A
abooja
Guest
I wonder if being out of a race car was as unbearable for Wally as his being in the booth has been for us fans? 
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/s...rts/3918594.htm
Dallenbach wants out of the booth and back in a car
By JIM PEDLEY
The Kansas City Star
You would think the good old days are here and now for Wally Dallenbach Jr.
He takes limo rides to the race track, where catered food awaits him. Afterward, a four-star hotel room awaits. And there's virtually no chance of a Sunday visit to an infield care unit unless careless production aids forgot to pack the antacids.
Oddly, Dallenbach doesn't think these days are so good at all.
Dallenbach -- whose current, cushy gig entails kicking back and talking about NASCAR races on television for NBC and TNT -- wants somebody else in a glass booth to be talking about him.
Out of racing a car for a living for over a year and a half, he wants back in.
And he wants back in bad.
"Bottom line is," Dallenbach said, "I still love to drive a race car. I'd still like to be doing it."
And he will be doing it; as a matter of fact, last weekend he drove at Michigan International Speedway.
As part of an agreement with Tommy Baldwin Racing, Dallenbach, a veteran of 226 Winston Cup races between 1991 and 2001, is driving again. Three or so Busch Grand National races this year -- the first of which came at Michigan -- a handful more next year, and perhaps four Winston Cup races in 2003 as well.
Dallenbach will keep his high-glam day job, which he likes very much, unless this thing with Baldwin really takes off. Dallenbach talks about having his cake and eating same.
But the fact is, racing is not really cake for Dallenbach. And it's not only a job.
It is, he says, an opportunity to prove that he should never have been relegated to a broadcast booth.
"I always have to kind of remind people that it was not by my choice" that he became a former driver, Dallenbach said. "I did not step out of a car by choice."
Dallenbach, who has driven for a dozen owners in Winston Cup, last worked full time for a man named Darwin Oordt on a team called Galaxy Racing.
That was in 2000. He thought it was going to be in 2001 as well.
"The car owner kept telling me we were going racing," Dallenbach said.
But as the racing season drew closer, questions arose. Questions about whether or not Oordt had a sponsor lined up.
"I didn't know if I was going to drive at Daytona or not," Dallenbach said. "I didn't know if I would drive next in six months or six years."
It turned out not to be at Daytona because no sponsor had been signed. The team folded just hours before Speed Weeks.
Dallenbach said, "I knew if he shuts us down, I'm in trouble. That is not a good time to be looking" for another ride.
Dallenbach, whose best career finish is second (twice), would drive one Winston Cup race in 2001, that for Andy Petree in June.
He spent the rest of the season talking racing on television.
Working for the networks was good work, he said. Not great for a driver who still wanted to drive. Almost unbearable, in fact, on some weekends.
"It wasn't hard" to not be in a car, he said, "at some places. There are places I don't miss. But at places like Pocono, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen and at new tracks like Kansas City, it was tough."
Dallenbach says he has gotten more and more comfortable in his role as television analyst. But not with role as ex-driver.
He said he had talks with several teams about driving jobs the last year and a half. None were quite right.
Until he got a call from Baldwin.
"It came out of the blue," Dallenbach said.
Baldwin, who is the Winston Cup crew chief for Ward Burton on the Bill Davis Racing team, liked the fact that the team would get additional exposure because of a relationship between it and television -- Dallenbach and Baldwin would be hooked up with TV microphones.
But Baldwin loved the fact that Dallenbach remains a bit steamed about being forced from car to booth.
"Wally knows he's got something to prove," Baldwin said. "We're going to surround him with good people and the CAT pit crew (from Burton's Cup team) and let him go out there and let him eat."
It tasted good, too, Dallenbach said of the Michigan Busch race, where he finished a very satisfying 14th.
"It felt so good" to be gripping a steering wheel again, he said. "It felt great to just drive the heck out of race car."
The frequency with which he will drive henceforth will depend on his old nemesis -- sponsorship.
Baldwin said things are going well on that front.
"People want to get on board," Baldwin said. "Just having Pepsi (an early sponsorship recruit) and Wally on board for this thing -- as well as what the television broadcasts mean to the whole deal -- is a big drawing card for us. We've done a lot of hard work to get this thing going and everything is starting to come to fruition for us."
Dallenbach says great.
"That," he said of driving, "is something you never get out of your system."
