CHARLOTTE, N.C -- There seemed, shall we say, something different about Darrell Waltrip during a recent appearance to promote the NASCAR Hall of Fame by announcing the unveiling of one of the race cars he used to drive.

Waltrip, ever the high-energy guy, appeared to have an extra bounce to his step on this particular day. Upon closer visual inspection he was, in fact, wearing some type of attachments to the soles of his shoes that made him look as if he was ready to spring into action as a superhero.

Darrell Waltrip survived a last-lap battle with Richard Petty to win the Rebel 500 at Darlington in '79.

“

I'm not sure he was that big of an agitator; he was just so in love with himself.

”

-- DALE INMAN

"These things? They're back savers," said Waltrip, pointing to the soles of his shoes and talking in typical rapid-fire fashion. "If you stand on your feet all the time, they'll really fix you right up. There was one guy who was going to have back surgery; he started wearing these and now he feels great. They're called Z-Coils. I read about 'em on the Internet. They put all kind of pep in your step."

That's one thing Waltrip, now 63, has never been accused of lacking. A three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and winner of 84 races, Waltrip first arrived on the Cup scene in 1972 with his mouth motoring and the wheels turning seemingly as fast in his head as the ones on the race track.

He once announced he was going to make everyone forget all about Richard Petty. Fellow driver Cale Yarborough nicknamed him "Jaws" because he yapped so much. And once his long driving career was completed in 1999, he made what seemed to be a natural transition to the broadcast booth -- where he continues to serve as color analyst on FOX telecasts of NASCAR races.

When Waltrip recently identified current driver Kevin Harvick as a guy who "likes to stir things up," the question was put to others about how much Waltrip enjoyed doing the same back when he was driving.

"I'm not sure he was that big of an agitator; he was just so in love with himself," said a chuckling Dale Inman, long-time crew chief for Richard Petty. "He was strictly a Darrell Waltrip fan, and it took him a while to make it, too. But he made it, and he made it by being controversial.

"He would come to Richard for advice. And Richard would try to tell him how he should act. Well, hell, he wouldn't get 10 feet from the truck and he'd be right back at it again. And he still likes to talk. That ain't nothin' he won't tell you himself. Now he's just making his living by doing it."

Clay Campbell, track president at Martinsville Speedway, added of Waltrip: "I do think Darrell has mellowed out over the years, but he's still a great voice for the sport -- and a respected voice. And he's got the career to back it up."

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Brian Vickers visits with Darrell Waltrip during a broadcast on SPEED last season at Richmond. Waltrip has never been one who is afraid to exercise his voice or give an opinion.

Using the voice

Waltrip has never been one who is afraid to exercise his voice, whether it's talking about his career, the current state of the sport or what he thinks should be done to get Dale Earnhardt Jr. turned around in the right direction. He is full of opinions and eager to express them.

So it was before, during and after the recent Hall of Fame appearance -- which eventually evolved into sort of a Waltrip Unplugged affair as DW discussed in great detail many aspects of the sport. For those privileged few patient enough to stick around and listen closely, it was highly entertaining indeed and well worth sharing.

Waltrip was asked about the current Cup dominance of driver Jimmie Johnson and the No. 48 Chevrolet team that is owned by Hendrick Motorsports -- and almost immediately made comparisons to, well, himself when he drove the No. 11 Mountain Dew car for owner Junior Johnson back in 1981. That car was the one unveiled recently that will be included in the Glory Road section of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, which will open in May.

"They are so dominant, and it's the way I was when I was driving for Junior Johnson -- and Junior Johnson was known as the best car owner in the sport," Waltrip said. "All the resources we had, we had an advantage. I was at the top of my game when I got in that car. Junior was at the top of his game as a car owner, so we were better than everybody else.

"That's where the Hendrick organization is. They've got great resources, great sponsors, great people -- and their drivers aren't too bad, either."

