SCR: How much different would the management side of DEI be if Dale were still alive?
Waltrip: I can't comment intelligently on that because I wasn't around here when he was running it. I really loved his presence, whether it was at DEI or at the racetrack or just simply fishing or hanging out. He had a presence that was amazing. He was in charge. I'm sure this place misses that; I don't see how it couldn't. I think there are a lot of people who are very determined to make it go forward like Dale would have wanted it to do.
SCR: You were here with Dale for just three months or so, is that correct?
Waltrip: Yeah, and those were a fun three months, preparing for the 2001 season and beyond. I'm glad I had that time working with Dale, and I was really looking forward to having him run my career. I think he looked at my career and said, "OK, boy, you've got a lot of talent; I think you can drive a race car as good as anybody, but you haven't done a very good job so far. I'm going to straighten this deal out for you." I think that's the way he looked at it. I took it that way, and I think that's the way he looked at it, and I was looking forward to that leadership.
SCR: Do you ever worry that you're being pigeonholed as a driver who excels only in restrictor plate races?
Waltrip: I ran second last fall at Homestead and ran Top 5 at Michigan this year. I've been pretty competitive everywhere. I've excelled at the plate races. That's the only events we've been able to win, but I'm not concerned about being pigeonholed, because I'm in control. What other people think does not affect how I run at Darlington this weekend or at Richmond the next. I control that, and I don't believe that restrictor plate tracks are the only places I can win. So who cares what everybody else thinks?
SCR: What are three things you would like to see NASCAR do? Think safety, marketing, events-anything.
Waltrip: I like the proactive direction that the safety deal is going, instead of reactive. NASCAR has the folks in Hickory (North Carolina) learning about cars. They've got the doctor out in Nebraska learning about walls. Then the teams independently are trying to develop safety. I love all that, and I want to see that continue. That's paramount. Part of that continuing is bigger cars. That has to happen, and it has to happen sooner rather than later. As we make the cars bigger, I like that for competition. We need the cars to be aerodynamically similar to a truck, so the guys can't just break away. We need the cars to bust the air up and hopefully make-even at Michigan and California-the draft become a part of racing. Of course, there's the development of safer barriers. I don't like to call them "soft walls" because they still hurt, but they are safer. It's a good direction to go in. So safety, safety, safety is important.
SCR: You're a legitimate 6 feet 5 inches, is that correct?
Waltrip: Yes.
SCR: Is that the whole thing with the bigger greenhouse, to make the cars more comfortable for bigger drivers?
Waltrip: If everybody were 5 feet 5 inches, it wouldn't be that big of an issue. If we had kept going-and NASCAR put the brakes on heading that way already by recognizing they can't get any smaller-but if we had kept going in the direction we were heading in up until just a few years ago, a guy like Richard Petty might not ever have gotten an opportunity to drive a race car. If he comes along in 2020 and these cars continue to shrink like Indy cars have done, then we're going to see a bunch of little short guys running around weighing 140 and driving Winston Cup cars. I don't think that was Mr. France's idea when he started this deal.