Realities of Life's Race Drive Waltrip to His Savior
by Doug Greengard
August 11, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Growing up in Owensboro, Kentucky, Darrell Waltrip's focus was on reaching the winner's circle. It began with go-kart racing when he was 12. His dream was to advance to the pinnacle of stock car racing success. "That was my mission," said Waltrip. "I pursued that with everything that I had."| | 
This story is excerpted from Doug Greengard's book Heroes of Faith (Vol. II), which contains 28 stories about the biggest names in sports and their faith in Jesus Christ.
Click here to order the book. |
By 1972, after establishing himself on dirt tracks and short tracks, Waltrip made his National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) debut at Alabama's Talladega Speedway. Three years later, he decided to shift gears and hit the track full-time in order to face the world's best drivers on the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.The rest is racing history. Checkered flags, along with fame and fortune, soon followed as Waltrip quickly rose to the ranks of one of the sport's elite drivers. Everything seemed to be going just as planned. That was until one day in 1983 when, at the urging of his wife, Stevie, he attended an event near their home in Nashville, Tennessee, and listened to a minister discuss eternal life.
"I thought that if I was a good guy I would go to heaven if anything ever happened to me," explained Waltrip, who was NASCAR's Driver of the Decade in the 1980s. "I figured if I got killed in a race car ... I was a good person. I never killed anybody. I never robbed anybody. I figured I'd go to heaven."
Waltrip, seeing his need for a Savior, surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. Stevie had already begun her walk with the Lord and was a great encourager to her husband and others at the race track.
"She was attending Bible study fellowship and got on fire for the Lord and started working on me," said Waltrip, a three-time Winston Cup Series Champion. "In our sport, there's an element of danger and she wanted to make sure every Sunday that I was protected the best I and the other drivers could be."
It became a race day custom that Stevie would hand out note cards containing Bible scriptures to the drivers. The Waltrips took another giant step in 1986, teaming up with several other racing couples to form Motor Racing Outreach. "We saw a huge need on the circuit," said Waltrip. "It's our church at the track."
After retiring in 2001 and being inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Waltrip still stays connected to the sport as a television analyst. Looking back, he sees how powerfully he has been used to share God's love with others. "Sports give us such a great platform," he said. "I'm glad that I can do my part -- and I wish other guys would step up and do the same thing."
Doug Greengard is a nationally recognized sportscaster and speaker. He is also the former chaplain for the NFL's New Orleans Saints and the host/producer of Christian Sports Minute, a radio feature airing on more than 300 stations in North America.
