Darrell Waltrip's Hall of Fame Exclusion Hurts More Than Any Defeat

Filed under: NASCAR Awards, NASCAR Hall of Fame, NASCAR

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) -- Darrell Waltrip, winner of 84 races and three championships on the track, lost a popularity contest among his peers that stung more than any other defeat in his illustrious career.

Snubbed by the NASCAR Hall of Fame voting committee in his campaign to be included in the second class, Waltrip was clearly hurt by his exclusion. The color drained from his face as he watched the five names called -- David Pearson, Bobby Allison, Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett and Bud Moore -- and although he gamely spun his chair away from the podium and toward the cameras to work an hour-long, live television program, he was wounded.

Waltrip took to Twitter immediately after leaving Wednesday's announcement -- "just having a small pity party right now," he posted -- and was still smarting a day later. Instead of celebrating his selection Thursday, he played golf with younger brother Michael.

"My feelings are hurt," Waltrip told The Associated Press in a candid conversation Thursday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

"Do I take it personal? No. I can't. I couldn't live in this community if I did. I take it as that group of people that voted on those five guys had a stronger connection to their past and to those five guys than they did to me and what I did."

 

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