"I'd like to do like Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip did and take a final tour around the circuit to say goodbye to all the fans," he says. "But that decision is still somewhere in the future. I have a two-year contract, and I'll definitely be racing at least that long if not longer."
"Deciding when to hang it up is generally left to the individual driver," says Waltrip, a three-time champion who raced the final eight years of his career without a win. "It's usually up to us to make the call, and speaking from experience, it's a hard call to make."
There is no set formula, no galvanized guidelines for drivers to follow. NASCAR has no age limits or restrictions on its competitors. The oldest driver to compete in a Winston Cup race was Jim Fitzgerald, who was a spry 66 when he ran at Riverside in 1987. Red Farmer, who declines to reveal his age but is generally believed to have over 70 candles on his birthday cake, still competes in some lower divisions.
In 1992 Harry Gant became the oldest Winston Cup winner at 52. Bobby Allison won the 1983 Winston Cup championship a month shy of his 46th birthday.
"It's not a physical thing," Wallace says, adding with a smile. "I can still do a lot of sit-ups."
"I feel as physically fit as I ever did," says Marlin, who led the '02 championship standings for 25 races before having his season interrupted by a neck injury. "It's not like football or basketball where your legs or arms give out. In racing, if you can avoid injury and stay in good shape, there's no reason why you can't be competitive way past 40. In some ways, I'm a better driver now than I was 20 years ago. I've learned a lot over the years, and I can put that knowledge to use during a race. There's more to racing than just mashing the gas and going fast. Knowledge and experience count for a lot, and the guys who have been around the longest have the edge in those departments."
And so, on they race-veterans competing against youngsters sometimes half their age, legendary racers who were in their prime when some of their young rivals were in diapers.
"We don't have a Senior Tour in NASCAR," jokes Marlin, "and I like it that way. We line up and race against the best drivers regardless of their age. Shoot, it keeps us on our toes. It makes us all feel young. It also makes us more determined to go out and prove that we can still get it done. We know we can win because we've done it before and we know we can do it again. That's our motivation."
"Every time I don't win, it makes me more determined in the next race," says Wallace. "I realize the time will come when I'll decide to walk away, but that time's not here yet. I feel like I've got something to prove."
That "something," of course, is one more win-for old time's sake.
Waltrip: Know When To Say WhenWhen Darrell Waltrip glances in the rear-view mirror at his spectacular racing career, he feels a surge of pride-tempered by a tinge of regret.
"I hung around too long at the end, and it hurt my image," admits Waltrip, a three-time Winston Cup champion whose 84 victories are tied for third all-time.
"I kept racing those final years [eight] without a win, and that's all that a lot of the newer fans remember about me. They don't remember all the races I won, just all the ones I lost, the races in which I was not competitive. I should have quit much earlier."
Waltrip fell victim to the Catch-22 temptation that snared another former champion, Richard Petty. Petty, like Waltrip, was one of NASCAR's greatest racers-a seven-time champ who compiled a record 200 victories. But Petty wobbled through the final seasons of his storied career winless and struggling.