When it was suggested that Johnson is as dominant as anyone has ever been, Waltrip offered a slight correction and also addressed the popular theme of the day that Johnson is inside every other driver's head.

"His [Johnson's] team is [dominant]," Waltrip said. "When you're at Vegas and you come down to the end of the day with 20 to go and he drives right by you, that's very demoralizing. When you're at Bristol and you've led all day long, and with 10 or 20 to go he drives right by you, that's pretty demoralizing. They always seem to be able to find a little bit more when they need it to win races. That comes down to making the right [pit] calls, making the right adjustments on the car, and you've got to give Jimmie all the credit in the world as a driver, too. Heck, I'm a [former] driver. It might be a great car, but you've still got to get it around the race track.

"But you also have to say that he has surrounded himself with a lot of great people. [Crew chief] Chad [Knaus] is the one who is in everybody's head. Jimmie, not so much -- because Jimmie is not that way. You never hear him talking that much or bragging that much. Chad, on the other hand, he's got those other crew chiefs wondering what's Chad going to do? Not what Jimmie's going to do -- because we know what Jimmie's going to do. He's going to get in the car and if you get him in position at the end, I've said before that he's the best closer I've ever seen. He'll get you a win.

"But the guy who keeps everybody guessing is sitting in the pits. Other crew chiefs are like, 'God, what if he takes four and I only take two [tires] and he beats me?' Or, 'What if he takes two and I take four and he beats me?' Every week, that's the guy who's really kind of got them turned upside down."

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Darrell Waltrip stands with his No. 11 Mountain Dew Buick during the kick off of the final 50 days before the opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in March.

What about the Hall?

It doesn't take long to realize that Waltrip possesses great appreciation for the NASCAR Hall of Fame that is about to open. He was not part of the first class that will be inducted, but knows that he will be under consideration to be included in the second class of five inductees.

He does not hide what that would mean to him.

"You go through your career, and after you retire you get inducted into many Hall of Fame's," Waltrip said. "I'm in the Kentucky state Hall of Fame; I'm in the Hall of Fame in Darlington; there are Hall of Fame's everywhere, and all of them are significant for someone. So getting inducted into any Hall of Fame is a big deal. It's incredible.

About the Hall

The Hall of Fame will bring NASCAR's history to life and preserves that history in the appropriate environments. The facility will allow fans to have the opportunity to relive the sport's greatest moments.

• More on the Hall of Fame
• Inaugural class special

"But as a competitor, I said over the years that I wished we just had our own NASCAR Hall of Fame -- one that's not identified with anything other than our sport, one that really honors the history and the true champions of our sport."

Now, he has one and it is just a matter of when he'll get in as more than a mere visitor. Waltrip makes it clear that he has no problem with the selection of the first class that includes Big Bill France, Bill France Jr., Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt and Junior Johnson. But, of course, it's not quite the way he would have done it.

"If somebody said how would you do it, I would have made the Frances the founding fathers of the Hall. The father-son [tandem] that started the sport, they would have been the big statues out front -- and that would have opened up room for a couple more drivers in the first class. But you can't fault what they've done," Waltrip said.

"If they took five drivers, I'm on the edge. Me, Bobby [Allison] and Cale [Yarborough] we have similar records. I have 84 wins, Bobby has 84 and Cale has 83. Cale and I have three championships and Bobby's got one. I think, performance-wise, we're all about the same. So if you took Richard and David [Pearson] and Dale, we would have had to fight over those other two spots -- and then you'd have gotten in for sure on the second go-'round"

But Pearson, whose 105 career wins are second only to Petty's 200, did not get in with the first class and obviously will be heading up the second. Waltrip theorized that if one more older driver or promoter and Inman, whose eight championships as a crew chief are second to none, happen to get included in the second class along with Pearson, that could leave him, Allison and Yarborough scrambling for two spots in the second class as Waltrip once envisioned them doing for inclusion in the first.

