by Darrell Waltrip

Updated: August 22, 2007, 9:03 AM EST

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NASCAR will tell you it goes into the point fund, and that's the way they look at it. The way I look at it, it goes right back to the competitors. At the end of the year, NASCAR takes the the money that has been collected from fines, and they redistribute it back to the race teams. The champion gets the biggest share of it, and the top 25 in points share in that money. It's divided up based on your position in the point standings. So they pay you to get fined because — most of the time — drivers get a big portion of the money back.

As the chairman of the board for the organization, I've asked NASCAR for years to give the point money to Motor Racing Outreach. MRO is our ministry at the track. They do incredible work, and they rely on contributions from drivers, crews and fans. If NASCAR took a portion of the fine money and gave it to charity, it would be a really nice income stream for the ministry. The drivers and owners would feel good about it, too. NASCAR always tells me they'll consider it, but they haven't done it. That's sort of the long and the short of the fine money. In reality, the teams get it back.

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Pray for MRO's leader

Max Helton has been a friend of mine since 1987 when I met him at Riverside International Raceway in California. He told me that he had a vision. The Lord had called him to North Carolina to start a ministry in racing, and he wanted to know what I thought. I thought it was a great idea and offered to help him any way I could.

So Max and his family left their church in California and moved to North Carolina on a leap of faith. It was something that he felt very strongly about. He wanted to start a ministry, and he wanted to call it Motor Racing Outreach. My wife Stevie and I along Lake Speed, Bobby Hillin and their wives came alongside of Max and supported him as we helped create MRO.

I'm telling you all of this because Max has been diagnosed with some sort of a brain tumor, and he was in the hospital for a couple of days. They've done the biopsies, and he's got to go back the first of the week to determine his treatment. Max Helton is a sweet family man who is a man of God. He has a great wife and kids, and they've done so much for our sport.

He's traveled all over the world, spreading the gospel and preaching the word of God. I've no better friend and no greater mentor than Max, and he's been a mentor in a lot of people's lives. He calls me all the time, telling me he's at some Formula One shop in Spain, Italy or France. He's good friends with a lot of F1 drivers. He's just a wonderful man who has done a lot of great things for a lot of people so I would ask you to pray for Max to be healed so he can get back to doing God's work. Stevie and I have a lot of love, admiration and respect for Max and his wife. They are among our best friends.

Larry McReynolds presents a $51,000 check for Motor Racing Outreach to the group's chairman, Darrell Waltrip. Click here for a bigger image. ( / AllWaltrip.com)

Oh, by the way

Last week was my 38th wedding anniversary, and I surprised Stevie by taking her to Nantucket. She's been going there ever since she was four years old, and it's where she loves to spend as much of the summer as she can. It was 105 in Franklin, Tenn., but it was 70 there. The weather was great. We did some fishing, and you may have seen a picture of one of the fish — the big striped bass — that I reeled in. I caught him in the afternoon, and we ate him that night. All of my buddies were in New York on Wednesday for a FOX seminar. I didn't get to go, but my boss, FOX Sports chairman David Hill, Jeff Hammond and everybody called to wish us a happy anniversary. It was a great time, and I've had a great 38 years. I couldn't imagine life without Stevie. She's special, and anybody that knows her knows what I mean.