In A Real Slugfest, Darrell Won A Second-Straight Championship

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In A Real Slugfest, Darrell Won A Second-Straight Championship

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After Darrell Waltrip joined Junior Johnson & Associates in 1981 following the buyout of his contract with DiGard Racing Co. – done with funds Junior provided – it was widely acknowledged that Waltrip could now win his first Winston Cup championship.

Which he did. It was also the fourth for Junior as a team owner. It was obviously financially rewarding and Junior was able to recoup everything he had spent to acquire Waltrip.

Thus the Waltrip-Johnson association quickly proved successful. The only question that remained was how much more could it accomplish in the future?

That question was answered quickly. Waltrip and Johnson won a second consecutive title in 1982.

But by no means was it easy. Waltrip had to overcome a huge points deficit and a serious challenge from a driver who had been one of his, and Junior’s, most unrelenting rivals for many years.

Junior’s contributions to www.motorsportsunplugged.com will appear every other Friday throughout the season.

The only real strategy I had in 1982 was for the team and Darrell to keep right on doing what we did in 1981.

We hadn’t undergone any major changes; there were no alterations in the makeup of the team. That was also the case when we won three straight championships with Cale and I could see no reason why that scenario couldn’t benefit us again.

But something else didn’t change – namely, a poor outing in the Daytona 500.

In ’82, NASCAR had dropped Riverside as the first race of the season – fine by me, by the way – and thus the 500, our biggest event, became the inauguration of the year.

Darrell was in the lead with 49 laps to go when the engine blew – which happened in 1981. However, this time the results weren’t quite as bad. There was a high attrition rate in the 500 and as a result there were only 17 cars running at the finish. So Darrell wound up 20th and that’s the position we held in points.

Bobby Allison won the race. He had taken over the DiGard ride that Darrell left to join Junior Johnson & Associates – which cost me some money that he repaid nicely with the 1981 championship.

Competitively, Bobby had always been a thorn in my side after his only season with me in 1972. With DiGard, he would be again. As 1982 rolled on he established a fierce, and I mean fierce, rivalry with Darrell.

At first it appeared we wouldn’t have a rivalry with anyone. Darrell won the third race of the season, at Bristol, and that started a streak of five victories in eight races. We also won at Atlanta, North Wilkesboro, Talladega and Nashville.

I remember the Atlanta and Talladega victories as being particularly impressive. At Atlanta, rain threatened and sure enough big ol’ drops started falling. It was obvious NASCAR was going to end the race early.

Darrell was battling with Richard Petty and passed him in the final turn as NASCAR threw the red flag. There was a side-by-side finish and NASCAR gave us the win by inches over Richard. It was one of the closest finishes I had seen anywhere.

At Talladega Darrell was racing Benny Parsons, who had won the pole at over 200 mph, the first driver ever to qualify that fast.

I figured there was something left in the car, Darrell just had to find it and use it. I got an idea as to how to make him do just that.

With about three or four laps remaining, I said over the radio, “Pick it up a little down the backstretch Cale.”

I knew exactly how Darrell would respond.

“Damn it Junior,” he said in a huff, “my name is Darrell!”

I knew he would be agitated and he was. He indeed picked it up and made a slingshot pass around Benny to win the race with Terry Labonte in tow.

If you asked me then what reverse psychology was I wouldn’t know the answer. However, it seems I knew how to practice it.

After all we had accomplished early in the year Darrell was not on top of the points. After Nashville, the 10th race of the year, he was 60 points behind Labonte.

Then we went into a swoon. Darrell did not win in the next six races. Fact is we had some pretty mediocre finishes, the best of which during was second at Michigan. That’s where, I think, Darrell displayed his frustration over what was happening.

Darrell had a great duel with Cale at Michigan and was actually in the lead on the last lap. But the two made contact and Cale retook the lead and won the race.

Darrell was not happy. He made that clear when he intentionally bumped Cale on pit road. When Darrell did that, our car slid off into the wet grass and got stuck in the mud.

These two drivers hadn’t been the best of friends for years, ever since the “Jaws” and “Cale Scale” thing in the ‘70s.

So, naturally, Cale had a good time needling Darrell about being stuck in the mud. Darrell jawed about the last-lap contact.

Cale responded, “Reckon I’m going to have meet ‘Jaws’ in the Big K parking lot.”

Never happened, of course, but I think that at Michigan Darrell might have learned a lesson: If you are going to dish it out, you have to learn how to take it.

As we were going through somewhat of a slump, Bobby came to the forefront. When he won at Daytona in July it was his third win in six races and he was first in points. Darrell was third, 186 behind.

We won a week after Daytona at Nashville. Bobby won the next race at Pocono. Six days later, Darrell won again at Bristol.

There followed the Southern 500, which was won by Cale. Then Bobby won again – his seventh victory of the season – at Richmond. Just a week after at, at Dover, Darrell was the winner.

During the course of 14 races, including the July Firecracker 400 at Daytona, Bobby and Darrell combined to win 13 of them.

I had never seen anything like it. It was just like a couple of heavyweights exchanging blow after blow with neither one giving an inch, much less hitting the canvas.

It was at Martinsville that things changed. Darrell won while Bobby blew up and finished 19th. Darrell took the points lead – he was 37 ahead of Bobby.

Danged if they didn’t keep doing the same thing. Darrell won at Rockingham – but didn’t gain in points – and Bobby won at Atlanta to set up a duel for the championship at Riverside on Nov. 21, the last race of the season. Darrell was just 22 points ahead of Bobby.

Tim Richmond was the Riverside winner. Darrell finished third and Bobby lost a lap with two flat tires and stripped lug nuts. He then blew an engine with seven laps to go. Darrell won the title, our second in a row, by 72 points.

This championship was very satisfying in many ways, but perhaps even more so because Darrell made up a 147-point deficit with seven races to go.

And he won after a terrific slugfest with Bobby. Given that Bobby was with the DiGard team for which Darrell once drove, and won, there was a lot of irony in it all.

I have to admit at the time I didn’t think much about any of that. I was just so pleased that in 1982 with Darrell, Junior Johnson & Associates had won 12 races, nearly a million dollars and a second consecutive championship.

Admittedly, thoughts of another third-straight title entered my mind.

But common sense told me to push them aside.

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