"I heard Richard say, 'We ought to honor the old guys.' Well, that's easy to say when you're already in. You know? If I was already in, I'd be saying they ought to honor Red Vogt and all those guys, too. But they deserve to be in. The first 10 or 15 guys, there's really no wrong people to get in," Waltrip said.

"And besides, Richard is one of the old guys. He's older than me, at least."

Pressed on the point, Waltrip eventually admitted that he would prefer to be included in the second group of five who will be admitted to the Hall.

"I'd by lying to you if I didn't tell you that it definitely would make a difference. Like I said, when they talked [beforehand] about it maybe being drivers-only and classes of five, I was maybe on the edge of that five and I was comfortable with that. But when you add the Frances in there, and rightfully so, and with David Pearson not getting in during the first go-'round, that changes things up a little bit," he said.

"So now I'm not so sure. I just know I've dedicated my whole life to this. When I was done driving, someone stuck a microphone in my hand and found out I was pretty good at [broadcasting], so I sort of made a second career out of it within the sport. But I'm most proud of my driving career and my contributions to the sport.

"I guess if I had to say, and I'm not sure I'm being entirely honest about it with myself, but I guess if I could just be a part of this sometime that would be satisfying. But sooner rather than later would be better."

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Darrell Waltrip in Victory Lane at Bristol with car owner Junior Johnson in '82.

Old days vs. new

Waltrip said he remembers coming into the sport as a driver in 1972, when he drove a car built basically by himself out of whatever parts he could scrounge up. He looked longingly at the Petty Enterprises operation as the benchmark for what he hoped to become.

"The thing I watched about the Pettys was how they ran their business," Waltrip said. "I'd heard about Lee Petty and Petty Enterprises and how they were the first people to run a race team as a business -- to make money and put food on the table. I wanted to be an owner. When I started, you had to build most of your own cars at that time and so that was my vision. You had to start your own team if you wanted to get in the sport, so I was trying to model my operation somewhat after theirs.

"I always loved the way their cars were immaculate. Everyone else would always drag their ragged cars to the track and have guys in T-shirts workin' on 'em. And then you'd have the Pettys with Richard and Dale Inman and Maurice [Petty] in their nice uniforms. It was just a better-run operation than all the rest.

"Then you had Richard -- much like Dale Earnhardt Jr. today -- and all the people who said he inherited everything from his dad and that he had the golden spoon and that's why he won all those races. They had the Hemi engine, which no one else had, and all the Chrysler backing, all this money that no one else seemed to have.

"But as I got to know Richard and race with Richard, well, his record speaks for itself. Two-hundred wins -- no matter how many of them were at Islip Speedway [actually, only two] -- and seven championships. I have told people that I don't know if his name had been Bob Petty if he would have been so famous -- but the fact that he became King Richard makes him that much more of an icon."

Waltrip sees Junior Johnson as the same sort of icon, and not just because he won all three of his championships while driving for him. Johnson won four other championships as car owner and a total of 50 races as a driver.

"When you've got 50 wins as a driver, that sort of speaks for itself. But with Junior, I think it's the entire body of work," Waltrip said. "And it's not just an an owner and not just as a driver. It's the entire contributions he made to the sport. Certainly bringing R.J. Reynolds into the sport, which was exactly what we needed to bring national recognition to the sport at the time, was one of those. Junior was right in the middle of all that.

"When he first got into the Hall over Pearson, I was like, 'Wait a minute. Is that right?' But then, I sat down and said he's a winning driver, a winning car owner -- and then there are all the other contributions that he's made. He's made a number of significant contributions to the sport. Then you start to say, 'Yeah, that makes sense that he should get into the Hall first.' "

Johnson did more with less back in the days when he was building and guiding one championship team after another, Waltrip added.

"To compare what we had then and what they have now, there really is no comparison. We had 12 people that worked in the shop," Waltrip said. "I always like to tell people that we didn't have any specialists. The guys who worked in the shop all through the week worked in the pits on Sunday. The fabricator was the tire changer; the truck driver was the gas man; even the driver was part of it. You were literally hands-on with the car yourself. It was a very small group of people.

