Waltrip close to announcing retirement

Michael Waltrip

Throughout the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, the driving duties for the Michael Waltrip Racing-Aaron's Dream Machine-Toyota have been shared by Mark Martin-24 races, Brian Vickers-9 races and Waltrip himself for 3 restrictor plate races at Talladega and Daytona.

In his first two appearances this year, the 50 year old Waltrip has performed very well for himself. He finished 4th at the May 5th race at Talladega and fifth at the July 6th Daytona event. He also collected $296,985 for his company from those two events.

Is Waltrip thinking about hanging up the helmet to divide his time between team ownership and SPEED Channel broadcaster?

Last Saturday night, while standing safely on the Daytona pit road following the Coke Zero 400, Waltrip commented, to the "Associated Press", on the two major wrecks that occurred on the final lap of the Daytona race.

"I asked my crew, when the checkered flag fell, to remind me why I do this", Waltrip said adding "I just know that 200 MPH pushing and shoving is fun for the fans and fun to watch on TV. I wasn't having any fun doing it. I was too nervous. I'd much rather watch. Why don't I just watch all of the time? I've got that option. I don't know what's wrong with me."