by Darrell Waltrip

Updated: June 16, 2008, 8:19 PM EST 150 comments

add this RSS blog email Print

Sunday being Father's Day naturally was a red letter day to all us dads. Some of us still have our dads and some of us don't. I know my dad, Leroy, would have been happy with this past weekend because I got to spend it with my girls. Daddy always felt that hanging out with the family is as important as anything else you do, especially if you could do it at a racetrack like we did for so many years.

To see Dale Earnhardt Jr. win on Father's Day was special. So was seeing him and Rick Hendrick embrace each other in Victory Lane. To see that bond that they have — Dale Jr. missing his Dad and Rick missing his son, Ricky — I think they share all that emotion between the two of them in a quiet humble way. When Junior said he wanted to wish all the Dad's a Happy Father's Day, I almost broke down in tears.

The whole weekend was that way — just look at what Joey Logano did by winning the Nationwide series race in Kentucky.

What an incredible show. It looked like Logano and Kyle Busch were going to square off with each other but then Kyle had trouble. I have watched Joey race on a number of occasions and he did basically the same thing I have watched him do. He takes care of his stuff, and then when its money time, he steps it up a notch.

The young man is smart and doing an amazing job. All the hype and everything we were expecting out of him, I honestly think he is going to live up to every bit of it. He has so far. I don't see him slowing down much. He is in the right car, and he's with the right team at the right time.

Golly, think how excited his dad must have been Saturday night standing down there in the pits knowing where they came from to get there. It has to be like Tiger Woods. I just remember how proud Tiger's dad was seeing his son succeed at what he wanted to, and to be a part of it had to be so gratifying.

I was touched by Saturday's race. I was touched by Sunday's race. It was just one of those nail-biters. I may be one of those odd-balls in the world, but I really love those races that come down to gas mileage and strategy. Can he make it? Will he make it? Does he have enough to make it? The suspense and the unknown always keeps you on the edge of your seat. Thrown in the fact that Dale Jr. had won a race in a long while and that made it even better.

LeMans on SPEED TV was a great show, too. Two great powerhouses battled it out. That turned out to be exciting. It was just a great weekend all around. The only thing that would have made it better was if my Dad, or Dale Sr., or Bill France Jr., Benny Parsons and Bobby Hamilton and so many of our loved ones that have left us, could have been there to enjoy it, too.

It certainly was a red letter day in ol' DW's book.

Oh, by the way

Folks, don't let anyone fool you by saying that Kentucky is in a bad market or the track is too close to other racetracks. Don't listen to all that. That northern Kentucky, south western Ohio market is in the right place at the right time. As many as 73,000 people showed up for a stand-alone Nationwide race. I may be wrong, but I would wager that is probably the biggest stand-alone crowd the Nationwide series will run in front of all season, and it featured one of the largest purses they will race for all year long.

Oh, by the way too

A fan left me a comment in my last column asking why I wasn't a fan of the Car of Tomorrow. I am. There are a lot of things I like about this new car. What I am not a fan of is that NASCAR won't loosen the reins a little bit and let the teams work on this car a little bit. I think this car has a lot of potential, but it could be so much better if NASCAR would allow it to be. That's my frustration and the point of the column yesterday. I just know there is so much that could be done to make this car better, but the teams aren't allowed to fix it right now. That's what I am not happy about.