Darrell Waltrip still owns Bristol record

It was among the most audacious and mildly risqué T-shirts I’d ever seen.

The guy wearing it in the late 1970s was manning the cash register in a small convenience store near Bristol Motor Speedway, where NASCAR's top teams gather this weekend for the Food City 500.

The T-shirt bore this message in big, bold letters:

"I HATE HOT BEER...COLD WOMEN...AND DARRELL WALTRIP!!!"

I was surprised, because many Tennesseans had made Waltrip their favorite driver after he adopted their state as home after growing up in Kentucky.

However, the man in the store was downright rude to anyone who expressed support of Waltrip.  "Not very good for business," I thought to myself.

Anyway, over the next few years the fellow had to experience a lot of anger and rage, for Waltrip became a three-time champion of NASCAR's top division, and the winner of 84 races, tying Bobby Allison for third on the all-time list.

Furthermore to the anti-Waltrip fan's dismay, perhaps, Darrell also became the winningest driver in history at the bowl-shaped, steeply-banked, .533-mile Bristol track in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Waltrip, who retired as a driver after the '99 season and now works as an analyst on Fox TV's racing telecasts, scored a record 12 triumphs at Bristol, including an incredible run of seven straight victories from 1981-84.

"To me, that's one of the most impressive streaks anywhere in NASCAR history," says Junior Johnson, who was fielding cars for Waltrip in that period. "Because it's so fast and tight, there's a wreck waiting around almost every turn at Bristol.  For Darrell to have been able to stay out of all that trouble and win so many in a row is amazing.

"It shows how savvy he was in avoiding accidents and saving his equipment."

In turn, Waltrip credits Johnson and his crews for providing cars prepared almost perfectly for the Bristol track.  Springs and elements of the chassis were especially important in handling the stress exerted by the banking, which in those days was 36 degrees.

Johnson learned this art in the 1950s while setting up the high-powered "hauler cars" in which he transported illegal moonshine whiskey over the twisting back roads and highways.

Johnson, who sold his operation and retired from stock car racing in 1995, remains Bristol's all-time winningest car own with 21 victories. Jack Roush is a distant second with 10.

Waltrip first won at Bristol in the Southeastern 500 on April 2, 1978, while driving for the DiGard team.  He triumphed again for DiGard on the track in August of 1979's Volunteer 500, beating Richard Petty by 1.5 seconds.

Waltrip left DiGard to join Johnson for the 1981 season and their domination of Bristol began.

They swept the speedway's two annual major races from '81 through '83 and made it seven straight in the Valleydale 500 of '84.

Terry Labonte broke the streak on Aug. 25, 1984, in the Busch 500, a race in which Waltrip experienced myriad troubles and finished 21st.

Darrell won again in Johnson machinery at Bristol in 1986, taking the Busch 500 in August.

Waltrip left Johnson after the '86 season to join Hendrick Motorsports, with which he won Bristol's '89 Busch 500.

Perhaps appropriately, Waltrip's final hurrah at the immensely popular track in the Tennessee mountains came in a car he owned and fielded. The track's racing surface had been changed from asphalt to concrete, and Waltrip adjusted masterfully.

To the cheering approval of thousands of fans, Waltrip led the final 133 laps of the Bud 500 on Aug. 29, 1992, and beat arch-rival Dale Earnhardt, the runner-up, by 9.28 seconds.

The guy in the T-shirt at the convenience store almost certainly wasn't one of those cheering the best ever at Bristol.