"That first year, we built 12 cars. Twelve guys built 12 cars. They never rested. They kept building 'em and building 'em, and certainly I think that gave us an advantage in 1981 and even leading into '82."

Nowadays, organizations such as Hendrick Motorsports generally maintain about 14 cars per team -- but even after some of the downsizing and mergers of many in the last couple of years, the bigger teams oftentimes employ hundreds of people to build the cars and constantly tinker with them.

"I am blown away. People ask me all the time, 'What's the difference in the sport between then and now?' It's not so much at the track," Waltrip said. "We're still dropping the green and getting the checkered, and running 500 miles most of the time in between. But it's the facilities. It's back at the shops. The men that are building the cars and the process they're going through, the equipment that they have and use. That's the biggest difference, and it's fascinating to me."

Current events

As much as Waltrip loves to talk about the good ol' days, he still enjoys dishing on the hot topics in the current Sprint Cup garage.

Of Kevin Harvick, who had been leading in points until he suffered through a difficult day and poor finish at Martinsville last Monday, Waltrip said he wasn't surprised when Harvick publicly said a few things to stir the pot in the wake of the recent Carl Edwards/Brad Keselowski controversy that erupted following Edwards' deliberate wrecking of Keselowski at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Hot topics

After Atlanta, the talk was about Edwards vs. Keselowski.

• Others weigh in
• Stewart's take
• Harvick reacts

Another feud

Harvick has had his issues with Edwards, leading to unkind words from both. Waltrip's opinion is that Harvick was running well, not enough people were paying attention and that Harvick wanted to get noticed.

• Complete story

"This is just my observation, only from outside looking in. ... But Kevin's been running really well and no one's really been noticing," Waltrip said. "He hasn't been the center of attention, and Carl [Edwards] and Brad [Keselowski] were, and he thought he ought to get his dog in that fight. I think that's where his comments came from.

"There are people in this sport who are sort of antagonists, and I'd say that he likes to be one of those. He likes to stirs things up. I think there may be a number of those in there right now. Brad Keselowski certainly has been making a name for himself and is being outspoken. Kevin has always been outspoken; Kyle [Busch] has always been outspoken.

"But if you notice, that usually tempers itself as you become more successful, as you go down the road in this sport. Think about Tony Stewart. When's the last time you heard him say anything controversial, or out of line? It's been awhile. Some others, the same way. I look at it and say, 'Well, they've finally grown up. They finally got the message.'

Asked if he has grown up yet, Waltrip smiled and shook his head.

"I'm trying, man, I'm trying," he said. "Listen, you have to have success. If you're going to talk the talk, you need the results to back it up. That's the bottom line with that. Otherwise, you're just a whiner. So if you're going to talk about things and you're going to make comments and you're going to be controversial, you'd better have good performance to go along with it. If you're an also-ran and you're also running your mouth, that's not going to go over very well. If you're running well, winning races and maybe championships, people will want to hear what you have to say. Otherwise, I think you're just kind of blowing in the wind."

Asked about the smaller crowds who have been attending NASCAR races, Waltrip does not even attempt to put some kind of spin on it as other officials have been known to do.

"We just have facilities that are too big. All these tracks are overbuilt," he said. "When the demand was there, they just kept building and building and building -- and if the demand ever went away or things [in the economy] turned soft a little bit, you were going to see what we're seeing. We're still in great shape. We still have over 100,000 people at a lot of our events; we just don't have 120,000 or 150,000 or whatever the number might be.

"As a whole, I think the sport is very healthy. I just think a lot of these tracks, a lot of these teams all overbuilt and overspent. And now we're having to learn to do more with less -- or rather I'll say do more with what we are given."

And as for the new spoiler that was implemented last weekend at Martinsville -- first amid much fanfare and then without any at all (drivers kept saying it would make no difference at the half-mile track and it didn't) -- Waltrip had his own take on that and on NASCAR's rules in general.

