Waltrip discovers Daytona success

Veteran often overlooked

? Michael Waltrip is used to being overlooked.

He spent years known only as the little brother of three-time NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip.

Even with two victories in the last three Daytona 500s, he’s referred to as Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s teammate.

“I don’t really pay any attention to that,” said Michael Waltrip, who goes into Sunday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup season-opener as one of the favorites. “I’m proud of Darrell and what he has accomplished in his life, and I’m proud to be part of the team started by my friend Dale Earnhardt.”

Waltrip was well on his way to a career as little more than a racing journeyman when the elder Earnhardt signed him in the winter of 2000 to a contract with Dale Earnhardt Inc., the team he founded.

The Intimidator said he was certain there was more to the fun-loving Waltrip than had come to light in 15 seasons without a victory in NASCAR’s top stock-car series.

“Michael Waltrip will win races, and he can be a champion,” Earnhardt said that winter.

Unfortunately, the seven-time Cup champion wasn’t around to watch his new protege develop.

Earnhardt, who still drove for his old friend Richard Childress, was trailing Waltrip and Earnhardt Jr. when he was killed in a crash on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500. Waltrip held off Junior for a victory that was all but forgotten because of the death of the sport’s most popular driver.

Waltrip, now 40, still hasn’t fulfilled all of his friend’s predictions. He has been unable to win anywhere but NASCAR’s two biggest tracks.

Waltrip, though, has become a winner in tandem with Junior. They have developed into a dominating duo at Daytona and Talladega, the two tracks where NASCAR requires carburetor restrictor plates to keep the cars under 200 mph.

Between them, they have won nine of the last 11 Cup races on NASCAR’s two biggest ovals. Earnhardt has won five of them, including four in a row at Talladega and the 2001 July race at Daytona. Waltrip added a win in the July 2002 race here and a victory at Talladega.