CORNELIUS, N.C. -- Michael Waltrip admitted Tuesday that he always has looked up to his big brother, Darrell. But it's obvious he doesn't always take Darrell's advice.

For that, every employee at Michael Waltrip Racing can be thankful today. More than once over the last several years, Darrell Waltrip told his much younger brother to get out of the race team ownership business.

"I even tried to talk him out of it before he got into it," Darrell said.

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There is not another person in this sport who would have had the overhead, people, teams and everything that he had that would have stayed the course like he has. That took an incredible amount of fortitude.

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DARRELL WALTRIP

He tried again and again as Michael's struggles on the track and financial losses off it mounted during MWR's first 18 months of operation after opening for business at the beginning of the 2007 season. Darrell was sure he knew what he was talking about, pointing out that he and several other former drivers had tried their hands at owning race teams and ultimately failed, so there was no shame in it.

Michael refused to listen. Asked to explain what Lil' Brother has as an owner that perhaps he didn't, Darrell answered at first with one word (which, of course, was followed by many others in typical DW style).

"Perseverance," said Darrell, who owned his own team -- and mostly drove for it -- both at the beginning of his Cup career (1972-75) and toward the end of it (1991-98), capturing a total of six wins in 270 starts. "I got scared. When my deal started to go south and I started to lose money personally, I couldn't stand it. I'd worked too hard and had too much invested. I said I've got to get out of this before I start spending my own money and go broke. I was lucky; I was able to sell out.

"Michael, on the other hand, he hung in there when nobody else would have. There is not another person in this sport who would have had the overhead, people, teams and everything that he had that would have stayed the course like he has. That took an incredible amount of fortitude. I don't know how he did it."

The new future

All Michael wanted to be growing up was a race car driver like Darrell, who won three championships and a total of 84 races (either tied with Bobby Allison for third all-time or one behind Allison in fourth, depending on who you ask or where you look it up).

Michael got to do it, too, making more than 1,000 starts combined in what is now the Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup Series. Not even Big Bro was able to pull that off in his career. In fact, only one other driver -- the legendary Richard Petty -- can make that claim. (Continued)