by Darrell Waltrip

Updated: September 21, 2007, 10:09 AM EST 299 comments

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We arrived in Dallas about 11 a.m. Wednesday morning and immediately went over to the convention center for a little news conference that a lot of you saw on any number of different outlets. It was fun sitting listening to everybody. And these people were excited about the opportunity to work with Dale Jr.

My dad was a Pepsi-Cola route salesman in Owensboro, Ky.. My brother Michael and I worked in the Pepsi plant at one time or another. I've been a Pepsi guy my whole life, and Mountain Dew was a perfect sponsor for me. I've got to confess that I wasn't that familiar with Amp, but it's high-performance Mountain Dew. It takes Mountain Dew to another level.

Of course, we're all familiar with the National Guard and what they do for our country and our freedom. If there's a disaster, they're there. They're the citizen's army. It was fun to listen to Vaughan talk about the troops and how racing related to what they do. All of the branches of the military are well-represented in our sport. It has helped their recruiting and given them an opportunity to get out in front of millions of race fans and prospective recruits.

Rick told me how they had decals printed up to throw people off. They knew that the decal people would tell other people, "Hey, they're going to be No. 81." It wasn't like they knew what the number was going to be because the 88 just kind of all fell in their lap at the last minute. Rick and Dale Jr. were having fun with the media and everybody as they tried to get the deal put together.

The sponsors were very excited, and Dale Jr. was just beside himself with his sister Kelley. My sister Carolyn has worked for me almost 30 years now, and through the years, we've pulled off some pretty big deals and done some pretty impressive things. She's always been there to help me. Along with Van Colley, she runs the business side of Darrell Waltrip Motorsports.

Dale Jr.'s sister is in there, fighting for Dale Jr. all the time. Whatever Dale Jr. wants and needs, that's her mission. She's out there getting it for him. The number 88 is a good example. Everybody wondered how he got 88. Well, Kelley got it for him. They were looking for numbers with 8, and the 28 wasn't being used. She contacted Robert or Doug Yates and said, "Look, if you're not going to use the 28, we're thinking about using it."

I wasn't involved in the conversation, but I know Robert pretty well. I'm pretty sure he would have said, "28 has always been our number, and we kind of inherited 88. Why don't y'all take the 88, and we'll put the 28 back on our car?" That was a great gesture on the part of a family operation, run by a father and son. They realized how Junior felt about having the 8, and if he couldn't have the 8, what's better than to have two 8s?

Folks, there were so many connections during the news conference that it was almost like I was reliving my whole career all over again. When I looked at the car with No. 88 on it, that was my claim to fame. When I got out of my own race car back in the middle of 1975 and climbed into the DiGard car with No. 88 — which Donnie Allison had been driving — we had Terminal Transport, my little sponsor. It wasn't much money.

But in 1976, we landed the biggest sponsor in the sport at the time with Gatorade. That was my stepping stone to success. Driving the Gatorade No. 88, I won 27 races and 20 poles. I had 91 top-five finishes and 109 top 10s. I almost won the 1979 championship, falling 11 points short to Richard Petty. So a No. 88 green car was a huge part of my life and career.

Top back-to-back/two-year win totals Winston Cup modern era (1972-present)
Driver	Years	Wins/No. of races	Winning pct.
Darrell Waltrip	'81-'82	24 wins/ 61 races	39.3%
Richard Petty	'74-'75	23 wins/ 60 races	38.3%
Jeff Gordon	'97-'98	23 wins/ 65 races	35.4%

Then I drove the No. 11 car, sponsored by Mountain Dew, and had two of the most successful years anybody has ever had in this sport. Driving the No. 11 car, I won 43 races, two championships for Mountain Dew and a third for Budweiser. I left Bud to drive for Rick Hendrick when we got the Tide deal. We had to buy back the No. 17. It was my number, but I wasn't using it so Roger Hanby took it. When I wanted to regain control of it, we ended up paying Hanby $25,000 in 1986.

