Michael Waltrip

“I've got my hands in every aspect of the NASCAR world, not only as the part time race car driver but as the full time TV guy and race team owner.”

“There's been bumps in the road and serious challenges along the way, but my love for NASCAR and my zest for life is what's most important to me.”

“If you look at my career statistics, it's not pretty.”

“People are obviously capable of handling the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. But I don't know how many people have had to experience them within seconds of each other.”

“Physically helping me with advice and direction and a job was Richard Petty. He did a lot for me at a young age, when I needed help and direction.”

“I'm a sensitive person.”

“I just was fortunate enough to be talented at what I was watching my brother do. It's great that it worked out that way; I might have been wasting a lot of time saying that's what I want to be, but when I got behind the wheel I had the ability.”

“When I showed up to drive for Dale in '01 it was a brand new team.”

“Whether you're Michael Waltrip or Jeff Gordon or Richard Petty, you can't be the Daytona 500 champion without it having an impact on people around you. When I say that, I mean the race fans. They want to congratulate you for winning the biggest race of the year. It has changed people's perception of me.”

“I won the Daytona 500. I won these races twice. I knew I didn't need anything cheating on my part.”

“No matter what town we went to, if there was a comedian playing, I'd go watch.”

“I'm a Christian and I believe in angels and God.”

“I know y'all have probably heard I lost a few races in a row before I won one, but I never gave up. Never believed I wasn't good enough.”

“It takes a good car for anybody to be good, but it takes a good car and a special driver to achieve greatness.”

“Talladega is one of the macho tracks on the circuit and when I was a kid, I remember everyone wanting to go watch this race because the cars go so fast on the circuit; there were so many great battles.”

“I was confident that I not only could win races, but I could win the championship.”

“It's real important to me to do what I say I'm going to do.”

“I think people - especially folks who haven't seen a lot of NASCAR - they get this idea that we're just going around in circles. And that's so far from the truth. You're running as hard as you can to get all you can every lap.”

“Some people might say I'm two different people, but I think it's more like seven or eight.”

“If you look up the definition of stand-up comedy, it's funny on purpose. A little bit of pressure there. It's basically acting. You're telling stories and acting them out for people. The more you make it seem real, really a person doing it, then it seems to me the better it works.”