Waltrip Planning to Form Race Team

Two-time Winston Cup driving champion Darrell Waltrip says he will take a step toward fulfilling his Grand National career by forming his own race team in 1987.

Waltrip will end his highly successful association with the Junior Johnson racing team when his contract expires at the end of the 1986 season.

Waltrip won 12 races in both 1981 and 1982 when he captured back-to-back Winston Cup championships. He ranks fifth all-time with 64 career victories, 37 coming since he joined the Johnson team in 1981.

Waltrip won seven races in 1984 and six the previous year. He is winless in four starts this year.

Neil Bonnett was added to the Johnson team after the 1983 season, and Waltrip says that may have hastened his decision to go out on his own.

“I’m not unhappy because of the way things are going right now, but I have never been a believer of two cars rulning for the same team,” Waltrip said.