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Darrell Waltrip

Legendary stock car driver Darrell Waltrip — winner of 84 career NASCAR Cup Series races and a three-time champion — serves as lead analyst for NASCAR on FOX. He was selected for induction into the prestigious NASCAR Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2012. Want more from DW? Become a fan on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.

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Updated Aug 3, 2009 9:31 AM ET
     
 
Well folks, to me there is nothing worse than rain at a race track. A weekend at any race track, and particularly this past weekend at Pocono, is about a routine. Well the routine already got upset with qualifying being rained out. Then Sunday the race got postponed and it just screws up your whole weekend. Not only does it mess things up for NASCAR, the competitors and the TV and radio folks, but also for the fans. Just think about all the travel arrangments that had to be changed. It's a logistical nightmare. It's also expensive and aggravating for everyone. I feel bad for the fans that maybe couldn't get Monday off and had to go back home. So I will be glued to the TV today to see just what kind of race we are going to have. Saturday night the truck series raced over here in Nashville. I went over and got to work with the Speed folks during the broadcast which I always enjoy doing. You've heard me say it before, I love the truck series. I always have. Not only have I raced the trucks but twice I had a team in the series and in 1997 we almost won the championship with Rich Bickle behind the wheel. I hate that the series is struggling the way it is. With the economy the way it is, the manufacturers and the sponsors have cut their support. A lot of these truck teams literally are struggling to make it week in and week out. I still think the truck series will survive. I know the veterans like Ron Hornaday and Mike Skinner hope it survives plus there is a lot of exciting young talent coming up through that series that look to have a bright future in NASCAR. Ron won Saturday night for his fifth win in a row which really puts him in a league all his own. Then again, he already was. He just has the whole package at his fingertips right now. We also had a monitor in the booth showing the IndyCar race at Kentucky. What an incredible event. They were bouncing off each other at 220 mph fighting for the lead. What a side-by-side race, which you don't see every day in that series. We also had the inaugural race at Iowa in the Nationwide series. It was great to see Brad Keselowski win. He passed Kyle Busch with eight laps to go to notch his second win of the season. Kyle finished second and set a record by finishing either first or second in the last nine races. I loved Kyle's quotes after the race when they told him about the record. His response was what if all those seconds had been firsts. That's just his attitude and his mentality. For him, you either are first or you are last. The other positive is he padded his point lead a little more. He just has to keep in mind he can't win every race and he has to be big picture racing because that means a championship. So getting back to Pocono, we will just have to watch it on a Monday. It's never the same though. For a driver and his crew, it just doesn't feel quite the same. Hopefully it will be a good race and keep us entertained. Hey look at it this way, it's like having Monday Night Football on Monday afternoon. That brings me to another point. You know how most tracks went through a fad of putting up lights for Saturday night races? If you look at the ratings and attendance, it just hasn't paid off for our sport. These Saturday night races under the lights in NASCAR just don't seem to be the way to go. Saturday nights are for all the great short tracks all over the country and Sunday is for NASCAR. We've been saying that the races need to start at 1 p.m. on Sunday and finally someone is listening. So I was remembering how I used to wait for Thursday nights to get here because of the Thursday night Thunder. I always loved watching the midgets or sprint cars race from some short track in the Midwest. So I wonder if we couldn't use Sunday afternoon for some events and then Thursday night for some events. Just a thought I had. So sit back and watch the race today from Pocono. Tony Stewart starts in the rear again. He did that in June and won the race. I think it will be harder for him this time. He got away with it once but it will be pretty amazing if he can get away with it again. So grab you a bag of popcorn, a Mountain Dew and Boogity Boogity Boogity -- Lets' Go Racin Boys!
Tagged: Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Mike Skinner, Brad Keselowski

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