"First of all, we didn't have all the regulations. This sport, when it comes to the cars, there are so many templates and so many specifications and so many rules you have to live by. We didn't have to deal with all that. That's why we didn't need all the people. We could have 10 or 15 or 20 people, build a race car and take it to the track and as long as the silhouette was right and the big template fit, everybody was happy," Waltrip said.

"With all the rules you've got right now, it's too much. It costs a lot of money and you've got to go to the wind tunnel and you've got to have all these people who are trying to keep ahead of the game. It's just too much.

"There are so many regulations, it causes a lot of heartburn. We didn't have to deal with all that. We had the freedom to be creative to develop our own stuff, do our own thing. That's how you could get an advantage. They don't want anybody to have an advantage -- but my opinion is the more you try to tighten the rules and regulate everything, you're going to give somebody an advantage because someone's going to be able to figure out how to spend more money and get ahead of everybody if they're smart."

And what about Junior?

Finally, Waltrip touched on one of his favorite subjects -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. When Earnhardt first signed with Hendrick Motorsports prior to the 2008 season, Waltrip was first in line to predict great results for the marriage.

Waltrip, in fact, unabashedly predicted the day Earnhardt's new No. 88 Chevrolet was unveiled that he believed Earnhardt would win the next Daytona 500 and "at least" six races in 2008. Instead, Earnhardt has won just one in two-plus seasons and recently made news for getting embroiled in a spirited discussion with crew chief Lance McGrew over the radio during a race.

“

I like him [Waltrip]. It's hard not to. I just think he thinks out loud and doesn't have much of a filter. That's just kind of the way it's going to be.

”

-- DALE EARNHARDT JR.

Analyzing Junior

Darrell Waltrip says he knows how high expectations are for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and suggested he race in the Truck Series to boost his confidence.

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In between a bunch of swearing by Earnhardt followed by an awkward silence, McGrew implored Earnhardt "not to lay down on him," which sent Earnhardt into another verbal rage that both he and McGrew later downplayed. Asked about it, Waltrip couldn't help bringing up the other Junior -- as in Johnson -- one more time.

"You could be leading a race by a lap and slow down just a little, and Junior Johnson would be on that radio saying, 'Boy, you aren't laying down on me, are you?' Now that was motivation to me," Waltrip said. "It didn't require me coming back and saying, 'What are you talking about? Don't ever say that!' Every mule is different; some of them you got to hit with a stick and kick, and others you got to pat on the back. I guess maybe [Dale] Junior didn't take kindly to that.

"Listen, expectations are so high with him that if he's not winning, the world's not right. I think they're taking baby steps to get him back to where he needs to be. I told Rick [Hendrick] this and I honestly believe this: I would run him in some truck races. He needs to get somewhere where he can win.

"And I would get him a truck. Not a Nationwide car, a truck. They're fun to drive and you have a good time in the truck series most of the time. I would go talk to [Kevin] Harvick and ask him if I could drive that 2 truck. And then I'd go out and win me a couple races; I think that's what he needs. I think it would really help his confidence, and I think his fans would enjoy seeing him do that. I think it would be a win-win."

Earnhardt in the Camping World Truck Series? Are you serious, DW?

Yes, he is.

"I think we've all been so hard on him and beat him up with those high expectations; we look at him always and see that he's got great teammates performing at a high level and wonder why he's not, and I think it's taken a toll on him," Waltrip said. "That's why I would try to find some positive things for him to do to help him get his spirit up and his confidence up."

Asked about this possibility later, Earnhardt first grabbed his forehead as if he was attempting to ward off a wicked migraine. Then he seemed to remember who was suggesting this madness.

Good ol' DW.

"I like him. It's hard not to," Earnhardt said, who added that he has no intentions of following Waltrip's advice. "I just think he thinks out loud and doesn't have much of a filter. That's just kind of the way it's going to be."

Amen, brother. It has been that way for nearly 30 years.