And the pampered life of a TV guy apparently is.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/s...rts/3918594.htm
Dallenbach wants out of the booth and back in a car
By JIM PEDLEY
The Kansas City Star
You would think the good old days are here and now for Wally Dallenbach Jr.
He takes limo rides to the race track, where catered food awaits him. Afterward, a four-star hotel room awaits. And there's virtually no chance of a Sunday visit to an infield care unit unless careless production aids forgot to pack the antacids.
Oddly, Dallenbach doesn't think these days are so good at all.
Dallenbach -- whose current, cushy gig entails kicking back and talking about NASCAR races on television for NBC and TNT -- wants somebody else in a glass booth to be talking about him.
Out of racing a car for a living for over a year and a half, he wants back in.
And he wants back in bad.
"Bottom line is," Dallenbach said, "I still love to drive a race car. I'd still like to be doing it."
And he will be doing it; as a matter of fact, last weekend he drove at Michigan International Speedway.
As part of an agreement with Tommy Baldwin Racing, Dallenbach, a veteran of 226 Winston Cup races between 1991 and 2001, is driving again. Three or so Busch Grand National races this year -- the first of which came at Michigan -- a handful more next year, and perhaps four Winston Cup races in 2003 as well.
Dallenbach will keep his high-glam day job, which he likes very much, unless this thing with Baldwin really takes off. Dallenbach talks about having his cake and eating same.
But the fact is, racing is not really cake for Dallenbach. And it's not only a job.
It is, he says, an opportunity to prove that he should never have been relegated to a broadcast booth.
"I always have to kind of remind people that it was not by my choice" that he became a former driver, Dallenbach said. "I did not step out of a car by choice."
Dallenbach, who has driven for a dozen owners in Winston Cup, last worked full time for a man named Darwin Oordt on a team called Galaxy Racing.
That was in 2000. He thought it was going to be in 2001 as well.
"The car owner kept telling me we were going racing," Dallenbach said.
But as the racing season drew closer, questions arose. Questions about whether or not Oordt had a sponsor lined up.
"I didn't know if I was going to drive at Daytona or not," Dallenbach said. "I didn't know if I would drive next in six months or six years."
It turned out not to be at Daytona because no sponsor had been signed. The team folded just hours before Speed Weeks.
Dallenbach said, "I knew if he shuts us down, I'm in trouble. That is not a good time to be looking" for another ride.
Dallenbach, whose best career finish is second (twice), would drive one Winston Cup race in 2001, that for Andy Petree in June.
He spent the rest of the season talking racing on television.
Working for the networks was good work, he said. Not great for a driver who still wanted to drive. Almost unbearable, in fact, on some weekends.
"It wasn't hard" to not be in a car, he said, "at some places. There are places I don't miss. But at places like Pocono, Indianapolis and Watkins Glen and at new tracks like Kansas City, it was tough."
Dallenbach says he has gotten more and more comfortable in his role as television analyst. But not with role as ex-driver.
He said he had talks with several teams about driving jobs the last year and a half. None were quite right.
Until he got a call from Baldwin.
"It came out of the blue," Dallenbach said.
Baldwin, who is the Winston Cup crew chief for Ward Burton on the Bill Davis Racing team, liked the fact that the team would get additional exposure because of a relationship between it and television -- Dallenbach and Baldwin would be hooked up with TV microphones.
But Baldwin loved the fact that Dallenbach remains a bit steamed about being forced from car to booth.
"Wally knows he's got something to prove," Baldwin said. "We're going to surround him with good people and the CAT pit crew (from Burton's Cup team) and let him go out there and let him eat."
It tasted good, too, Dallenbach said of the Michigan Busch race, where he finished a very satisfying 14th.
"It felt so good" to be gripping a steering wheel again, he said. "It felt great to just drive the heck out of race car."
The frequency with which he will drive henceforth will depend on his old nemesis -- sponsorship.
Baldwin said things are going well on that front.
"People want to get on board," Baldwin said. "Just having Pepsi (an early sponsorship recruit) and Wally on board for this thing -- as well as what the television broadcasts mean to the whole deal -- is a big drawing card for us. We've done a lot of hard work to get this thing going and everything is starting to come to fruition for us."
Dallenbach says great.
"That," he said of driving, "is something you never get out of your system."
And the pampered life of a TV guy apparently is.
