other competitors were reluctant to do so. Some of the notorious "on air" trash-talking included making fun of some of the other local drivers such as Coo Coo Marlin (whose son Sterling) later raced at the circuit, (and is a two-time Daytona 500 winner) and James "Flookie" Buford, whose nickname he would mock on air. While some fans did not like it, it pleased track management that he was helping sell tickets, leading to packed grandstands and extra paychecks from track operators for his promotional skills. He also embraced WSM radio host Ralph Emery during his early years, forming a bond which would be influential throughout his career, as Waltrip would appear frequently on Emery's early morning television show on local Nashville television station, WSMV, and later substitute for Emery in the 1980s on Emery's television show, Nashville Now on the former TNN cable network (later, Spike TV). Waltrip would use the success he enjoyed at the Music City Motorplex, and his notoriety and public speaking skills that he acquired from television appearances in Nashville, as a springboard into NASCAR's big leagues.