Darrell Waltrip is a three-time Winston Cup Champion, who won 84 races – including five Coca-Cola 600s – in his Cup career, which ran from 1972-2000. He was born on Feb. 5, 1947 in Owensboro, Kentucky. His younger brother, Michael Waltrip, is a NASCAR driver and two-time Daytona 500 champion.

D.W., as he is known, is famous for his colorful and silly personality – which his younger brother inherited – that did not always sit well with fans. Waltrip was arguably the most hated driver of his generation – many fans wore t-shirts that said “Anybody but Waltrip” – but his driving skills were unquestioned.

Waltrip often played with the hostile fans; once, while in victory lane, he was able to silence the crowd by telling them to “Boo if you love D.W.” Gradually, Waltrip managed to win over the fans, and in 1989 and 1990 he was voted as NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver by the fans.

In 2001, he became the lead analyst for Fox television’s coverage of NASCAR, where he shouts the phrase “Boogity, boogity, boogity” at the start of each race. His television career got off to an auspicious start at the 2001 Daytona 500 when younger brother Michael won the race – his first victory in 463 career races – but the win was tainted by a crash that killed Darrell’s old friend and rival, Dale Earnhardt.

Waltrip won the Winston Cup title in 1981, 1982, and 1985, and his career was marked by a heated on-track rivalry with Dale Earnhardt, though the two would become good friends off the track.

Waltrip’s most famous victory was in 1989, when he won the Daytona 500 for the first time in his career. In a now-legendary post-race interview with Mike Joy, Waltrip repeatedly shouted, “I won the Daytona 500!” He followed this utterance by performing the victory dance that the Cincinnati Bengals player Ickey Woods had popularized in the NFL.

He won his last race in 1992, the famous Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, but he continued racing past his prime, finally retiring at the end of 2000 to enter the broadcast booth.

Waltrip still races occasionally in the Craftsman Truck Series when it races at Martinsville Speedway, his favorite track, and is scheduled to run a Busch Series race in 2006 at Martinsville.