Thursday, April 14th 'What If' Question

There's a joke in the NASCAR garage that Michael Waltrip could interview himself. If that's the case one must wonder how he would ask himself to sum up his career and if he thought he'd ever make it to this point. The younger brother of three-time NASAR champion Darrell Waltrip followed in his brother's footsteps into the NASCAR world but with vastly different result.

Michael is now team owner of Michael Waltrip Racing with the occasional out of retirement race for himself such as this year's Daytona 500 as well as this weekend's event at Talladega. Waltrip began his full-time Cup career in 1986 when he was picked to drive the No. 23 Kool-Aid car for Bahari Racing. He stayed with the team until 1995 before moving to the Wood Brothers until the 1998 season. Next came Mattei Motorsports where he stayed until 2001.

In his first 462 starts Waltrip had never won a race. He did win the Winston Open in 1991 to transfer to the All-Star event later that night and won the Winston in 1996. Those, however, are non-point events and didn't count in the win column. Waltrip had also never finished higher than 12th in the point standings.

In late 2000 though Dale Earnhardt came calling. Waltrip would become his third driver of his DEI team under the NAPA banner in the No. 15 Chevrolet. Suddenly Waltrip became a contender winning two Daytona 500's (2001, 2003), the 2002 Pepsi 400 at Daytona July as well as the 2003 fall event at Talladega. He stayed with DEI until 2005 when he moved to Bill Davis Racing before eventually forming his won team in 2007.

In the season-opening Daytona 500 that year, Waltrip's team caused major NASCAR controversy when it was found that his No. 55 had jet fuel in its engine. His qualifying time was disallowed, crew members were suspended and fines were handed down and the car confiscated. That year Dale Jarrett and David Reutimann drove under the MWR banner.

In 2009 Waltrip won his first race as a team owner when Reutimann won the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. He also signed Martin Truex Jr. to drove for his team beginning in 2010.

Waltrip has also become a SPEED broadcaster over the last few years, calling Camping World Truck Series races. He's also appeared on other NASCAR programming and recently wrote a book about his 2001 Daytona 500 victory and the death of Dale Earnhardt which became a best seller.

But ...

What If Dale Earnhardt didn't hire @MW55, would he be Daytona 500 (2)winner/broadcaster/author, etc or have raced into obscurity? #NASCAR

@RoushGirl17: Now that is a thinker. I will have to back to you on that one.

@phathead: we could only hope

@DRLDeBoer: no. that is, nothing.

@Matt_Kacar: he would of raced into obscurity. NAPA was with dei so waltrip would of raced with bad teams rest of his career

@weizdawg: this is tough daytona winner no. But the other things i think so. If dale were still here i think he would be alot farther to into wins dale was a huge part in him and that company for what he did for waltrip. for sure broadcasting also he is a good person for that!

@cruetten: no offense to Mikey, but all of his good fortune is because of Dale Earnhardt/DEI.

@NancyatStudioN: He'd never have won a race cause no one else believed in him. He probly would have still been an announcer