Conversation: Michael Waltrip

FONTANA, Calif. -- Michael Waltrip turned 40 on Wednesday, and typically there are no dull moments in the life of the Winston Cup driver, father of two, Busch Series and Craftsman Truck team owner, husband, TV commentator and product spokesman.

True to form, Waltrip's latest endeavor is smack in the middle of a charitable promotion that benefits "Give Kids The World," a 51-acre, non-profit resort for children with life-threatening illnesses whose one wish is to visit Central Florida's tourist attractions.

	Michael Waltrip

In the midst of his most competitive Winston Cup season, Waltrip, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, took time to sit down with NASCAR.com's Dave Rodman to talk about dyeing his hair, his over-the-road pet peeves and the difference in Winston Cup racing since he started 18 years ago.

Turning 40 and dyeing your hair -- is this just an inevitable part of life or its next great adventure?

I think, as a Waltrip, it's inevitable (laughing). I'm the second Daytona 500 winner from the Waltrip family that's decided that dying their hair might be fun. I think you should do whatever makes you happy. I'm not ready for my hair to be gray yet, so I just started using Just For Men hair color, probably about six months ago. I really like the product and it really works for me.

To benefit Give Kids the World, would you dye your hair, let's say, purple? Seems like you wouldn't get any less lip from (Ken) Schrader and (Johnny) Benson and Allen (Bestwick) on the TV show, Inside Winston Cup?

I really like the sweepstakes that they've come up with, benefiting Give Kids The World. That's the greatest thing about it -- I don't have to do anything crazy like that. I can dye it my natural color and the fans that log onto justformen.com can win a trip to a driving school and $1,000 in expense money. The important thing is all the children that win, that are battling terminal and life-threatening illnesses, and that get to go to the Give Kids The World resort in Central Florida.

Are you going to be the driving instructor?

Nope. I leave that business up to the people that do that every day. The driving schools are a lot of fun and they are very well run. Those folks put people through school every day and they do a great job. I've had the good fortune to go through a couple of those schools through the years with my sponsors and I'm always impressed with the type of equipment they use and the type of instructing that goes on.

A lot of time, those instructors are guys that I am familiar with or have raced with through the years. Maybe they don't have rides right now and they're trying to stay involved in racing in some form or fashion and trying to stay current behind the wheel.

What's the worst thing people do out on the street? What's your pet peeve while you're driving?

	The driver of the No. 15 Chevrolet currently sits sixth in the Winston Cup standings. Credit: Autostock

I just don't like people that get all mad. It's like, we're not racing -- we're just trying to get to work or going on vacation. I can't even get a grasp on road rage at all. Why people get mad about the way someone else drives is a little silly to me. I guess that's my worst thing.

I don't like it when people are just on edge behind the wheel. I guess when I race I have to be on edge and battle for every inch I can get, but when I'm driving down the road I choose to just chill and I wish everybody else would, too.

In a lot of ways, people think you must have the perfect life -- wife, kids, all the pizza you can eat, driving race cars, travel. Is that fact or fiction?

I honestly enjoy our lifestyle and what makes it work for us, so I can't complain about anything. I'm real happy that I get to do what I love to do. When I made the Domino's commercial it was a chance for us to take our two little girls, Caitlin and Margaret to California and see what it's like to be in a commercial. They enjoyed that tremendously. Generally, the family travels with us wherever we go so I love it and I wouldn't complain about a thing.

Talk a little bit about broadcasting the Craftsman Truck race at Martinsville -- getting to watch DW race, knowing what it means to him to get back in and compete?

That was more or less all about Darrell getting a chance to do something that he loves to do. I promise you it turned his clock way back, to be able to go to Martinsville and to compete in that race. We were the fastest truck there prior to qualifying. He won practice. He passed people all day long and just had a real good run so I was real proud for him and real proud of my team for providing him with such a good truck to race.

If you had your way in a perfect world, how many races would Leroy's Boys do? How many would Darrell be able to drive?

