by Darrell Waltrip

Updated: July 28, 2004, 2:18 PM EST

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First of all, someone wrote, "How would you like to be the driver who substituted for someone and got no credit for your finish?" Well, guess what? The record book will not show that Martin Truex Jr. relieved Dale Earnhardt Jr. If Earnhardt started the race, made just one lap, and Truex won, the record book wouldn't say that he won the race. It would only say that Earnhardt was the driver of record.

If NASCAR allowed substitute drivers, teams wouldn't have to hustle pilots in and out of cars as the 8 team did on Sunday. ( / Associated Press)

I won a race in 1977 at Talladega in relief of Donnie Allison for Hoss Ellington. I'll never forget it. Donnie had gotten sick, and I relief-drove for him. When the race was over, the press asked Hoss what were they going to do for me for relieving Donnie and winning the race. Hoss said, "I think I'll buy him a bottle of Gatorade." I was sponsored by Gatorade at the time.

Why do you want to put an injured driver in harm's way, risk getting hurt again or take a chance at hurting someone else? A burn is minor, up to a point. But superstar drivers are a precious commodity. There are only a limited number of superstars in every sport, and a football coach would not put his star running back in the game until he was well enough to play.

Drivers don't get in their cars because they think they're macho men or Superman. We get in those cars hurt because we have to. Our team depends on it. Our sponsors depend on it. Everything rides on the driver being able to start the race. Look at the anguish that you, your family and your team go through just so you can start a race and get those precious points. It certainly puts a lot of pressure on a driver. You've heard Dale Jr. talk about driving with a concussion, and there have been others who have gotten into race cars when they've had no business getting in them.

In this day and time, I just think there's got to be a better way.

I keep asking, "What's the point?" What's the point of making one lap? You have to take the green on the race track. It used to be that you didn't even have to take the green on the track. We used to get in the car, go around the track and come into the pits on the parade lap. When you got in the car and rolled off, it was considered starting the race. Drivers would just get in the car, go around the track, come back in the pits, jump out and somebody else would get in. They finally made a rule where you had to take the green on the race track, but I just think it's asking an awful lot of a race driver to put himself in a situation like that when it could be handled a whole lot more professionally in this day and age.

The way NASCAR has set up the points this year, here's an option. You can have a substitute driver up until you get into the playoffs. You would be sure — and this is terribly important to NASCAR — to have all of your superstars in the top 10 for those last 10 races.

Once you get into the playoffs, whatever happens, happens. If you're injured in those final 10 races, you're out. If you can't drive, you can't drive.

Ask DW
AskDW Subject: Comment/Question: Name:  Email:  Hometown:

Like I said in last week's column, I don't have all of the answers, and you can't ever foresee all the things that might arise from substitute drivers, but I have driven with more broken bones than Humpty Dumpty. I didn't want to. I had to. I didn't get in the car because I loved to drive. I didn't get in the car because I would drive under any conditions. I drove because I had to.

I shouldn't have run some of those races, and I regretted running them because they take a toll on you. A lot of times you do foolish things when you're younger, and you pay for them later in your life. Some injuries hurt more at 50 years of age than they did when you were 30. Think about Muhammad Ali and all of the fights he won, but look what it did to him.

I don't think instituting substitute drivers is a stupid idea. I think it's a good idea.