Numbers are important and drivers will go to any extreme to hang on to their favorite number. A sponsor is part of your identity, and your number is part of your identity. You really want to have the same number all the way through your career. When I sold my own team, the No. 17 Western Auto car, and went to drive for K-Mart, I should have made them keep No. 17 on the car because people didn't know who Darrell Waltrip in the No. 66 was. My identity was in my number, and that's how most drivers feel.

Plus you have a personal relationship with that number. It's part of you, and you want to hang onto it. People have asked me, "Why is it such a big deal for Junior to have the 8?" It has history for him. The No. 8 was his grandfather's number. I was a huge David Pearson fan. At one point in his career, he drove the 17. I bought that number from Holman-Moody in 1974 so I could put it on my race car because I wanted to have that identity from my hero, Pearson.

Numbers are important and drivers really become very fond of and attached to numbers, and they want to hang onto them. I wish you could just get your number and let it be your number your whole career. Everybody knows Richard Petty was No. 43 and David Pearson was 21. Those numbers were just who they were. You knew what car it was and you knew who drove it.

So I've had some great relationships with the 88, and I've had great results with the 11 and Mountain Dew. It was like deja vu for me, standing there in a news conference announcing the biggest deal in NASCAR history between Rick and Dale Jr. That was what people said when I left Junior Johnson to drive for Rick and the Tide team. It was the biggest thing that had ever happened. I was having a lot of flashbacks, and it meant a lot for me to be there.

I look forward to seeing how this crowd is going to perform in '08. I think they're going to win a lot of races. I think you're going to see a new Junior. This is going to be a great opportunity for him to really show what a great race car driver he can really be. I could see a great sigh of relief, not just on Junior's face, but also on Kelley's, Rick's and everybody else's face. The car and the number are out there now. It's behind them so they can move on.

Oh, by the way

We had another great event in Texas Stadium on Wednesday night. Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, was there for a little while. Of course, Texas Stadium is a Pepsi facility, so he knew all the people from Pepsi-Cola. He had a few words to say, and Junior unveiled the car for all of the bottlers, who know what this program can do for Mountain Dew and Amp. A lot of them remember when we had the Mountain Dew car back in the '80s.

I had a long conversation with Jones about his football team. Imagine that. You're at Texas Stadium, and you talk with Jerry Jones about football. He was so excited about Tony Romo. He said Romo's a bright quarterback who can be the key to their success. Jones thinks that the Dallas Cowboys are going to be really successful this year because they finally have a quarterback who can really run the team.

Jones was there to pay tribute to Junior, Pepsi and everybody involved with the program, but he was also boasting about his team and his quarterback. He was almost as excited as Rick Hendrick was about his new driver.

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Oh, by the way, too

Here's an interesting little fact. On the way to Dallas, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about the fines that the NFL had placed on the New England Patriots. Check this out. According to the newspaper, "A dozen law professors weighed in with a combined 10,000 words on the matter, including testy exchanges over arcane sections of the tax code. Most of them concluded the fine is deductible as a trade or business expense." So head coach Bill Belichick is going to be allowed to deduct his $500,000 fine as a business expense.

Myron Grauer of Capital University Law School wrote, "Because, unfortunately, in this day and age, it probably is 'ordinary' for coaches and players in professional sports to cheat and, if caught, to be fined by the league, the fine levied on the Patriots' coach can be viewed as an ordinary and necessary business expense."

Mike McIntyre of Wayne State University wrote, "The fine was for violating a rule, not for cheating. No professional football game is played without someone breaking the rules. It is expected that people will break the rules."

Now, folks, I read this out of the Journal, and I just want you to realize that this is the NFL. I'm sure the same rules would apply to NASCAR and Formula One. He says it's probably ordinary for coaches, players and professional sports to cheat. And if caught, be fined by the league. I was fascinated because those rules would apply to our sport as well as the $100 million fine in Formula One.

They don't get fined for cheating. They get fined for violating the rules. Go figure.