I was 12 when I went to my first Bristol race. By 1981, I had witnessed four half-mile battles and I knew one thing… I was not a Darrell Waltrip fan. Ya see, I was the rebel in my race fan family. My brothers and my father all pulled for D.W.
Dale Earnhardt won the first race I attended at BMS, and I adopted him as my favorite driver. My logic was — it was my first race, Earnhardt’s first win — I’ll pull for him. Turned out to be a pretty darn good choice, but that’s another story for another time.
Back to D.W. My family had the upper hand on me. I mean for seven straight races (1981-84), D.W. made the trip to victory lane. It was just automatic… Waltrip always won at Bristol. And of course, my family gladly rubbed it in.
Of those seven straight Bristol wins, four of them came in the Mountain Dew Buick. Now Darrell Waltrip has long thought about adding this car from his 1981-1982 championship seasons to his collection and on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway, that dream was realized.
Much to the surprise of the three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, Waltrip was presented with the No. 11 Mountain Dew Buick Regal he drove during his back-to-back championship seasons during pre-race ceremonies.
Ralph Santana of PCNA VP Sports, Media and IMG, made the presentation to Waltrip on behalf of the Mountain Dew Racing Team.
Waltrip’s streak of seven consecutive victories at Bristol Motor Speedway began with a sweep of both Cup events at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile during that 1981 campaign. He also won both Bristol events in 1982 and 1983 and the spring race in 1984.
