Race Was Easy Compared to Winning Fans : NASCAR: Waltrip enjoyed new-found popularity last year. Now he can relax and go for two in a row today.

The way Darrell Waltrip looks at it, he expects to successfully defend his Daytona 500 title in today’s $2-million stock car race, but even if he doesn’t, he figures he can’t lose.

“I’m having a better time down here than ever before,” he said. “I used to come to Daytona and get bugged all the time about why I never won the Daytona 500. And when I went out on the track I’d hear nothing but boos.

“All that’s behind me now. I don’t get those terrible questions about winning and I hear cheers instead of boos. How can I lose in an atmosphere change like that?”

Waltrip also considers himself fortunate not to have been caught up in the last-lap accident during the first Twin 125 Thursday at Daytona International Speedway that knocked Hendrick Motorsports teammate Ken Schrader off the pole and back to the rear of the field.

When Schrader’s Chevrolet Lumina got loose and starting spinning off the third turn, Waltrip was sandwiched between Schrader and the Pontiac of Hut Stricklin, but he managed to squeeze through with inches--maybe only a half-inch--to spare before Stricklin smacked into the side of Schrader’s car.

“I’ve never turned a steering wheel that much in my life,” Waltrip said. “That was sooo close, I couldn’t believe I actually got through. Maybe it’s an omen.”

Waltrip believes in omens.

Last year when he finally won his first Daytona 500 after winning three Winston Cup championships, he was driving No. 17, was in his 17th Daytona 500, and his daughter, Jessica, was 17 months old after being born on the 17th of September.

“Winning the Daytona 500 is like winning the Super Bowl in football,” Waltrip said. “When I came around Turn Nine at Riverside in 1981 and the crew hung up that sign, ‘Hello Champion,’ I thought it was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me on a race track, but winning the Daytona 500 is right there.

“It not only got the monkey off my back about why I couldn’t win it, it also seemed to change the public’s attitude toward me. It hadn’t been easy on me or Stevie (his wife) hearing those boos race after race.

“There were times when Stevie dreaded driver introductions. She would walk out with me to make me feel better, but it hurt both of us.

“I think winning here, after there had been a lot of talk about me being over the hill, that started the ball rolling the other way. I know a lot has been said about that deal at Charlotte where Rusty (Wallace) knocked me out of $200,000 on national TV in the Winston, but I was already hearing some cheers before that.

“Fans saw how excited I was about winning here, jumping up and down and doing my little dance, and Stevie and Jessica being with me in the winner’s circle, and fans started saying, ‘Hey, maybe Darrell Waltrip’s a good guy after all.’ ”

Waltrip went on to win six races and challenge for the Winston Million after winning at both Daytona and Charlotte, N.C. He fell short of the $1 million at Darlington, S.C., but he still says that “having a big year in 1989 probably meant more to me than any other year.”

At year’s end, he was given NASCAR’s most-popular-driver award at a banquet in New York. It was the first time he had even been a contender for the honor.

“I had no idea I would ever win that award,” Waltrip said. “I think a lot of fans were voting for Stevie and Jessica as much as for me, but winning it rates right up there with my Winston Cup championships and the Daytona 500.”

Now, as befitting a popular defending champion, Waltrip must turn his attention to today’s 500-mile race, opening event of NASCAR’s premier racing series.

“We’re definitely one of the cars to beat,” he said. “I’d like to win six or eight races this season, starting right there, and when we don’t win, I want to be the car to beat. The Lumina is proving to be a good change after the Monte Carlo.”

Waltrip drove a Monte Carlo in last year’s victory, but Chevrolet switched to Lumina in the middle of the ’89 season, and Waltrip won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in the car’s second outing.

“If we can go through this season without some of those DNF’s (did-not-finishes) that hurt last year, I don’t see why we can’t win the championship. I’d like to win my fourth one in my 40s.”

Waltrip turned 43 on Feb. 5.

Schrader’s crash has changed the complexion of the race. Instead of his Chevy sitting on the pole, it will be Geoff Bodine driving Junior Johnson’s Ford out in front. When Schrader dropped to the rear in his backup car, it meant that everyone behind him moved up a slot, and Bodine was next after winning one of Thursday’s qualifying races.

Dale Earnhardt, who won the other Twin 125, will start alongside Bodine on the front row.

Waltrip, who finished fourth in Bodine’s heat, will start from the fourth row.

“We’d have liked to qualify better and be on the front row, but starting where we are isn’t going to hurt. We did some testing in the wind tunnel during the off-season and we’re confident we can be as fast as anybody on the track, although the new restrictor plates tend to equalize everybody out.”

