Two-time Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip has maintained that Sunday’s Daytona 500 would be the final race of his 32-year NASCAR career.
The brother of Hall of Fame driver Darrell Waltrip, Michael began racing at the Cup level in 1985 and is also a Fox Sports NASCAR analyst like his brother. He’s been around NASCAR for a long time but now that he’s walking away from driving, Michael Waltrip wants NASCAR to make some changes — including toning down the cars’ iconic roar.
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“I think the cars are too loud,” Waltrip said at Wednesday’s Daytona 500 media day. “I’d like to hear — I’d like to see NASCAR work with the manufacturers to — when I raced the 24 hours of Daytona or 24 hours of Le Mans, you’d hear a Ferrari come by and you’d know it was a Ferrari. I think it would be cool if a Ford sounded like a Ford, a Toyota like a Toyota and a Chevy a Chevy, and those manufacturers worked together with NASCAR just to make them sound cool.
“Right now they’re obnoxious and I guess I’ve gotten old because it really gets on my nerves, but that’s one thing. I think that could be cool add another element so the fans can identify with the cars better. I also think they should have brake lights so fans could see when they’re letting off, when they’re hitting the brakes and if and how. Those could be LED’s across the back windshields.”
NASCAR has made plenty of aerodynamics changes to its cars since Waltrip began racing in the 1980s but the unmuffled sound has been around since well before his time in the sport. In typical Waltrip fashion, he wasn’t done voicing his opinions.
“What else did I think of last night when I was awake until 3 in the morning? I don’t know,” Waltrip said. “I think it would be cool if the cars had paddle shifters, different transmissions and paddle shifters where maybe a six speed transmission, so when you go to Martinsville, when they go down to the corner, they could gear down and maybe they could quick turn in 10,000 rpm and turn 8,000 rpm, that would cost on the engine and then it would allow them to get off the corner with the grunt when they’re shifting the gears.
“Those are some things I think of and think would be cool, and then one last thing and then I’ll shut up and it’s kind of dumb, but all the roofs should be black and the roof numbers should be the same font. Maybe a Ford’s roof is blue, a Toyota roof is red and a Chevy roof is yellow, but they all should be the same and the numbers should be the same because I was at Charlotte watching the race from the infield, and I’ve been here for 30 years and I couldn’t tell who was who. You know, all the cars change all the time, and I just – I was thinking, man, if I could just tell the number, I’d see who’s running where, so that might be something that’s fun too.”
NASCAR has made plenty of changes to its rules of late, so who knows, maybe Waltrip is on to something.
