Michael Waltrip Reveals How Dale Earnhardt Fixed Him a Ride in His Own NASCAR Team in 2001

The great Dale Earnhardt was nicknamed ‘The Intimidator’ for a reason. However, despite his reputation and his legend, the seven-time NASCAR Cup champion had a few close friends, one of which was the then young driver, Michael Waltrip.

In fact, it was Dale Earnhardt who got Waltrip his seat at Wood Brothers in 1996 and later in his own team, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated (DEI) in 2001.

This was something Waltrip revealed in a recent episode of The Dale Jr. Download podcast.

“It was coming to late 2000s, like August, and we didn’t have anything signed with Jim for 2001,” Waltrip said. “But Jim wanted me to drive it and I’m like, well, you know I just thought I wasted so many years re-signing and…I didn’t wanna do that.”

“And one day’s Dale…he said, ‘Have you got something for next year?'” 

“I’m working on something,” Dale Earnhardt told him.

“So he had Ty call me, and come to the shop and we talked about 2001 and he said, ‘I think I’m gonna close my Busch team and I’m gonna have three Cup cars and I want you to drive one of ’em,'” Waltrip recalled. “And I said, ‘Yes! That’s exactly what I wanna do!'”

This was all the Intimidator needed, as he asked for a few days to work on it. He went to Atlanta, got NAPA on board, and within days had it all “worked out.”

“We want you to come and drive for us as our third car in 2001,” Earnhardt told Waltrip.

Dale Earnhardt wanted to make sure Waltrip had “something good to race”

Michael Waltrip recalls how Earnhardt thought, given the right opportunity in the right car, he could win races.

“The reason why I got to drive the Wood Brother’s car in ’96 was Dale told Eddie and Lynn that he thought they should put me in the car,” he said. “He couldn’t put me in one of his yet, but he wanted to make sure I had something good to race.”

Waltrip went on to have a good stint at Wood Brothers, which he followed by driving the No.7 car for Jim Smith.

“We ran in the top five a few times and had a chance to win a couple of races,” Waltrip said.

Also Read: Dale Earnhardt Jr Opens Up on the “First Real Conversation” He Had With His Father During the Early Days of His Career