We're very interested in trying to run a full Truck Series schedule for 2004 with our team. I think a nice complement to that would be Darrell running in a second truck in as many races as he wants -- or as many as (wife) Stevie would let him run. We'll just have to see what develops.

We bought some great trucks from Hendrick Motorsports and got some wonderful people working on our team that have a lot of truck experience. We're definitely going to IRP in August for our next event (with Darrell) but we're working now trying to secure sponsorship to provide someone with an opportunity to race for the championship next year.

After a quarter of the season, what's your impression of the current generation of Winston Cup cars?

Everything has gone well. I think (John) Darby (Winston Cup director) and (Mike) Helton (NASCAR president) and all the folks at NASCAR should really be proud of what they've accomplished. It was a plan that made a lot of sense to everyone going in -- that it would make the racing better if we could make all the cars similar so we're not constantly hearing all this silly bickering among the competitors and the manufacturers over a quarter-inch here or a quarter-inch there.

VIDEO CLIPS Michael Waltrip celebrates a second Daytona 500 victory Play video Michael Waltrip gets the lead at Daytona Play video    ALSO  •  Waltrip's Driver Page

I appreciate the way NASCAR stood fast. Early in the going, the Ford teams were whining and moaning just like they always have over issues that weren't even there. NASCAR let them whine and moan and carry on and yet they didn't react -- they said we need to see more. I think at Texas everybody left there saying, "Wow, this was pretty cool." We had all the manufacturers in the front and we had a great race where the makes of cars wasn't an issue.

You never heard anyone make a story that made any sense to people that were looking at it realistically. NASCAR was really responsible and I think confident with what they had prepared so long to do with the rules in 2003 that they weren't going to react to people just running their mouth. They wanted to make sure that if there was an issue it was going to be based on facts -- not just drug in from left field somewhere.

As we go forward the racing will just get better and better. Now they're setting themselves up so that if they want to slow the cars down somehow and they make a change in aerodynamics they can do it across the board. They can make one swipe and take spoiler or air dam or whatever away from all makes and achieve whatever they're trying to achieve without penalizing one brand over the other.

What percentage do you feel like you, (crew chief) Slugger Labbe and the guys have gotten out of your Chevrolet?

One hundred percent at the Daytona 500 and 95 percent at Darlington and Vegas -- but the rest of them not any better than 50 percent. Well, at Talladega we did really good but got in an accident. The tracks that I have historically run well at: Atlanta, Bristol, Texas -- we just missed it. We're concerned about that and we're also focusing on what we need to do to make sure it doesn't continue.

A lot of that was said and done over the last two weeks, with the off weekend (at Easter). At DEI, and particularly the NAPA team have just accomplished a lot of goals and been to the wind tunnel and done all kinds of work behind the scenes that the race fans don't even know about, trying to address our shortcomings at some of the other tracks that we have not performed well at this year.

Have you selected your car yet for the Pepsi 400 -- assuming your Talladega piece won't be usable?

It is (usable) -- it's about fixed. It was a great car at Talladega. We led the race and we felt really good about our car -- we just got in a bit of an accident late in the going but we've got it just about the same. It wasn't a big deal. They've fixed it and we'll race the same one.

Now that you've turned 40, reflect a little about what's occurred in the sport over the course of your career.

It's just been amazing to see the difference in the sport from when I entered it in 1985 to today. The whole mentality of the sport has changed, from how to pick a driver to the amount of cars that can win to the amount of sponsors on the side of the car to obviously the amount of people at the races to the amount of coverage that the media gives our sport -- it's almost mind boggling to think of how different it is now.

The one single biggest change in that time is the fact that then, you had to be known, you had to be established -- you had to be old, basically -- to get a ride in a good Winston Cup car. There weren't any opportunities for young cats to come in and get in a good car -- not only in Cup, but in Busch, either.

Unless somebody's dad had a little bit of money, they weren't getting in a good car but nowadays you see Hendrick Motorsports hiring Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch. Of course, when Jeff Gordon came along that kinda changed things a little bit, but now with Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman -- it's changed 180 degrees. It's gone in the other direction, completely.