Darrell Waltrip

ATLANTA - Gray flecks highlight Darrell Waltrip's dark hair. Lines of laughter and worry crease his weathered face. But at 53, he still looks capable of jumping in his race car and going for a rip-roaring Sunday drive. And that's what he'll do today in the NAPA 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway - if the rain and ice hold off. But it will be a different kind of drive. For Waltrip, who is tied for third on the all-time Winston Cup winners' list with 84 victories, it will be the final drive of a long and storied career.

It used to be when Darrell Waltrip walked into his team's garage and crew chief Jeff Hammond told him there was a problem with the race car, Waltrip would give him a little smile and say, "Oh, really? That's tough, isn't it. I'm going to lunch."It isn't like that anymore."Now, when Jeff has a problem, my response is, 'Oh, No!,' " said Waltrip, who now owns the race team.The days when Waltrip could come to work, get in the car, drive and forget about everything else are history. DarWall may sound like something state road crews use to patch highway potholes, but to Darrell Waltrip it sounds beautiful.

The way Dale Earnhardt tells it, he and Darrell Waltrip were sitting together on Earnhardt's porch last month, looking out over some of Earnhardt's 300 acres near Kannapolis, N.C.It was a pleasant afternoon, until Waltrip spoiled it."When we get old," Waltrip said, "I'm going to enjoy sitting here with you, reminiscing about how you've never won the Daytona 500."Earnhardt has won five Winston Cup championships, the last one coming last season. But winning the Winston Cup without the Daytona 500 title is similar to being ranked No. 1 in tennis without having won Wimbledon.

Say the name Waltrip at a race track and heads spin. Darrell Waltrip? Where? Where? But this Waltrip isn't the three-time Winston Cup champion. This one is Michael, Darrell's "little" brother, and while the older brother has soared to the top, the younger one is in danger of being labeled mediocre."

Short of Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the Daytona 500 — a scenario that would have prompted Tony Kornheiser and others to scream "Shenanigans!" — NASCAR could not have scripted a better way to start the 2011 season. A refreshing new face popped out of the cluster of cars to win the Daytona 500. And a revered old one took a big step toward relevancy the next week in Phoenix. Trevor Bayne and Jeff Gordon represent a nice link to NASCAR's present and past. Bayne is among the new generation of rising, marketable stars.

Jimmie Johnson is apologizing, but he's not exactly sorry. There's a big difference. Johnson admits he was out of line for criticizing NASCAR after he was penalized for a speeding penalty at Martinsville on Sunday. Two days later, Johnson admitted "we were wrong" but didn't let NASCAR off the hook completely. He probably isn't the only person in the world who thinks a simple solution to pit road controversy would be for NASCAR to make pit road speeds immediately available for drivers, crew chiefs and fans to see. Johnson got busted for a segment different than the one he thought he was busted for during the race.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Dale Earnhardt started first and finished in victory lane yesterday after another entertaining afternoon of racing in the International Race of Champions.The Dodge Avengers looked like brightly colored marbles as they rolled around Daytona International Speedway.Earnhardt's lime green machine beat Al Unser Jr.'s red one to the finish line by half a car length.Rusty Wallace, who led the most laps (14), finished sixth, behind Dale Jarrett, Mark Martin and Kyle Petty."Everybody was competitive," said Earnhardt, who got shuffled as far back as fifth before regaining the lead with three laps left.

Bristol's Food City 500 is the last time this season that last season's top 35 results are locked into a race. Starting next week, the cutoff will be based on this year's standings and there's potential danger for two Penske teams. Kurt Busch is the only Penske driver who is safe in points standings at 10th. Brad Keselowski's No. 12 Dodge is in 33rd place and Sam Hornish Jr.'s No. 77 Dodge is in 31st place. Both cars fell after last week's race - Keselowski because Carl Edwards wrecked him for revenge.

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- Success comes in its own good time in stock car racing, and the amount of work that goes into the effort often seems to have little to do with the outcome.In Mark Martin's mind, he raced better time after time earlier this season without a victory. Now, on a three-race winning streak, there is an edge that wasn't there before.And Martin, instead of being unabashedly pleased with his success, is uncharacteristically reserved about being the hottest driver on the Winston Cup circuit.

"In the old days, drivers trained on booze and women," the late driver Tim Flock once said, while recalling the earliest days of professional stock car racing. "I remember so many Saturday nights before the races when ... [drivers] partied all night and came to the race on Sunday morning with eyes that looked like two big red cherries." They'd knock each other around on and off the racetrack. They'd seemingly do and say whatever they wanted. Flock, in fact, raced for a time with a monkey - Jocko Flocko - in the seat beside him. But in the late 1970s, as major sponsors started coming into NASCAR's top racing series, the sport began to seriously change.