Backstory

BY BEN WHITE

• Darrell Waltrip drove in the No. 17 car during 13 of his NASCAR Cup Series seasons. During the 1975 season, Waltrip briefly drove the No. 17 car, but his most successful time in that number came during a stretch from 1987-1998. D ays prior to the 1989 Daytona 500, one number kept coming up for three-time NASCAR champion Darrell Waltrip and crew chief Jeff Hammond. It was their own familiar No. 17.

Both driver and mechanic were starting to recognize the strange pattern that was unfolding around them.

“Since my early days of following NASCAR, David Pearson was always my driver while growing up in Owensboro, Kentucky,” Waltrip said. “His car number was 17 when he drove for Holman Moody in the late 1960s. When I went to work driving for Rick Hendrick in 1987, I asked for No. 17 and that was my number.”

Waltrip and Hammond elected to take a car named “Bad Betty” to Daytona. Naming race cars was something teams often did in those days. Waltrip named this car because as he put it, “It handled well on superspeedways but had been bad at times and deserved a name like that.”

The No. 17 kept popping up everywhere in the days leading up to the race.

“We get to Daytona and we’re given garage stall 17,” Waltrip said. “We go out and we end up getting pit box 17. Then we figure out it’s my 17th Daytona 500 and you just kind of start looking at all the possibilities. My name Darrell Lee Waltrip has 17 letters in it. Our house is actually built on lot No. 17. My golf handicap is 17. The purse was $1.7 million. It was ’89 and 8 plus 9 is 17. My daughter Jessica was also born on the 17th. It seemed like 17s were everywhere we looked. I won the Busch (Xfinity Series) race the day before the 500 using No. 17.”

With 11 laps remaining in the Daytona 500, polesitter and teammate Ken Schrader pitted for fuel, as did second-place Dale Earnhardt. Waltrip remained on the track after stretching his fuel for a remarkable 56 laps. As Waltrip’s engine sputtered, he prayed as he drafted off of every car he could find and miraculously made it to the checkered flag.

“I told Hammond we were either going to win or finish 17th,” Waltrip said. “I didn’t realize until I watched the race many years later that I led the very first lap and the very last lap of that race. That’s all that really mattered. But the No. 17 was a really big deal that day for sure.”