NASCAR officials, who installed a one-inch carburetor restrictor plate in 1988 for races at Daytona and Talladega, Ala., to help reduce speeds that were approaching 215 m.p.h., made further restrictions this year by cutting the opening to 15/16ths of an inch.

The new rule will cost the cars about 40 horsepower.

The race shapes up as a classic confrontation between Chevrolet and Ford, with Pontiac hoping to spoil the party--especially the Pontiac of Richard Petty, which made King Richard look 20 years younger than his 52 when he led impressively in one of the Twin 125s.

Bodine, Bill Elliott and Mark Martin, all of whom displayed a winning potential in Thursday’s races, will drive Fords.

“We won the qualifier by conserving on fuel,” Bodine said. “Sunday, you’ll see us using more horsepower and running harder, but the lessons we learned saving fuel could help like it did Waltrip last year.”

Schrader appeared to have the 1989 race well in hand until Waltrip skipped a late pit stop to cruise home on fumes and win the race.

Elliott, who hopes to wipe out the memory of some misfortune here last year with a strong ride, may be the sleeper in the field.

“Everything is better than last year,” Elliott said. “It had to be. Last year, I got a ticket for turning out of McDonalds the wrong way, then drew 13th in the (Busch) Clash, and the next day broke my arm. One improvement this year is that I’ll drive with two arms instead of one.”

Now that Schrader, the pole-sitter, is starting in the back row, the Chevrolet leadership falls to Earnhardt and Waltrip.

Earnhardt, the hard-charging three-time Winston Cup champion, finds himself in much the same situation as Waltrip did last year. He has won 39 major races but has driven in 11 Daytona 500s without a victory.

“I’ve always run real good here, I just haven’t managed to win,” Earnhardt said. “Every time the car has been right, we’ve been in the fight, and the car feels right this year.

“With hardly any rain, and so much rubber being laid down by all these other classes, the track is going to be really slick, and I think that will be in my favor. Not many guys like slick tracks. I’ve always been more comfortable on them than most anybody.

“I hope it’s hot Sunday. If it is, a lot of guys will make a lot of changes to get their car feeling right, and they’re liable to get all screwed up. I don’t plan on adjusting anything. I’m just going to hold the throttle wide open, clean the windshield, get a drink of water and say, ‘Let’s go.’ I just want gas and tires. I don’t want to turn any bolts.”

Surprisingly, the Pontiac driven by Wallace, the defending series champion, does not appear to be a factor. Wallace, who finished 15th in both of the last two races last year, will start in the 38th qualifying position alongside Jimmy Means after running poorly in his qualifying heat.

In the early running, Schrader will be the car to watch as he attempts to pick his way through the field from the rear.

“It was tough to give up the point, but we’ll just have to make the best of it,” Schrader said. “The backup car was pretty equal, and with 500 miles we have plenty of time to work our way back.

“The important thing is that NASCAR ruled that we’re still eligible for the Unocal bonus.”

The Unocal 76 Challenge bonus, which started out with $7,600 offered to the first driver to win from the pole, has now reached $212,800. There have been 28 races without a winner from the pole.

DAYTONA 500 LINEUP

POS DRIVER CAR 1 Geoff Bodine Ford 2 Dale Earnhardt Chevy 3 Harry Gant Oldsmobile 4 Bill Elliott Ford 5 Mark Martin Ford 6 Jimmy Spencer Pontiac 7 Darrell Waltrip Chevy 8 Phil Parsons Oldsmobile 9 Richard Petty Pontiac 10 Bobby Hillin Jr. Buick 11 A.J. Foyt Oldsmobile 12 Derrike Cope Chevy 13 Mike Alexander Buick 14 Lake Speed Oldsmobile 15 Butch Miller Chevy 16 Davey Allison Ford 17 Ricky Rudd Chevy 18 Ernie Irvian Ford 19 Sterling Marlin Oldsmobile 20 Terry Labonte Oldsmobile 21 Jack Pennington Oldsmobile 22 Kyle Petty Pontiac 23 Alan Kulwicki Ford 24 Michael Waltrip Pontiac 25 Joe Ruttman Pontiac 26 Larry Pearson Buick 27 Rich Bickle Jr. Oldsmobile 28 Rick Wilson Oldsmobile 29 Neil Bonnett Ford 30 Morgan Shepherd Ford 31 Brett Bodine Buick 32 Dick Trickle Pontiac 33 Phil Barkdoll Oldsmobile 34 Rob Moroso Oldsmobile 35 Jimmy Means Pontiac 36 Rusty Wallace Pontiac 37 Jerry O’Neil Oldsmobile 38 Jimmy Horton Ford 39 Eddie Bierschwale Oldsmobile 40 Dave Marcis Chevy 41 Ken Schrader Chevy 42 Hut Stricklin Pontiac