DATE: Saturday, May 10, 1997                TAG: 9705100579

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: TALLADEGA, ALA.                   LENGTH:   71 lines

WHAT AILS NASCAR? D.W. HAS THE CURE THE OUTSPOKEN VETERAN HAS A REMEDY FOR EVERY FLAW ON HIS LONG LIST.

Darrell Waltrip was holding court with the press, cutting through the malaise of a rainy day at Talladega Superspeedway with a nonstop barrage of proselytizing and prognosticating.

It was April 26, the rainy Saturday morning before the rainy Sunday of the rained-out Winston 500 (rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. EDT today), and Waltrip was scorching the mike in the media center.

``I like to make the analogy that we are the Titanic,'' he said. ``That's how I see our sport right now. We are the Titanic and we are out to sea. I just hope the guy driving doesn't run up on an iceberg.

``This is the most luxurious, most wonderful, greatest thing we've ever done. We're out to sea and it couldn't be any finer. I just hope the guy at the wheel doesn't go to sleep or turn it over to the wrong guy and he runs us into the ground.''

Waltrip stepped from the podium and promptly was surrounded by reporters. He continued for another 15 or 20 minutes. Someone asked the inevitable follow-up question to the Titanic analogy: ``How's that ocean liner doing?''

Replied Waltrip: ``I'd crank up the pump.''

Because NASCAR president Bill France also controls the very soap box from which Waltrip spoke - France owns Talladega Speedway - it was to his credit that no one tried to muzzle Waltrip's constitutionally ordained right to vent.

But France and just about anyone who knows stock-car racing knows that trying to muzzle Waltrip would be like trying to catch a piranha with your bare hands.

Waltrip was asked to discuss France's plan to lower spoilers and raise air dams on cars for Daytona and Talladega races to make them looser and harder to handle in an effort to slow them down and increase the amount of passing.

``First of all, what they're going to do is going to be disastrous,'' Waltrip said. ``That is ridiculous. The cars will drive so mean. You're going to see cars turn around backwards quicker than you can bat your eyes.''

So what do you suggest, Darrell?

``What they need to do is give the cars downforce. Downforce slows 'em down. Put the front end down to 3 1/2 inches and put a (larger) spoiler on the back of it. If they'd take the (carburetor restrictor) plate off and put a smaller carburetor on, that cuts about 200-some horsepower. Then you'd have some throttle response. That's what the drivers complain about.

``It's always got to be some bag of tricks. Why can't it be simple?''

So how would he change things?

``The first thing you've got to do is get rid of those restrictor plates,'' Waltrip said.

``Then I'd have a unified front that all the tracks would have a television contract (together) and all the teams would share in that.

``Then I'd have a little better way of enforcing the rules. I'd make my rules a little better and more competitor-friendly and cost-friendly. Just the basic things. Nothing big. I'd save everybody a bunch of money on tires.

``You've got tires right now you can't run 100 miles on. What's the deal? We ought to be out there running until we run out of fuel, not until we run out of tires.''

And yet, this man with so many strong opinions is still out there, still competing well past his prime, still putting his life on the line.

He was asked what he has left to prove. Waltrip was not at a loss for words. Not then. Not now. Not ever.

``That's the thing that bugs me about a lot of you guys,'' he said. ``Do you understand the word `passion?' Do you understand what it means? Have you ever looked it up? Well, I happen to have a passion for what I do. A passion for what I do to the point where if I got hurt doing it, well, I just would.

``I don't have anything to prove. I didn't have anything to prove when I came here. I just like doing it.'' ILLUSTRATION: ``We are the Titanic. . . . I just hope the guy

driving doesn't run up on an iceberg,'' Darrell Waltrip told

reporters.

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