Waltrip's TV star persona both a blessing and a curse

They still love Michael Waltrip, even when he's walking solemnly back from pit road after failing to qualify for yet another Nextel Cup race. Time after time, it happens -- a fan, oblivious to what's just happened on the track, stops the tall man in the blue suit and asks for a photograph. And Waltrip always obliges, leaning down and smiling that classic smile that's sold so many car parts for NAPA. The fan walks away, Waltrip's mask of concern returns, and his lonely march to the garage resumes.

They still love him, even after all he's been through. The fuel-additive scandal at Daytona, which earned his crew chief an indefinite suspension and the driver a 100-point penalty he feels every Friday afternoon like a sharp stick to the ribs. The mental stress and the inherent pressure from sponsors after missing one race after another. And now the raised eyebrows and whispered accusations following a rollover accident on a lonely road that had police knocking on his door in the early hours of the morning,

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But none of that seems to matter to the faithful, who wander back to the far end of the line of transporters looking for Waltrip, even if his truck is parked outside because there isn't enough room in a short-track infield for those outside the top 35. So he'll hold court in a director's chair outside teammate Dale Jarrett's hauler instead, signing the occasional autograph and talking to the occasional reporter who wanders by. Say this about Waltrip -- even in the worst of times, he doesn't duck the television cameras.

And he shouldn't. Because the television cameras are what created him.

They love his shtick, love his funnyman routine, love his unkempt mess of dark hair and his accent and his penchant for dropping sponsor names at the most unexpected of times. Make no mistake about it, Waltrip earned his two Daytona 500 victories, even the one shortened by rain. Those are the rules. But much of what he has today he also owes to television, which found him irresistible and turned him into a star. Sterling Marlin has just as many Daytona 500s as Waltrip does, and six more race wins overall, but you don't see him on SPEED every five minutes. (Continued)